What's A Good Upgrade From A Manley Steelhead?

@rooze I represent RADA and of you search will see their Precious One phono is highly regarded for an all tube design. Will want a ( good ) SUT for a lomc in this case.. For SS I agree, Moon is doing good work.

bigkidz, What is your basic upgrade?  Do you have a website?

You just send it to me to upgrade the unit.  We did one last year which came out stellar.  PM me if you want and I can see if the guy who we did it for will speak to you.  His was a basic upgrade.  We could have taken it to a entire better level.

Happy Listening.

What whart said, "...for some reason, I couldn’t get it to open up-- there was a slight electronic glaze to the sound that made it very hi-fi."  The haze goes away with better coupling capacitors and getting rid of the 47 ohm resistors in the signal path.  Manley uses this topology, because they have to build fool-proof units, never knowing just how many feet of cable or what impedance their product might be asked to drive.  For any knowledgeable audiophile, with an intelligently put together system, the 47 ohm resistors and the 30uF of capacitance at both the phono stage and linestage outputs is simply crazy overkill.

One reason to "upgrade" is if you want to convert to balanced mode for your phono reproduction, as would be the case if you went for the Sim Audio phono stage recommended by Raul. In the one of my two systems where I use the Steelhead, it is driving Beveridge amplifiers which are single-ended all the way.  So there would be not much to gain by using a balanced preamplifier.  (I did think about installing transformers at the inputs of the Bev amplifiers, so they can be driven balanced.) In my other system, it is balanced all the way.

@wrm57 are doppelgängers. We seem to make the same moves. I also went from a Steelhead to the H3000, it sounded better in my system. I was rolling tubes in the Steelhead and using the MM inputs at 47k. I also used a line stage which added more meat to the bones. Eva Manley was great to deal with, the thing is really well built but for some reason, I couldn’t get it to open up-- there was a slight electronic glaze to the sound that made it very hi-fi. The Allnic is somewhat polarizing in that some folks who want the last word in clarity and detail find it "burnished" sounding- I didn’t need more detail, but the spatial information and retrieval of ambient cues is what really sold me. I’ve only had to do minor stuff on the Allnic--replaced one funky tube socket and replaced all the audio circuit tubes after 5+ years. I roll the rectifier- have a bunch of really good ones, including a NIB/NOS metal bass Mullard, which is a grail tube. The rectifier I like best for the voicing of my system is a GEC u52 with a cup base. Those are not particularly easy to find these days either. The rectifier will make a huge difference in the sound.

@rauliruegas OK, thanks for that link. I like what I've heard over the years from Simaudio/Moon - I had their W10 monoblocks some years ago and more recently their 280D DAC. But I'd never really considered them as a contender in the phonostage arena....I'll do some reading/research.

Rooze

@bdp24 No problem with your comment at all, I'm considering all options and one option is certainly to 'do nothing'. I don't have a large vinyl collection, in part because I offloaded my collection some years ago and took a hiatus, and I've been slow to re-assemble my collection since reinvesting in the medium.

Most of the 'new' music I hear comes from digital/streaming, and I use digital sources to cherry-pick new stuff that I acquire on vinyl. So yes, I could certainly use the funds to accelerate the process of building my vinyl collection, or I could use it to make what I already have sound a little better. Two options that I'm still considering.

Cheers

@rooze: Congratulations on having such a good system that you feel a need for an upgrade from your Steelhead phono pre-amp. We should all be so fortunate!

At the risk of appearing condescending (I hate that), may I suggest that a "deeper dive" into the music you love might provide a more meaningful improvement to your musical life than a "mere" component upgrade (if such is even a possibility) would? But then I consider musical enjoyment and appreciation the goal of all hi-fi endeavors. If I seem out of line, I apologize in advance.

In the past six or seven years I have added a great number of recordings to my music library (the term I prefer to collection), which has greatly advanced my ambition to absorb as much music as I can before my inevitable (and presumably impending) demise. Does your Steelhead provide a better reproduction of the music contained in your LP’s than does my Herron? Sure, if reports are to be believed (I’ve never heard the Steelhead). But it can only reproduce the music contained in your LP library. It is my opinion that the price of one’s hi-fi system should be kept in proportion to the amount of $ one has invested in his or hers music library. Not everyone agrees with that philosophy.

