Manly Steelhead - any downside??

Nothing wrong with the Steelhead at all - except if price IS an issue. If you'd prefer not to pay for the "brand premium", nor huge advertising, tradeshow, and dealer/reviewer demo budgets, consider the Granite Audio 770FP. A spectacular sounding and incredibly built preamp with phono stage from a no-hype manufacturer at half the price.

Here's a review if you're interested:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue6/graniteaudio.htm

Thanks Vetterone. How did you find the sound compared to the rhea?.
EvaAnna from manley said the same thing re tune rush, however always better to get that from someone who owns one.
You and I have the same dyna XV-1s ( great cartridge) What do you load the thing at with the Manley?.

I am hoping to get a demo of a manley next week, living in Sydney that is no mean feat as they are bringing one in!
Did you have much burn in time?

thanks Opalchip for the recommendation. I don't need a full pre amp and Granite does not have a presence in Australia. Most importantly I cannot live without a remote for volume control at the very least. yes very laxy but important to me as I like to mix the volume around even on one LP.

cheers

Dear Downunder: any downside??, well at the asked Steelhead price every one hopes there is no downside, unfortunatelly for the quality music sound reproduction the Steelhead has some " downside ":

first, it had a high RIAA eq. deviation from flat: " +0.5 / -0.3 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, " , this means a swing of: 0.8 db when it has to be at least 0.2 db. This deviation is severe and colored the sound. It will be interesting to see where in the frecuency range response are those deviations.

second, it use step-up autoformers for gain in the MC stage that do a degradation to the signal.

third, it use tubes: as a phono stage is noisy.

fouth, you have to roll-off the tubes to achieve better performance: this is incredible. More money !!!!!

+++++ " so ultra revealing is not something I am looking for in any phono stage. " +++++

I can't understand that statement. Do you mean that you don't care if the phono stage can't has high resolution ( revealing ) ? do you mean that you don't care if the phono stage can't reproduce what is in the LP ? Please let me know what you care about LP reproduction. I can see on your system ( very nice system ) that you use cables that are very revealing and you phono cartridge is truly revealing too along with your speakers. So I can't understand that statement.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul, true to form is simply wrong again! The Steelhead is one of the quietest phono sections that money can buy. Some of that is going to be tube choice issues.

Vetterone told me that it is quieter than the X-Ono which I bought from him. Many people have claimed that there are not more than a handful of phono stages quieter than the Pass Labs (see Michael Fremers review), but the Manley is one of them.

The sound of the Steelhead is amazing, both as a pre-amp, and a phono section. You will not be disappointed with this unit. I plan to buy one in spring!