What's A Good Upgrade From A Manley Steelhead?

@rsf507 I don't meant to hijack this post :)

I had my own post for my phono stage search. I just bought a Simaudio 110LP v2. It works great. 

I was looking at used Sutherlands and such but I have to save up for those.

To the OP - of course you have excellent speakers ;-)  i would be way more inclined to really work over your Debut / Arm / Cartridge because you have an extremely competent phonostage…but IF the music doesn’t make it to ANY phono stage…. well you understand. How are your setup skills, tools and inclination to seek help ? JR at WAM would be a target phone call for sure. 

AJ who designed your table ( RIP ) was a genius, while i’m not suggesting a new Basis… there is depth in the community of owners and dealers and of course factory keeping them rolling and upgrading them…. Reach out if needed, i know a few of them…. fast friends…

Best to you

Jim

I'm happy with my tavish design classic, no where near the money of some of the above mentioned. I like my phono stage to be tubed. My next step up will be the Adagio. It has everything anyone could possibly require at only 2300 bucks. 

A new belt is about the only thing that would be needed to keep the Basis in fine fiddle.  I own a Basis and I have heard the Phantom on a different Basis table.  Both the arm and the Basis table are designed to maximize damping of vibration, both from external sources and the vibration caused by the stylus tracking the groove.  The sound of this combination is clear, composed, and quiet (very good at even suppressing the sound of ticks and pops because the sound passes quickly instead of resonating).  I personally like this sound at it works well in my very dynamic sounding system (horn-based speakers).  

But, this sound is not for everyone and every system and I understand those who call this sound "dead."  It is entirely valid to prefer something that sounds more lively and "jumpy."  If you want to mix things up a bit, it would be nice to also have something like a good vintage idler drive table like the Garrard 301 or 401 or Thorens TD 124 or the three motor belt drive Audio Note table.  These, with the right arm are more lively sounding than the Basis/Graham Phantom combination--i.e., different, not necessarily better.  At this level, it is more a matter of different taste than something being better than another.  The same is true with the original issue of choice of phono stage; it is hard to say that something would be considerably better than the Steelhead.

@tomic601 Thanks for the input. I did just replace a Graham 2.2 with the Phantom B44 and it was a very worthwhile improvement. I will continue to monitor the used markets for a Phantom Elite. I did email Graham Engineering a few days ago requesting information on their dealer locations so I could perhaps work through a dealer on stepping up the line, but so far they haven't written back.

I'm OK with setup, particularly with the Graham arms as they're so easy to do. (there's a simple cartridge alignment jig that makes things almost foolproof).

I have the Feickert alignment jig also but haven't needed it since selling my Feickert Woodpecker.

I'm on JR's email list and get frequent updates but so far I haven't spoken with him. It's something I might consider once I settle finally on an arm and cartridge. 

@larryi I wrote to Basis a couple of weeks back and got a quote from Alex for a new belt. 

I hear you on the sonic signature of the Basis deck. I also like it. A while back I had an Origin Live Resolution and a Feickert Volare side by side and found the OL deck to be highly resolving of detail, dynamic, a little on the lean side, but excellent overall, whereas the Feickert had more weight and authority, more meat on the bones, but sounded a little dark and dry. I think the Basis setup is more balanced, overall, and combines the virtues of the other two decks pretty well.

I’d like to try a Garrard deck at some point, but it’s lower down on the list for now.

Thanks for the input.

This might be extreme overkill, particularly in terms of the blinged-out looks, but the Artisan Fidelity reconditioned Garrard 401 is something to aspire to:

https://www.artisanfidelity.com/new-products/garrard-401-statement#:~:text=Garrard%20401%20Statement%20by%20Artisan,its%2012%20year%20production%20run.

ASR Basis Exclusive; 

Find a Lamm LP2.1. I’ve heard a Steelhead and the Lamm would be a huge upgrade. They pop up used in your price range.

@dhcod and @goofyfoot Thanks for the suggestions. Two units I’ve heard little about so I’ll do some reading…

Actually the ASR unit piques my curiosity as it’s battery powered. My preamp and power amps are also battery powered and I like what that brings to the sound. Has anyone here heard the ASR? Thoughts?

cheers

I had the ASR and I liked it better than the steelhead. it was my favorite solid state, way better than the EAR 324. It takes up a LOT of space. I also don't think it's in the ballpark of the Lamm. There's just something special about their products.

@rooze I have the top tier ASR Emitter Exclusive II amplifier and then the ASR Mini Basis phono amp. The sound quality and build quality of the amplifier is a dream. The smaller phono stage is very good and because I only use a mono dedicated turntable, it currently meets all of my phono stage needs but at some point, I do hope to move up to their Basis Exclusive. Also, ASR customer service is directly with the designer and business owner himself. I have emailed him a number of times and he's always gotten back to me right away.

I have the ASR. It's fantastic. I bought it a long time ago because of the battery and being totally balanced. DEAD quiet!

Dhcod, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, regarding the superiority of the Lamm phono stage over the steelhead. My opinion is different. I have heard them both, and I do think the steelhead is a bit superior, although not by much. I certainly think the question is debatable, and not a certainty. A few things to keep in mind regarding the Lamm phono stage are as follows: it uses an internal step up transformer for moving coil gain levels. And maximum gain is 60 DB. The step up transformer has a 1 to 20 step up ratio, so you must take care to use it with moving coil cartridges that have a very low internal impedance, 10 ohms or less is advisable. Second, it has a rather high output impedance of 2800 ohms, I think. Or certainly in that ballpark. That means one ought to be careful about mating it with a downstream line stage, although most linestages would probably work OK. The Steelhead has three pairs of phono inputs and does not require a step up transformer in order to accommodate moving coil cartridges with low output. The total net gain is 65DB, so a little higher than the Lamm. Further the Steelhead has a built in linestage and costs a few thousand $$$ less than the Lamm. like I wrote earlier, in my opinion, the major factor that holds back the steelhead from being as good as it could be is the mediocre coupling capacitors used at the output, which are easily upgraded. With upgraded capacitors, I think one would find the steel head to outperform the lamb, clearly.

Lamm not "lamb" in the last line of my post above.

@lewm Did you ever talk with the factory about the coupling cap upgrade? I’d be tempted to send it back to them if it’s something they would be willing to undertake.

 I know it’s relatively simple to do, I’d just rather it were something factory installed.

Rooze

The short answer is no, I never talked to them. My unit is out of warranty anyway, and there’s gobs of room for the caps inside, so I just went ahead and did it myself. I understand why they chose overly large value capacitors; they are trying to account for users who might mismatch the unit to downstream devices.