Manley Chinook with (very) low output MC ZYX?

Exactly soundermn!  I also wonder if the Herron would be great yet just different. Since I'm in love with the Chinook it's staying.  

The Chinook is the single best piece of gear I've ever bought, including speakers, tube amps, etc.  Why?  Because it elevated the overall vinyl game into liquid tube honey sound.  It's that good. 

@johnss ,  So after a year of using the Burr Brown 2134 opamps in the Chinook, I bit the bullet and bought the Sparkos Labs SS3602.  

The Burr Browns provided a subtly nice improvement--mostly a lowered noise floor from what I could tell.  

The Sparkos labs are better than the Burr Browns and the stock opamps in the Manley.  They sound so smooth and clean.  Highly recommended.  Not cheap, but worth it. 

 Where are the RPMs in the circuit of the Chinook?. So far as I know, my steelhead uses discrete transistors plus triodes throughout the audio circuitry. So I am wondering what is going on with op amps in the Chinook. Perhaps they only serve for the relays and switching apparatus when you change settings. In which case I would not expect them to have much effect on sound. Thanks for any insights.

Sorry, instead of RPMs, I refer to Op Amps.  I was messaging by voice and Siri screwed up Op Amps into RPMs.

A quote from Mrs. Eveanna Manley on the Chinook TI op amps: “Those opamps are performing as a DC voltage servo in order to bias the FET operational point. Those opamps are not in the signal path. They just stabilize a DC voltage needed to set the operational point of the FETs”.

@lewm - Sounds like you would be correct regarding them having little  effect on sound.