Is Channel D audio gone out of business?


I have a Channel D Lino C3.3 phonstage and trying to get help on changing the battery. I've sent 3 emails, tried calling them multiple times(phone sounds busy or offline, no answer). They also make tge Pure Vinyl software.

Does anybody out there know know how to contact them please?

ddriveman

You ordered the correct battery.  The on-line version of the manual, however, incorrectly specifies a no-longer-manufactured battery (PS-490), which I ordered initially before discovering that it - and the original battery - did not look at all alike.  And now I cannot return the PS-490.  Oh well.  

As for alternatives, I am not aware of any transimpedance phono stage remotely close to the Lino C 3.3 in performance and also in its price range.  With Channel D’s future unclear, I have replaced my non-functioning Lino C 3.3 with the Sutherland Dos Locos, which so far sounds at least as good as the Lino C 3.3 (though for various reasons I have not had much opportunity yet to listen to the Dos Locos).  

Played through the Dos Locos, one LP (actually a box set) that I know well  - the 45 RPM Analogue Productions reissue of Janos Starker playing the Bach solo cello suites on the Mercury label - sounded much, much better than I have ever heard it before. The differences favoring the Dos Locos were palpable and not subtle.  The Dos Locos has a vanishingly low noise floor (like the Lino C 3.3), and it reads information in the grooves (Starker’s breathing, the impact of the bow on the strings, etc.) that before were not resolved as clearly.  The low noise floor helps those details to emerge.  Equally if not more important was how the Dos Locos performed in terms of timbre and tonality.  Starker’s cello had a richer, deeper resonance than I recall hearing before - very lifelike and immediate.  Transients also were noticeably sharper and quicker, and one could “see” the recording space around him.  I highly recommend consideration of the Dos Locos, despite the price. One caveat: Ron Sutherland eschews complexity in designing his products and focuses on the simplest circuit designs.  As such, there is no mono button (there’s no need because mono cartridges play beautifully through one of the two monoblocks), no high pass (rumble) filter for warped records, and no phase reversal button.   But those in my opinion are small prices to pay.  

Like you, my tonearm cable is balanced.  But it has a separate ground wire that attaches to the ground screw on the Dos Locos chassis, and I am using XLR to RCA adapters that do not commingle the signal conductors with any ground.  The adapters have worked seamlessly.  You’re right about it requiring two AC cables, and I have made another (unexpected) investment in not cheap AC cables that should do a better job in delivering current and not picking up EMF/RFI than the stock cables.  

And other than the Dos Locos, the next stop on the train line (for a transimpedance phono stage of comparable quality) may be the significantly more expensive (and more complex) CH Precision phono stages, which I understand can seem dry and thin if not matched properly with other components.  PS Audio just introduced a new phono stage that has transimpedance capabiility (the PMG Signature phono stage), but it’s close to the Dos Locos in price.  And I don’t know how it sounds.

Good luck in your search for a new phono stage if replacing the battery doesn’t cure whatever problem you’re having with the Lino C 3.3.  

I have owned a Lino C 2.2 since 2020. And I have been putting off upgrading to 3.3 for a couple of years.  I have been switching between a SunValley tube phono stage + SUT and the Lino C2.2 . Just last week I had finally made a decision to keep the Lino C 2.2 and maybe sell off the other one. Rob had mentioned to me a side project for the Lino C that he had been working on. He had figured out a way to fit a ‘one quarter version’ of his TOTL Seta L20 into the Lino C. It would have been an upgrade to the 3.3. I was going to ask him for this upgrade.

It’s very sad to hear about Rob’s passing. 

 

 

Hi superkat,

I have similar problem to your Lino C3.3. After playing on one side all ok, then on the side, I start getting signal dropouts that gets worse.

I opened it up and sure enough, the bettery is fully charged. I don't think it's the charging circuitry since the battery is fully charged. Must be something else going on. Weird that both you and I have similar issue.

Looks like I have to start looking at alternatives. There's the Mofi Master Phono with transimpedance input at $6k and with XLR inputs.  Seems like it has good reviews. But not sure if it's better than the Lino C3.3

And thanks for your inputs and also review of the Sutherland Dos Locos. Seems like an upgrade to the Lino C3.3. I don't mind spending a bit more if the sound quality is positively improved. I just hate to go backwards.  Life is too ahort.

I agree. My sense is that the Dos Locos is at least as good and probably better than the Lino C 3.3.  Glowing reviews of it have appeared in Stereophile (Michael Trei and Alex Halberstadt) and Tracking Angle (Stephen Carroll with Michael Fremer noting his agreement that it was “love at first listen for him).  And I don’t think there’s anything better in a transimpedance phono stage until probably the $80K + price point for the CH Precision P10 (even then, people whose judgment I respect think that the CH sound can be dry and thin, but I have never had an opportunity myself to listen to one and I can’t imagine ever spending that much on a phono stage).  Good luck.  

Sad to hear about this, especially after the founder of Wywires recently passed not long ago as well. 

It is interesting that there don't seem to be any decent competitors in this space without spending way more. I wonder why that is.