Manley Steelhead vs others.

Very few phono stages have the option of acting like a full function preamp like the Steelhead. The Steelhead has very few peers in that regard. 

Thanks this is a great help. Sounds like really good choices. Will look into them all.    

If you are looking for a unit that you can use as a stand-alone preamp like the Steelhead, the Art Audio Vinyl One Copper Reference would be a good choice.  You can add a remote volume control and it will serve as a full fledged preamps. It is intended to be used with one table unlike the Manley.  

You up will find an older review that compares it to the Steelhead.  It fell a hair short at the time but has since been upgraded in terms of power supply and the “copper reference” edition has Silver Foil caps.