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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
helomech
1,521 posts
 

Unfortunately this is a common problem when a small “mom and pop” operation receives accolades from the likes of Stereophile. And of course, these guys aren’t shoring up their manpower in anticipation of a tidal wave of orders. The same thing happened to Decware, Border Patrol, and Zu Audio to name just a few. Decware had to push their lead times out beyond a year shortly after receiving a gushing review from Steve Guttenberg. 
 

nicktheknife OP
194 posts
 

@helomech 

How are those other small companies at maintaining communication with customers? 

helomech
1,521 posts
 

@nicktheknife,

I can’t really say as I haven’t personally had much private correspondence with them. I believe I did send Decware a question about their ZTPRE preamp about a year ago and didn’t receive a response. Unanswered emails or very late replies are quite commonplace throughout the industry in general IME. I’m not saying this deems your situation acceptable, merely stating that it’s not uncommon. One time I sent an email to VPI and received a response three months later. Lol. Those instances were also prior to Covid ruining the notion of customer satisfaction in most industries.

Fortunately, there are always good alternatives to nearly any brand/product within a given budget. No one brand holds prerogative over value. The forum darlings that are often espoused as value leaders or “giant slayers” (Schiit, Lounge, Tekton etc) typically end up performing at a level commensurate with their price IME. Very rarely do I come across a product that performs well beyond expectation based on price, and the ones that actually do, often fail to gain the same traction as the aforementioned. Take for example, the Parasound ZPhono XRM. It actually performs just as well as the JC3 Jr and does so with lower noise and greater versatility. IME it is a true slayer, yet, we don’t encounter YT and Stereophile reviewers gushing over it, probably because it’s not from a cottage brand and/or is deemed an “entry-level” product. Meanwhile, Lounge and Schiit offer what is essentially one model of phono preamp, so how can it not be a killer one when there’s little to no room for upgrading within their catalogue?

Suffice to say, I would be very surprised if your Sutherland isn’t proving to be a worthwhile upgrade over the Lounge preamps. Not to say the latter are bad, it’s just that they’re not the reference-grade, “high-end” products some would lead us to believe.

sokogear
1,054 posts
 

@nicktheknife  - The Sutherland for me was my first (and only) external phono stage from my integrated, a Plinius model that has an adjustable MM to MC switch, but that's it for adjustability.That phono section is supposedly pretty good. My long trusted dealer (for 30+ years) recommended Sutherland as all they make is phono stages and he told me I would be very happy either with the Insight or the 20/20 which is 50% more. I was lucky to find a used Insight in perfect condition for under $900. My dealer sells some very high end lines in addition to some that are reasonable in my mind. I am pretty conservative and don't change gear very often (my previous speakers I had for 25 years I bought from the dealer off demo, and my amp is 18 years and going from him traded in to him, and my cartridge for about 12 years - also from him with a same model replacement when the stylus literally wore off after 9 years). He understood me getting the used Insight, and to him it is such a small amount of money, he didn't seem to care. The LPS was such a new option, he wasn't even aware of it.

The LPS is being offered as an option from the factory or as an upgrade. It is actually just a board, which helped keep the price down (it was $350). Ron Sutherland said he would perform the upgrade service for free if I shipped it to him, or he would guide me through the board swap, which is easy if you are at all handy (which I am minimally - I can change a light switch if I can figure out which breaker it is on). If you bought your Insight from a dealer, I would ask them to do the upgrade, if not, you can give Ron a call.

I don't think you can use the LPS board from the Insight as an upgrade for any of his other phono stages - I believe it is standard with some of his higher end ones, and I know on the 20/20 it it an option and is a whole external box (which means more wires) and a higher price (I think it is $450, but it may actually be 2 boards as that model has 2 separate channels in it).

The Insight ​​​​​It is an extremely quiet phono stage with about 6 different load and gain settings and works well with my van den Hul MC One Special cartridge that has an output of .65uV according to the specs or .75uV as shown on AJ van den Hul's signed hand written cartridge specs (which I trust more), so medium output. If I had a really low output MC, I might look at the newer ones that you don't set, of which Sutherland makes a couple of those. I think the Insight is an excellent phono stage for the money. Good luck, and sorry to hear about Lounge. I try to stay away from the "hot" items. Lots of times those companies don't care about their customers because they are so busy filling orders.

timmerswalking's avatar
timmerswalking
11 posts
 

Not all mom and pop ops are the same; some have a robust operation that works pretty well. My personal exp comes from ownership of the Hagerman Cornet 3. Not only is Jim H available and visible on various forum sites, he answers questions in a very timely matter. I would buy from Hagerman again.

IMO, any private cottage operation is a direct reflection of the owner and their personal way of conducting business. Sounds like the subject of op’s product is in need of help.

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