Lightspeed Attenuator - Best Preamp Ever?

I now use the fixed output on my Steelhead,bypassing the volume control of the manley.

This has further improved my enjoyment of the LSA.

Using the LSA with the Esoteric cd player into my amps was very revealing, and my old way of running the Manley with variable output(vol at full on the Manley)to retain the mono function,left me preferring the cd sound.

Not so anymore.
The manley is now just a phono stage, and a better one than I thought it was.

The LSA's transparency is quite apparent on vinyl as well as CD/sacd.

That's great to hear Lacee, echoing many of my customers are reporting back to me and say that with the Lightspeed Attenuator as the preamp it's the best they have ever heard their vinyl/phono sound.

I did a bit of searching and found your Steelhead, has a great low 150ohms output impedance. With the Clearaudio Talisman Gold V2 you are using, where is the Lightspeed's volume control when listening to medium loud volume.

Cheers George

About 1 O'clock,and that's with the gain of the Manley set at 50db, the lowest setting.

Very good Lacee, you couldn't ask for any better, enjoy.

The Lightspeed's volume action/structure is logarithmic, and after 1 o'clock it rises exponentially in level till full.
So as you can see at 1 o'clock you are at around only 30% to 40% of full volume you still have 60% to 70% of gain and head room level to go. There is no need for the extra amplification gain of active preamps.

Theses days there's enough gain in cartridges/phono stages, so owners can take the active preamp out of the system, and reap even more transparency/dynamics from their systems with a passive preamps.
And because they are dc coupled (no coupling capacitors in the signal path) the frequency response is greatly improved, passives are 0hz to well over 100's of mhz (megahertz) in frequency response, interconnects become the limiting factor for the high frequency limit.

Lacee once you've listened for a while can you give us a review of replacing the active preamp with the Lightspeed Attenuator.

Cheers George

What I have learned is that volume controls even run wide open into a passive pre still have colourations.
The manley Steelhead is still a good phono/preamp in a vinyl ,cd set up.
You really don't need another preamp to be satisfied.
That was the way I enjoyed my system, until I got the LSA.

That was a game changer.

I took the Esoteric out of the Steelhead and ran it into the LSA.Yes a bit of wire changing, but I am a fan of the purist school of audio,so one set of inputs and a bit of wire fiddling doesn't bother me if it's for the betterment of the sound.

The sound of the cd player thru the LSA directly into the amps(bypassing the Manley)was much more powerful sounding.More dynamic, a fuller ,rounder sound, and more inner details.
All the kinds of improvements you tire reading about, but nevertheless,were there.
We really do need to invent some new vocabulary to describe these kinds of improvements,because I and no doubt countless others, tend to take such praises with just a hint of scepticism.

And that's a shame.
Improvements are improvements, no matter how hard it is to describe them, it's easy to hear them when they are there.And you can prove it to yourself that your ears are not fooling you, nor is it self delusion simply by going back to listening to things the way they were before.Then listening to the new way.

I much preferred my cd/sacd replay thru the LSA.

In fact so much, that I was in a dilemma.
Why wasn't I enjoying my vinyl system as much?

I addressed all manner of set up with my SME arm and table and Clearaudio cartridge.
I use the same interconnect from the phono stage(Variable out)as I do from the cd player into the LSA.

What I eventually did was run the Manley as just a phono stage.Which most reviews of the steelhead have stated, and I ignored.
Running it from the fixed outputs bypasses the volume control altogether,but cancels the use of the Sum or mono function.I do play mono recordings from time to time.So I was reluctant to run the pre in fixed mode.

Doing so, however, proved to be the answer to my problem.
Vinyl is now on par with the punch and clarity of the digital set up.

So as good as the Manley is as a phono stage with the added option as a volume line stage,I believe the volume control is it's weak spot.
This is not to discourage anyone from running it this way.
It sounds good.

But if sounds good isn't good enough for you, and vinyl is important, then run it in fixed mode into your preamp of choice.
In my case, it's the LSA.

If vinyl doesn't matter,then try the LSA direct into your amp from your digital source.

I think you will be more than pleased that this level of sound quality is available for so few dollars.

Just make sure you try a decent linear power supply.
I use the TeraDak.
Without a linear power supply(I have not tried battery),you'll never know how great the lSA is.

It is the most revealing, easiest to listen thru,least expensive(I 've owned some pretty expensive esoteric preamps over the past 40 years,tube and solid state)and quietest "pre amp"I've ever owned, and will be my last.

Are there better ones out there?
My friend has the ARC Ref 10, before that the Anniversary 40.
I think they are pretty special in a system that is completely different than mine.
But I don't think I'm missing too much.

At least I don't feel short changed and I have no desire to chase after either of those preamps.