Is the Manley Steelhead still relevant?

To my knowledge, Lamm does not and has never made a true balanced preamplifier, either phono or line stage. But I am not a Lamm aficionado, so I may be wrong. You do have to be careful when you shop for balanced equipment. Many manufacturers will let you believe that because their equipment has an XLR output jack, it is balanced inside. That is often not the case. Or some use an added active circuit or transformer at the “balanced” outputs, to generate a balanced signal from a single-ended circuit.That ploy works in terms of a balanced output, but it generally adds coloration, and in such devices the single ended outputs often sound better than the balanced outputs. Keep in mind that I am not saying that balanced always sounds better than single ended, although I do prefer wiring cartridges for balanced drive into a balanced phono stage. I am only saying that atmasphere amplifiers sound best by far when driven in balanced mode. It is well worth the effort. Moreover, driving the amplifier with a balanced preamplifier mitigates its relatively low input sensitivity, by 6db. I have been using atmosphere amplifiers for 25 years, and I have experience listening to them when driven both single ended and balanced. Once I heard them driven in balanced mode (by my MP1), I never looked back.

I might add that even though I still stand by the Manley Steelhead as being a great unit, for your particular system, I think you should look at truly balanced phono and line stages. As mentioned elsewhere, I use my steelhead in a completely separate system to drive inherently single-ended amplifiers.

@lewm 

Thanks for educating me about the nuances of XLR.  I assumed that if equipment had XLR jacks, that it was balanced, but apparently not.  

From my current perspective, it seems that the A-S would be the most versatile and transparent pre-amplifier that I'm aware of so far.  

If you use one turntable, I don’t disagree.

@lewm 
@dover 

I was reviewing a pre-amplifier short list.  It looks like the VAC signature mkIIaSE qualifies as having both XLR and RCA.  Any ideas as to how it compares with the A-S MP1?

Thanks.