Is the Manley Steelhead still relevant?

@drbond
Nobody has asked you the key questions -
What power amp are you using ?
For your current listening how high do you have to go on the Manley volume pot ?

From your other posts - you appear to have Atmasphere MA1 amplifiers.
These are an easy load to drive ( 100k ) but I note that they are less sensitive than many amplifiers ( 2.8V to full power ).

Your Manley linestage is just a buffer - no real gain.

So to answer your question on what a preamp would do, -
If you find that you have to turn the Manley volume pot past halfway for normal listening then adding a linestage with gain means that the device driving the power amps will be working less hard - this may result in more headroom, and a more relaxed sound overall.

I have found that despite DAC’s/CD Players usually having enough output to drive power amps direct, the insertion of a high qusality lineage often brings about a more natural, unforced presentation - even more transparent in some cases, despite the additional preamp and cable.

For example I regularly listen to an Air Tight system with Tannoy Autographs. Even though the power amps are very sensiitive and the DAC a stereophile class A product, we still prefer inserting the matching Air Tight preamp between the DAC and power amps, even though the additional gain is not needed.

If I were in your position and you find you are running the Manley at high volume for normal listening, then rather than add a line stage, why not investigate an Atmosphere preamp that includes a phono stage. Less boxes and less cabling.  The full function Atmosphere preamps are well regarded with excellent phono stages.

I would not be surprised to find that you find some significant improvements by having more drive to the inut of the MA1 power amps. Perhaps see if you can trial an Atmasphere MP3 or MP1 full function preamp ( with phono ) you will quickly get the answer you are looking for.

I agree with Dover in general on the merits of an active linestage . I have owned and still use both an Atma MP1 preamp and Atma amplifiers for about 25 years; I’m a very satisfied customer. I am very surprised to learn that the MA1 has such a low input sensitivity (2.8V to full power). (In this case “low” means the voltage required is relatively high compared to other amplifiers.) My own Atmaspere amplifiers are easier to drive, in terms of signal voltage. The Atma stuff is used to drive a pair of full range ESLs in a separate system. The Steelhead is used to drive a pair of Beveridge 2SW amplifiers in parallel with an electronic crossover that provides low frequencies to a pair of woofers.

fsonic, I don’t know what you’re thinking about the Steelhead linestage, but it is NOT passive. It uses a tube as a White cathode follower. Cathode followers don’t add gain, but they do buffer the output impedance, which is very low, as a result. Thus impedance matching is not a problem with any amplifier having an input impedance greater than 10K ohms, which includes just about any amplifier you’d care to use. Issues associated with true passive linestages do not apply. I don’t care for them, either, and for the same reasons cited by you and suggested by Dover.

Thanks for everyone's input.

@dover 
Aha!  That makes much more sense now.  I have three amplifiers that I rotate between:  an Atma-Sphere MA-1, a Conrad Johnson LP140m, and a Lamm M2.2.  The input sensitivities are 2.8V, 0.5V, and 1.0V respectively, which is exactly what I experience with the volume control: namely the higher the input sensitivity voltage, the higher I turn the volume knob, and at higher volumes the sound does begin to get "washed out".  But, it would seem that shouldn't be the case with volume, but that a higher gain would "color" the sound more, and that a higher volume should just make the accurate sound louder, but I guess that if volume and the Manley Steelhead behaved in a linear fashion, that is what I should expect, but what you're saying is that as the volume is turned up, it stresses components in the Steelhead, and I get more distortion?  

So, when you say the Manley linestage is just a "buffer", you mean that it's not amplifying the signal by adding gain, but just transmitting the signal unadulterated? 

Thanks!

There are many reasons why you may experience a "washed out" SQ with higher volume levels, in your system.  But keep in mind that a volume control is an attenuator; it is not adding gain as you turn up the volume. It is attenuating the output of the device less and less as you go toward the max volume.  The tubes and transistors upstream from the attenuator and which are responsible for "gain" are always operating according to a fixed set of voltages and currents, producing in the device a fixed signal voltage (until you get to the attenuator) with an inherent signal to noise ratio.  As you employ less and less attenuation, not only do you get more and more signal voltage to drive the amplifier, but also you are permitting more and more of the noise floor to drive the amplifier.  So, the end result is that you begin to hear the noise, albeit it is way down below the signal voltage by the same ratio in db that is inherent to the device.  As to why you feel the sound eventually acquires a "washed out" coloration, that is a complex question that is probably the net result of many factors.
A cathode follower is an active device that has very very low distortion and adds no gain.  Its raison d'etre is to convert voltage to current, which is another way of saying it sees a source (the upstream circuitry) that has a high output impedance and it puts out the same signal (no added distortion, ideally) with a low output impedance so as to drive the downstream amplifier.  That's one definition of a "buffer".  The buffer function is very necessary for any linestage, whether it includes circuits that add gain, or not (as in the case of the Steelhead).  The low output impedance is very advantageous for driving any amplifier (see also below). 


What fsonic and maybe Dover mentioned is another class of "linestage" that is completely passive in that such devices contain no active components at all (no tubes or transistors); they are basically just attenuators.  This can be done with a resistor network or (better) with autoformers or transformers.  The problem created is that you need to match the output impedance of the device driving the passive attenuator with the input impedance of the downstream device.  The rule of thumb is that the output impedance of the driver (in this case, the passive attenuator) should be about 1/10 the input impedance of the driven component, in ohms, and this ratio should be consistently maintained at all levels of attenuation.  (This criterion is easily met by the active CF to be found in the Steelhead.) It's not so easily or universally achieved using a passive attenuator. Therefore, passive attenuators need to be carefully selected and matched to the up and downstream components for good results.  Many aficionados do swear by passive attenuators as linestages.  I am not in that camp.

@drbond 

So, when you say the Manley linestage is just a "buffer", you mean that it's not amplifying the signal by adding gain, but just transmitting the signal unadulterated?

Yes.
The washed out sound at higher volume settings suggest the Manley is either unable to drive the Atmasphere power amp adequately, or the quality of the sound is deteriorating at higher volume settings due to the circuit topology in the Manley.

Adding an active line stage will fix that issue and may even benefit your other power amplifiers as well. I would encourage you to try some out if you can.

In terms of options Atmasphere preamps should work well and have balanced outputs as well as single ended to suit their amps.
Conrad Johnson linestages at the upper levels are excellent but only have single ended outputs available.
I would be wary of the Lamm preamps without trialling them becuase they tend to work best with their own gear - the LAMM phono/preamps have unusual gain structures and in real use tend to work best together.