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Pre for the Manley Snapper

Everytime i visit a hifistore, and tell them about a pre for the Manly Snapper. They always tell med different preamps, and the shop that has the Manley snapper mono amps they tell me, that i cant use that or that. I have to but the pre they are selling. 
And of course i can buy the Manley Steelhead, and thats the end of it. It will fit like a glove. But i hope to find something cheaper than the Steelhead. Probably with a dac and streaming device. But i hope for a pre that dont have digital volume. Because with digital volume, i get the feeling when i play on low volume that there is something holding back the sound. It fells compressed in the sound, if you understand my thinking. 
So does anybody know of a good pre for the snapper that dont cost more than maybe 5.000€ perhaps.
So any suggestion you good folks out there in the sound jungle

Haakon 
128x128heidrun
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
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.
heidrun's avatar
heidrun OP
7 posts
 
Thanks for the reply. Havent thought about the Shrimp. Thanks. But its strange. The Snapper has XLR in, but i cant find a Manley Pre with XLR out
pryso
1,927 posts
 
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.
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
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.
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