Is the Manley Steelhead still relevant?

I have always admired VAC preamplifiers, but I have only ever heard their top of the line linestage, not the phono stage, at least not in a few decades. It was excellent. I am not so crazy about the fact that the website indicates the optional phono section uses six 12AX7s. There’s nothing so wrong with using a 12AX7 as an input tube for gain in an MM circuit, but I wonder how they manage to get enough gain for MC, and I am guessing they use an internal step-up transformer. This is suggested by the spec that says the max load resistance for MC is 470 ohms. That’s what you get if you put a 1:10 SUT in front of an MM stage bearing a 47K ohm input impedance. I am also wondering whether they use one of the 12AX7 sections as a cathode-follower at the output. 12AX7 is very not ideal as a CF.  Some of the other verbiage suggests they use transformer-coupling at the output, in lieu of coupling capacitors. That can be fine, too.  But don't settle for my speculations; you need to do some further investigating, unless someone else here has direct experience.

If you use one turntable, I don’t disagree.

I might add that even though I still stand by the Manley Steelhead as being a great unit, for your particular system, I think you should look at truly balanced phono and line stages. As mentioned elsewhere, I use my steelhead in a completely separate system to drive inherently single-ended amplifiers.

To my knowledge, Lamm does not and has never made a true balanced preamplifier, either phono or line stage. But I am not a Lamm aficionado, so I may be wrong. You do have to be careful when you shop for balanced equipment. Many manufacturers will let you believe that because their equipment has an XLR output jack, it is balanced inside. That is often not the case. Or some use an added active circuit or transformer at the “balanced” outputs, to generate a balanced signal from a single-ended circuit.That ploy works in terms of a balanced output, but it generally adds coloration, and in such devices the single ended outputs often sound better than the balanced outputs. Keep in mind that I am not saying that balanced always sounds better than single ended, although I do prefer wiring cartridges for balanced drive into a balanced phono stage. I am only saying that atmasphere amplifiers sound best by far when driven in balanced mode. It is well worth the effort. Moreover, driving the amplifier with a balanced preamplifier mitigates its relatively low input sensitivity, by 6db. I have been using atmosphere amplifiers for 25 years, and I have experience listening to them when driven both single ended and balanced. Once I heard them driven in balanced mode (by my MP1), I never looked back.

If you have SL speakers driven by Atma-sphere amplifier s, I strongly recommend a balanced phono linestage. Of course the Atma MP1 would be logical. The atmosphere amplifiers really do come alive when driven in balanced mode. I would not spend big money on a single ended phono line stage to drive balanced amplifiers.

There are many reasons why you may experience a "washed out" SQ with higher volume levels, in your system.  But keep in mind that a volume control is an attenuator; it is not adding gain as you turn up the volume. It is attenuating the output of the device less and less as you go toward the max volume.  The tubes and transistors upstream from the attenuator and which are responsible for "gain" are always operating according to a fixed set of voltages and currents, producing in the device a fixed signal voltage (until you get to the attenuator) with an inherent signal to noise ratio.  As you employ less and less attenuation, not only do you get more and more signal voltage to drive the amplifier, but also you are permitting more and more of the noise floor to drive the amplifier.  So, the end result is that you begin to hear the noise, albeit it is way down below the signal voltage by the same ratio in db that is inherent to the device.  As to why you feel the sound eventually acquires a "washed out" coloration, that is a complex question that is probably the net result of many factors.
A cathode follower is an active device that has very very low distortion and adds no gain.  Its raison d'etre is to convert voltage to current, which is another way of saying it sees a source (the upstream circuitry) that has a high output impedance and it puts out the same signal (no added distortion, ideally) with a low output impedance so as to drive the downstream amplifier.  That's one definition of a "buffer".  The buffer function is very necessary for any linestage, whether it includes circuits that add gain, or not (as in the case of the Steelhead).  The low output impedance is very advantageous for driving any amplifier (see also below). 


What fsonic and maybe Dover mentioned is another class of "linestage" that is completely passive in that such devices contain no active components at all (no tubes or transistors); they are basically just attenuators.  This can be done with a resistor network or (better) with autoformers or transformers.  The problem created is that you need to match the output impedance of the device driving the passive attenuator with the input impedance of the downstream device.  The rule of thumb is that the output impedance of the driver (in this case, the passive attenuator) should be about 1/10 the input impedance of the driven component, in ohms, and this ratio should be consistently maintained at all levels of attenuation.  (This criterion is easily met by the active CF to be found in the Steelhead.) It's not so easily or universally achieved using a passive attenuator. Therefore, passive attenuators need to be carefully selected and matched to the up and downstream components for good results.  Many aficionados do swear by passive attenuators as linestages.  I am not in that camp.

