Pre for the Manley Snapper
Either a Manley Jumbo Shrimp or a Steelhead (provided you only need vinyl and one line level input, otherwise you'll need a Skipjack for more line level inputs). I had a Jumbo Shrimp with the Snappers and later traded up to Steelhead/Skipjack and NEO 250s. The Jumbo Shrimp would be my recommendation, based on experience. Sounds wonderful and is dead quiet. A perfect match. Yes, I am a Manley Labs fan. |
Agree the Jumbo Shrimp seems the most logical answer. However it is a line stage, not a full preamp, so no phono section. I've read good things about the Manley Chinook phono stage (a stripped-down version of the Steelhead) which could then be added. That would give more flexibility for inputs, balance, etc. than going with the Steelhead alone. |
I should have mentioned that I also had a Chinook before the Steelhead and it is a stripped down version. I used to have balanced ICs for a Bryston preamp and power amp and, unless you have to run ridiculously long ICs, I don’t feel they make a perceptable difference in sound quality. Good shielded unbalanced IC’s keep things just as quiet. But most high end "full" preamps don’t have built in phono stages so, just because it doesn’t have one doesn’t exclude it from being a full preamp. |
You can run most anything with the Snappers and their 330Kohm input impedance. Also don’t really need to worry about XLR unless you’re trying to run your amps in a different room from the pre or something. Manley pre’s tend to do a couple things really well (at most), and that’s it. I love the 300B preamp with a Chinook, but that doesn’t sound like it’d meet your needs. |
When i speak to a dealer of loudspeakers. They always want to sell what they have. And most of the dont have for example the Sonus Faber Olympica III loudspeakers, and i love the sound of the Olympica III, but it is also difficult to get to listen to the Snapper and Olympica together. But when i tell them about the combo, they always tell me, that that aint a great combination, but that i instead should buy the loudspeakers they have in the store. So i wonder. Have anybody listened to the Snapper and Sonus Faber together |
steve, not that this matters to the OP but the traditional definition of a preamplifier is a control unit which includes a phono stage. Back in the 1980 with the emergence of CDs enough consumers abandoned LPs that the phono stage became redundant. So manufacturers responded by producing control units without built-in phono preamplifiers, they became known as line stages. Thus the Jumbo Shrimp is a line stage. Of course all this led to much confusion over the years. ;^) |
Im thinking here. Because the lack og inputs on Manley preamps. Then i have looked at another pre, but one from McIntosh. The C-22. It got a lovely vintage look and it has some nice specs. But for someone that knows specs better than me, and may have heard the combination Mc and Manley. Will the C-22 be a good match for the Snappers https://www.mcintoshlabs.com/products/preamplifiers/C22 |
For those who may care about such things, to show I'm not being arbitrary, I'll offer Audio Research as an example. In their product line up for years they designated full function preamplifiers (including phono stages) with the SP prefix. For their control units minus the phono stage they designated a LS model identifier for line stage. |
Linestage/preamp are arbitrary designations. Some say anything without a phono is a linestage, some say whatever’s between the source and the amp is PREamp. It’s all angels on the head of a pin. OP, I’ve never heard a bad thing about the C-22 reissues, and you can find them used in the $4,800 ballpark; can’t think of a reason there wouldn’t be good synergy. With monoblocks I’d prefer a dual mono pre, but I doubt it really matters at the end of the day. |
