Is the Manley Steelhead still relevant?

15k - that's a very nice and juicy number to play with. Two of the greatest phono stages were made in thee 80's the Mares Connoisseur and the Vendetta SCP2A. I have a Vendetta for which I got new IC's on advice of the great designer. John Curl has said in various interviews that the Jfets from back in the day aren't available now. My takeaway is that age shouldn't be a factor or a concern. You need to ask a few retailers if you can audition the phono stage in your system. 

Nice discussion.  Thanks for sharing. 

Could someone please explain how I would be better served with a dedicated pre-amplifier in my system, instead of using the line input in the Manley Steelhead as my pre-amplifier?  (Also does anyone know if the Manley Steelhead is class A or push-pull, etc?)

Thanks. 

I have been extremely satisfied with the performance of the ARC Ref 2SE phonostage. It has adequate gain (74 dB) with balanced output.  The balanced output provides an additional gain of ~ 6 dB  (for single ended output the gain is 68 dB). That additional gain is extremely important if you're using low output MC's (~0.4 mV or lower) in keeping the noise floor down. Based on my experience with other single ended phonostages (Rogers PA1A, Fosgate Signature), and despite a strong Manley following, I'll always prefer balanced (true) over singled ended phonostages. The ARC Ref 3 as indicated above can be had for $15k or less.

@rdk:

Thanks for the detailed reply.  Yes, the balanced lines make sense.  But what I was considering wasn't changing out the phono stage, but how using a pre-amplifier would be different than simply using the Manley Steelhead phono stage as a pre-amplifier.  

Drbond, Like nearly every preamplifier or phono stage ever made, the Steelhead operates in Class A.  Also, like every other preamp or phono stage, the Steelhead is not push-pull.  The terms Class A and push pull generally apply to the operation of an amplifier.

The term “preamplifier” these days can be used to refer to either a single box that contains a line stage AND a phono section or to a line stage only,  So, you are considering using the Steelhead as a phono stage and connecting its phono outputs to a line stage.  The major advantage of doing so is only that most linestages will add a bit more gain to the signal, typically 10 to 20 db.  The Steelhead’s line output does not add any gain over and above that which you dialed in at the phono settings.  The max gain is 65db.  I own only one cartridge for which that is not adequate, an Ortofon MC2000, which puts out .05mV.