I agree with Dover in general on the merits of an active linestage . I have owned and still use both an Atma MP1 preamp and Atma amplifiers for about 25 years; I’m a very satisfied customer. I am very surprised to learn that the MA1 has such a low input sensitivity (2.8V to full power). (In this case “low” means the voltage required is relatively high compared to other amplifiers.) My own Atmaspere amplifiers are easier to drive, in terms of signal voltage. The Atma stuff is used to drive a pair of full range ESLs in a separate system. The Steelhead is used to drive a pair of Beveridge 2SW amplifiers in parallel with an electronic crossover that provides low frequencies to a pair of woofers.

fsonic, I don’t know what you’re thinking about the Steelhead linestage, but it is NOT passive. It uses a tube as a White cathode follower. Cathode followers don’t add gain, but they do buffer the output impedance, which is very low, as a result. Thus impedance matching is not a problem with any amplifier having an input impedance greater than 10K ohms, which includes just about any amplifier you’d care to use. Issues associated with true passive linestages do not apply. I don’t care for them, either, and for the same reasons cited by you and suggested by Dover.

I was referring to GAIN only, when I wrote that a linestage is superfluous. Obviously it’s needed for attenuation (if the phono has no volume control) and for input selection, at a minimum. Sheesh!

I would not connect the full output of
a CDP direct to an amplifier. In certain cases you might damage your speakers.

For your CD player or any other device that puts out what is generally considered a high output voltage, like a tape recorder, a television set audio output, etc., the gain added by a formal line stage is completely superfluous. The output voltage of your CD player is fully adequate to drive an amplifier.

Drbond, Like nearly every preamplifier or phono stage ever made, the Steelhead operates in Class A.  Also, like every other preamp or phono stage, the Steelhead is not push-pull.  The terms Class A and push pull generally apply to the operation of an amplifier.

The term “preamplifier” these days can be used to refer to either a single box that contains a line stage AND a phono section or to a line stage only,  So, you are considering using the Steelhead as a phono stage and connecting its phono outputs to a line stage.  The major advantage of doing so is only that most linestages will add a bit more gain to the signal, typically 10 to 20 db.  The Steelhead’s line output does not add any gain over and above that which you dialed in at the phono settings.  The max gain is 65db.  I own only one cartridge for which that is not adequate, an Ortofon MC2000, which puts out .05mV.

The Steelhead is not really more "complex" than the Lamm.  It is more flexible and offers many more options.  But all switching is done via high quality relays, so if you are paranoid about the extra circuitry, you can switch it out.  Anyway, you buy what fills your needs, first and foremost, in my opinion. Or at least I do.  For me, the fixed gain and loading (and especially the fixed amount of gain) afforded by the Lamm phono stage would be a hindrance to the use of a wide variety of cartridges of different types.

I've owned my Steelhead (version 2.0) for about 3-4 years.  I bought it second-hand off Audiogon, in mint original condition. I am using it as a full-function preamplifier to drive the built in amplifiers of a Beveridge 2SW speaker system.  I bought the Beveridges several years before purchasing the MS, and after I serviced the Bev direct drive amplifiers and did some trouble-shooting, I have come to adore the speakers .  Since I use two turntables to serve the Bevs, I wanted a phono stage with at least two pairs of inputs and with both MM and MC capability.  The Steelhead has one MM and two MC inputs. Also, after having convinced myself that the Bevs are still world class, after 40 years, I felt the system deserved stretching my wallet to get the best phono stage possible.  Those were the factors I considered in making my purchase.  I read elsewhere that Steelhead owners generally prefer the sound when it is used as a phono only stage, connecting to an outboard linestage.  Since I did not want to add that layer of complexity, I did some research into why that might be so.  The linestage section does not add gain; it consists of a fancy cathode follower.  Since it adds no gain, it ought in theory to be very transparent.  The schematic is not available, but I learned something about the circuit topology from reading the text of an interview with Evanna Manley published on 6 Moons, a few years ago.  Evanna described the output circuit in some detail, and from her information, I conceived of a way to improve the linestage and also to improve the output of the phono stage.  (The phono stage output drives the motorized volume control which in turn drives the cathode follower output stage, when you use the full function mode.)  I already liked the Steelhead before I did anything to mine, but I made some changes after reading the piece in 6 Moons, and that takes the Steelhead up at least another notch.  Now I am VERY happy with it.
I also disagree with whoever wrote that the Steelhead is less than excellent in construction quality.  If you look inside and know what you are looking at, you would see that the parts quality is rather high.  What you don't get is a fancy, glitzy chassis; that's the only compromise, and I will take that any day over beautiful exterior finish masking crappy components or a bad design.  When I evaluate an audio component, I ignore brand names per se as a criterion for purchase.  I pretty much only care about circuit topology and parts quality inside.  If I had my druthers, I do prefer balanced operation, which the Steelead does not do, but on the other hand it is as quiet as or even quieter than my two other very high quality fully balanced phono/preamplfiers, one of which is solid state and the other of which is tubes.  Furthermore, the Bev amplifiers are single-ended, so using a balanced preamplifier would not reap all possible benefits of balanced op. If anyone wants to know what modifications I made to the MS output stages, please contact me privately.