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Review and Measurements of Lounge LCR MKIII Phono Amp
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
No, but I really like my Insight. I’ve thought about sending it in, but I’d have separation anxiety.
I was unfamiliar with the Copla, but the Lounge website says:
“[The] Copla is a moving coil step-up amplifier designed to drive a moving magnet phono pre amp. It is the active electronic equivalent of a step-up transformer (SUT), allowing control of active moving coil impedance. One dial provides variable added richness and dimension to the response of your moving coil cartridge. You use it like a Tone knob.”
The TZ Vibe is a full phono preamp exclusively for low impedance MC cartridges. It uses transimpedance amplification instead of voltage amplification. Totally different designs for different (but related) purposes. Look for reviews of the Sutherland Little Loco Mk2 to get a comparable reference to the TZ Vibe.
Thanks. Idk, I can't tell the difference between any preamp from Lounge Copla Silver to Project to Sutherland TZ Vibe.
Could be my system but I have a parasound hca 1500a amp with a zpre3 preamp and Thorens TD125 MK2 TT.
Maybe I'm just tone deaf lol.
...and thus you have encapsulated a significant portion of the audio industry in a nutshell!
fpitas
Master Contributor
You must live in a city. It's quiet in my house, to the point the refrigerator is the loudest noise by far. But, I agree that some people may like the noises from old analog stuff. I don't miss it a bit.
I also disagree with this element. From what the maker has published, my impression is that the focus of the product design was not so much on the aesthetic side but on the electronic circuit implementation. Despite this, I believe that a whole thick sheet of whatever transparent plastic is used (I wouldn't know), would be one of the most expensive parts of the design (unless they got a bargain price on it). I also really dislike blue l.e.d.s in audio equipment but that's just a personal preference.
The maker has stated that the inductors used are selected and matched. There are a few videos published by the maker on the product as well as information on the maker's website and, if one peruses these, this information can be found there. Now audio inductors are not cheap, even if we consider the cheapest ones available, and selecting and matching is not a quick process. It also means that some inductors will be rejected if they do not match selection and matching criteria. I would imagine this to be a rather labourious process for the manufacturer unless some sort of testing automation equipment are used for this process. I believe there are 4 such inductors per finished piece, in its basic form. That surely adds a bit to the cost of the thing.
I cannot understand why these measurement results should be such because, from what I gather, it is in essence a rather simple circuit. Most of the parts on the board correspond to power supply rails' decoupling capacitors and local (i.e. close to the op-amps) regulation circuitry elements. I have not tried to simulate the circuit (though a basic simulation would be a relatively easy thing to do: the problem would be simulating the inductive components as closely as possible given that we only know very few details about them) or measure it in any way. I was intrigued by it because it is the first LCR solid state implementation that has been marketed at such a low price that I have come across. Yeah, the plastic sheet with the blue l.e.d. also catches one's attention but there are countless ways to make a box attractive at the same cost and every manufacturer puts some thought into making their product visually appealing--this maker just chose this one.
Given the age of most posts here, I gather that measurements of this sample by @SIY never took place - or, in any case, never got published here. That's a little disappointing. Perhaps another sample might come across @amirm way (how'd you put an "'s" on a tag?), preferably one of the more customised versions, and then we could have two samples measured.
Yes they did. I also published them at the Steve Hoffman forum, but they got taken down, which told me everything I need to know about that forum's integrity.
TL,DNR: The measurements were miserable. It is a stunningly incompetent design and poorly constructed.
edit: Link to measurements. These were incredibly bad. I've never seen such poor behavior from a phono stage.
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How come there's a second thread for this? Anyway, I haven't seen them so I'll look at them now, so thanks for the reply.
I think your reply is clear enough so I'll refrain from asking for further qualifying explanations. Now I'm even more curious about what a simulation of the circuit would reveal, with ideal inductors/transformers to start with. In fact, my initial reaction to it was what would happen if most of the power supply related stuff were replaced by two batteries as the two rails -- that would replace half of the circuit volume.
@SIY I'm trying to convince myself I had happened across your alias (SY) at Diyaudio. In fact the more I think about it, the more convinced I become... Funny thing memory ain't it? Funny thing the mind...
I haven't been visiting Diyaudio or Audioasylum for probably the better part of a decade. I used to spend a lot of time on these before then and I remember seeing you post a lot...
I haven't been visiting Diyaudio or Audioasylum for probably the better part of a decade. I used to spend a lot of time on these before then and I remember seeing you post a lot...
I was Chief Mod/Admin there. Stopped posting there about 4 or 5 years ago. Uninteresting story.
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