Manley Steelhead V2 as pre-amp

I use a Manley Skipjack and have 4 additional line level inputs with the Steelhead; this is all the preamp capability I need.

I tried the Steelhead V2 a while back and felt if I only needed one other input the Steelhead sounded about the best in its price range driving the speakers direct. I have more than 4 other devices, wanted theater pass through and feel the Nagra VPS sounded better in that configuration.

I use it with my DAC and cdp via a Skipjack and it is a fine sounding a transparent preamp. Of course with either TT one MM and MC it is the cat's whiskers.

I owned the Steelhead for two years and liked it more as a phono stage. I compared it as a line stage to VAC Phi Beta, Bent TAP-X with autoformers, and Mac C2300 and preferred them all, in that order. As a phono stage, one of its greatest strengths is dynamics, which I thought were softened a bit by itself. Of course, a lot of sonic changes can be made by rolling all the tubes, so you can probably find a mix that works very nicely for you.