Anyone compared Whest Audio with Manley Steelhead?


I have the Whest PsU .20 phonostage that sounds great, considering it costs $2,600. Wonder if it is worth upgrading to the Steelhead as there are used ones in the market.
audiolui
I tried a Whest PS.30R in my system comparing it to my then BAT P10se. The Whest was very close. The BAT just had that valve(tube) richness and a bit more scale, which I prefered. However the BAT is 2.5 times the price of the Whest here in the UK.
The DT version is another league again I believe.
spotted a mistake in previous post - Should be Whest PS.30R DT - the upgraded version is 30R DT se.
you might be interested in this thread - An evening with the Whest PS.30RDT. (Special Edition)
See testimonials on Whest website--guy there reports going to a ps30 or 40rdt se from a Manley steelhead--said the Whest creamed the Steelhead.
^^FWIW dept.: We have a customer that claims that our entry level UV-1 preamp bested his Whest, for which he was quite happy as the UV-1 is one box including the line section. His testimonial can be found on our site...


I would take the testimony of Vetterone (circa 2005) over those to be found on the Whest website, but that's just me. ("Vetterone" is a professional with many years of experience in the very high end, and he is the designer of a very high end direct-drive turntable.)

Years ago, I thought about buying a Whest phono stage based on the accolades that the best of them do get.  I then visited their website in an effort to get some idea of the circuit design, the goals thereof, etc.  I found their verbiage to be very opaque. It really reveals nothing, in fact. I think I also contacted them but did not get a satisfactory response.  I understand the need for a small company to protect its novel ideas, but this experience caused me to back off, together with my admitted bias for tubes vs transistors. But I would be curious to learn more about the Whest circuit, if anyone here could enlighten us without revealing secrets.