Lounge Audio


I feel I should warn folks who have bought a Lounge Audio product or are thinking about buying one.

I own a Lounge Audio LCR MkIII Silver Ed. and Copla. I originally bought both units new about 5 years ago.

Around 2 yrs ago I sent the LCR MkIII in to be upgraded to the Silver Ed. and have a Mono switch installed.

I got it back in good time except the Mono switch was installed but not wired. I decided not to send it back in this instance as I could live without the mono switch and I could probably repair it myself sometime.

Not long after, one of the channels in the Copla went out. I called Robert and he said that it's more than likely an LED that went out and that he's since been using better/more reliable LED's in the unit. He said to send the unit in and he would get to it as soon as he could. I decided to send both units in so he could fix that mono switch in the LCR MkIII as well.

He did warn me that it may be some time before he got to it because he was swamped with orders. Apparently, the Copla received a minor positive review in Stereophile Magazine in Feb. just before I sent it in. To be fair, he doesn't charge for repairs for the life of the unit/s. That's a nice gesture but I think I would rather pay for the repair and get it done in a reasonable amount of time rather than have wait for months to get it done for free.

I'm coming up on five months now and haven't seen my units. I called him a couple months back and he basically said he would get to them soon and he didn't say he was having supply issues like some companies were having during the pandemic period. I'm not sure what his definition of 'soon' is but it's not the same as mine is all I can say.

He also said that because of the amount of interest in Lounge Audio since the review, he hasn't been answering emails because most people were just "fishing".

I sent him some texts but haven't received any replies. I also emailed him again because that's the only Contact info provided by the Lounge Audio website. I don't know if he's not answering his calls/texts or his number is not good anymore.

I've been using a MoFi Studio phono pre in what I thought would be a temporary situation. I've since pretty much given up and bought a Sutherland Insight last week.

Thanks in advance for reading my rant.

Perhaps some folks will think I'm being unreasonable but I can't recommend Lounge Audio in good conscience to anyone who wants to buy one of their products and then may have to send it in for repairs.
IMO no one should have to wait this long.
nicktheknife

Did you get the LPS (linear power supply) with the Insight? Ron Sutherland sold me one himself and guided me through the pretty easy install. Great guy, and by the way that is a one man show who uses a local facility to make his stuff, so he can provide great service. When you have that long of.a track record, it means a lot. I think the Insight has been around for over 10 years although the LPS was made available around 3 years ago or so,

I looked at several phono stages by small outfits.   I'm glad I ended up buying a Sutherland ....  Their entry level KC Vibe sounds great , I am trading up to a 20/20 in the near future .   

@sokogear 

No on the LPS but that could be a future upgrade.  Can you use the LPS with any of the other Sutherland's?

@oddiofyl

The Sutherland is really my first phono pre that I wouldn’t consider "budget". It’s not over-priced but I had the Lounge LCR MkIII plus Copla and the MoFi Studio not to mention the built in tube phone pre in my Rogue Model 99 Magnum.

All sub $1000. There are some good sounding pre’s out there but there for less than a grand but the Sutherland was a pretty big step up imo.

Btw,  thanks for chiming in on at the Hoffman site.  Like all forums there's some good folks over there and some not so good.  

 

I know you didn’t want to call him out on the length of repair , but honestly he should have had it back in a few weeks. If his number of repairs prohibit him from prompt turn around and impede production that would give me serious pause to buy a Lounge product.

Just even how mouthy he was on a public forum, where you would try to be a good ambassador for your own brand, was a total turn off. I would never buy from him based his attitude and how he treats existing customers.

Enjoy your Sutherland ! I’m enjoying the hell out of mine. A good friend who does clean outs just left me several hundred 45 RPMs from the 70s 80s, and early nineties. Every one i pulled out looks great so far. Someone who really loved music owned these and i will be a good custodian of them. They couldn’t have gone to a better person than me !

I haven’t even scratched the surface but it is gonna be good times spinning those with my lady. We are 55 so those will bring back some good memories.