PS Audio Stellar Phono -vs- Manley Labs Chinook

Durmmer808

I owned the Chinook and enjoyed it for the season I had it. Using a Soundsmith MIMIC Star cartridge with the Manley had me smiling every time I listened to Rock, R&B, The Dead and Jazz! However, when it came time to listen to Classical at low volume I felt like all I could hear was the background floor noise tube presence. That drove me bonkers. With that being said...at the time my whole system was an all tube set-up from my pre-amp to my mono's. Question is: Do you mind the tube presence at low or high volumes? Also, what are you going to be listening to on the Manley. Everything you have read abut the Chinook is true....Silky smooth highs and all the air on top you can handle and tight bottom end.

As for the Stellar, it's built like a tank just like the Chinook. It retrieve the ALL the information from your vinyl like the Chinook. Both are packed with internal electrical hardware. In other words you are getting what you paid for. The BIG difference (TO ME) is Modern vs NOS. 

The Stellar is 6ft under dead quiet. You have on the fly remote control.

The choice is up to you. You will not loose either way.

Tube Bliss vs Solid State (wishing for some tube hiss)...lol! 

Great phonoamp Lewm.
Raul, obviously you have never heard an ARC phonoamp. With good tubes they are as quiet as any SS phono amp. I have heard only one SS  sound better the Channel D L20 however I have never heard a Pass or Constellation unit among others. The Channel D Lino C 2.0 has the identical circuitry as the L20, has gotten great reviews and has a very competitive price. I suspect it is far superior to anything in it's price range. If it sounds anything like it's big brother it will be far quieter and better sounding than anything produced by Manley or PS Audio. I would have bought the L20 on the spot if it were not for the price, $40 large. 

40k vs 2k?
Is that even a contest... lol

But at 2.5k for the c2.0 it might be a strong contender.

Uberwaltz, The basic circuit comes in modules. The big unit uses 20 of them to lower the signal to noise ratio requiring a much more elaborate power supply which is battery in both cases. The L20 has the lowest signal to noise ratio of any phonoamp out there by quite a margin and the little guy is better  than most. 
With the Channel D units you also get the option of bypassing the RIAA compensation. Then you can use their program Pure Vinyl for playback and record your albums to files. Michael Fremer uses Pure Vinyl to do this. You can add vinyl songs to your playlists and use the files to compare various remasters and such. Some people say digital RIAA correction is better than analog, less distortion and Phase shift. I have Pure Music which is part of Pure Vinyl. I think it is better for Apple users than JRiver. This program plays back any digital file and upsamples everything to 24/192. It will also do DSD. I have been debating getting one of their units.

With it being a current amplification phono though it will not be for everyone, not sure as I own any carts that would work exceptionally well on it. Some that would be ok but possibly not great.
However for anybody wanting to try out current amplification method it sure sounds like a bargain.