MULTIPLE ARM TURNTABLE

lean,

My Steelhead is original. Are you aware of any updates other than motorized volume?

Lewn,

Damn spell check.

Doshi Alaap full function pre or separate phono stage typically has 3 phono inputs which can be ordered in any combination of MM and MC, with switchable loading (3 values) for the MC stages.  In a head to head on a very revealing system, 4 out of 4 A'goners preferred it to the Steelhead, which is no slouch, by any means. 

Lewm,

My two large phono stages offers only balanced phono input

http://pbnaudio.com/audio-components/audio-preamps/olympia-pi-pxi

And the little Liberty B2B-1 offers it too but you'll need two of them 

http://www.libertyaudio.com/products/b2b-1-all-fet-phono-preamp


Good Listening

Peter

Nkonor, I would ask Manley regarding other changes between the v1.0 and v2.0 of the Steelhead.  The layout is different, in addition to the motorized volume control, but I don't know about anything else.

Doshi Alaap is quality for sure.  My only beef would be in theory, because it uses 12AU7s, the sound of which I have always disliked, compared to many other twin triodes of similar characteristic, especially the 6SN7. Never compared Doshi Alaap to the Steelhead. I bought the Steelhead for totally pragmatic reasons, rather than based on listening tests.  It has the features I needed for my Beveridge system, and I only knew by reputation that it would be very good, which it is.  I have plans for some tweaks to the circuit, though. I had an Aesthetix Janus for a while, also very good ONLY after upgrading the coupling capacitors, but I like the Steelhead a tad better.

Anyway, I don't think this discussion is necessarily about what is the "best" phono stage, and I am making no such claim for the Steelhead.  There's another thread for that. I knew that my suggesting that the Atma-sphere and DSA were unique in offering balanced phono inputs would bring out the names of some others that also do.  I will say this: the DSA is truly unique in its offering 3 really discrete phono stages, each with its own separate gain and loading controls, on one chassis. They are really separate modules.  That would be very hard to achieve with tubes.