Here at the other extreme what could be the phono stage " bargain ". Read carefully the review and even if you could not care take a look to the J.Atkinson real time measurements. The unit is way way better than what's price could tells us and yes it's an upgrade from your Manley.

In the other side the worst audio system place to use/have tube alternative is at the prhono stage link:

R.

Dear @rooze  : My mistake sorry.

This is the rigth unit I was talking about:

R.

If your Steelhead is still in warranty, I do understand your not wanting to modify it, as that would void the warranty.  Fortunately for me, that was not an issue.  Also, I had the needed upgrade capacitors in my stash of spare parts, so no new money needed to be spent.  I did the work myself, so for zero cost, the upgrade was and is major.

@wrm57 Thanks, I'm a fan of Allnic gear, I've had their 5000DHT preamp, A6000 monoblocks and I still have their H1202 phonostage in a second system. I don't see an H3000 on the used market but I'll keep an eye open. 

I went from the Steelhead RC to the Allnic H3000 v2 some 8 years ago and never looked back. I liked the Steelhead, bought it new and used it for 4 years with a variety of cartridges. It’s very good. But the Allnic I found to be a significant step up. Comparing them side by side in my system, the choice was clear. Of course, since it is based on SUTs for MC, you need to use cartridges that lend themselves to SUTs, in general, and the ones Allnic includes specifically, and this qualifier can be somewhat limiting. Benz LPS and Gullwing, eg, are not a great match for a SUT because of their combination of lowish output and highish internal impedance, but the Benz Ebony L and TR are both excellent matches with the Allnic offerings. Many great options out there, though.

@rauliruegas That link is to a full function preamp. I'm just looking for a phonostage, I have a good preamp.

Thanks

Rooze

Dear @rooze  : If you stretch your budget this one not only beats your Manley but it's a very hard to be outperformed phono stage:

740P Preamp | Best Audiophile Audio Preamplifier | MOON - Simaudio

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.

@lewm  Thanks, I have the latest version, the Steelhead RC. I'm not about to do any mods to it, though I appreciate that there might be gains to be had.

I do like how it sounds and its versatility, but I'm just ready for a change and an upgrade.

Cheers.

I am not about to claim that the Manley Steelhead is the best possible phono stage, but I do own one and enjoy it. I use it as a full function preamplifier to drive the amplifiers of a pair of Beveridge speakers (another topic entirely). I chose the Steelhead because reviews and comments led me to believe it was very good, and because it provides three pairs of phono inputs. I required that because I use two turntables to feed the Steelhead phono stage. FWIW, you don’t say whether you own v1.0 or v2.0 of the Steelhead. I have v2.0. The following describes the modifications I made to my Steelhead that greatly improve its Sound Quality (SQ). You will have to be someone with some electronics savvy and soldering skills:

I could not get a schematic; Manley does not provide a schematic even for professional repair shops. But if you read an interview with Evanna Manley, several years ago in 6 Moons, she describes the output stage. I won’t reiterate her summary (please google it; look for the Steelhead review in 6Moons) but suffice to say that the output of the phono stage, which either drives the volume control if you use it as a full preamplifier or the outboard linestage, if you use it as a phono stage only, uses a 47-ohm resistor in series with the signal followed by a 30uF output coupling capacitor, whichin my opinion is mediocre in quality, at best. This capacitor and what follows are holding back the performance of the Steelhead, IMO. I removed the 47-ohm resistor entirely; it’s not needed for anything, and I replaced the 30uF coupling cap with a much higher quality 10uF capacitor. (Choose whatever you like but spend the $$$ for a very good one.) You need 10uF, I calculate, because the volume control seems to have a 5K ohm input impedance (very low). (10uF driving a 5K ohm load will give you a very low bass cut-off; 30uF is way overkill. Less than 10uF might compromise extreme low bass performance.) OK, then the output from the linestage section (the output side of the attenuator) uses yet another 47 ohm resistor in series with yet another 30uF capacitor of the same type and brand. I removed that 47R resistor and replaced THAT second coupling capacitor with a 4uF film cap that I like very much. Since my amplifier has a 50K input impedance, 4uF is more than adequate to get good bass. Those two coupling capacitors, from phono stage output to attenuator and from attenuator to linestage output have everything to do with the SQ of the Steelhead.  Coupling capacitors should be rated for at least 250V, to be safe.