I had a Rhea and a Chinook before the current Steelhead. While the Rhea had significant tube rush, even with a new set of Aesthetix tubes, The Chinook was absolutely DEAD quiet so, while I don't know what you're doing with tubes, you should not hear anything from that phono stage except music. I would contact Manley. And if you swapped out the stock tubes that came with it, shame on you.
Do they make a quiet great sounding phono pre amp??
Hi, I have purchased and listened to 3 phono preamps which are: A musical surroundings phonomena, musical surroundings Nova II, and a Manley labs Chinook. The Manely labs Chinook is by far bettter sounding then the first two (double the cost too). But, All three have given me nothing but trouble (noise,noise,noise even terrible clipped signals!), and 2 of them basically failed on me. So before I go DIGITAL, can someone please tell me who makes a phono preamp in the $2,000-$3,000 range (tube or solid state) that I can rely on, and sounds as good or better than the Chinook?? Thanks.
Matt M
Matt M