I've owned my Steelhead (version 2.0) for about 3-4 years. I bought it second-hand off Audiogon, in mint original condition. I am using it as a full-function preamplifier to drive the built in amplifiers of a Beveridge 2SW speaker system. I bought the Beveridges several years before purchasing the MS, and after I serviced the Bev direct drive amplifiers and did some trouble-shooting, I have come to adore the speakers . Since I use two turntables to serve the Bevs, I wanted a phono stage with at least two pairs of inputs and with both MM and MC capability. The Steelhead has one MM and two MC inputs. Also, after having convinced myself that the Bevs are still world class, after 40 years, I felt the system deserved stretching my wallet to get the best phono stage possible. Those were the factors I considered in making my purchase. I read elsewhere that Steelhead owners generally prefer the sound when it is used as a phono only stage, connecting to an outboard linestage. Since I did not want to add that layer of complexity, I did some research into why that might be so. The linestage section does not add gain; it consists of a fancy cathode follower. Since it adds no gain, it ought in theory to be very transparent. The schematic is not available, but I learned something about the circuit topology from reading the text of an interview with Evanna Manley published on 6 Moons, a few years ago. Evanna described the output circuit in some detail, and from her information, I conceived of a way to improve the linestage and also to improve the output of the phono stage. (The phono stage output drives the motorized volume control which in turn drives the cathode follower output stage, when you use the full function mode.) I already liked the Steelhead before I did anything to mine, but I made some changes after reading the piece in 6 Moons, and that takes the Steelhead up at least another notch. Now I am VERY happy with it.
I also disagree with whoever wrote that the Steelhead is less than excellent in construction quality. If you look inside and know what you are looking at, you would see that the parts quality is rather high. What you don't get is a fancy, glitzy chassis; that's the only compromise, and I will take that any day over beautiful exterior finish masking crappy components or a bad design. When I evaluate an audio component, I ignore brand names per se as a criterion for purchase. I pretty much only care about circuit topology and parts quality inside. If I had my druthers, I do prefer balanced operation, which the Steelead does not do, but on the other hand it is as quiet as or even quieter than my two other very high quality fully balanced phono/preamplfiers, one of which is solid state and the other of which is tubes. Furthermore, the Bev amplifiers are single-ended, so using a balanced preamplifier would not reap all possible benefits of balanced op. If anyone wants to know what modifications I made to the MS output stages, please contact me privately.
