Is the Manley Steelhead still relevant?

@dover 

Thanks for sharing your insight.  I didn't realize how much the input sensitivity of amplifiers influenced sonic behavior while using the Steelhead line stage as a buffer.

Regarding pre-amplifiers, would you suggest any other brands besides A-S or CJ, or are those as good as any? (As I noticed that you mentioned that you have an Air Tight in your system.). Is there something in particular that I need to look for in pre-amplifier specifications, such as gain, etc?  

Thanks!

@drbond 
Depends on your budget.
The reason I suggested the Atmasphere MP1 or MP3 is they are certain to have enough drive to match the the MA1's. I think you can get these with or without a phono included in the preamp.
The Conrad Johnson ET7 up to the Gatt have very good drive for insensitive amplifiers. A friend of mine has recently purchased the Conrad Johnson Gatt2 - it is stunning but of course it has a big price tag. It's a forever purchase.
Air Tight are also very good - the ATC2 has great drive and can be obtained at reasonable prices second hand due to being less well known.
Audio Research in general I find a little brash for my taste and I think the others offer better value.

How much do you want to spend ?

@dover 

My budget for a pre-amplifier could be $30k, if it was exceptionally better than one that could be obtained at $20k.  So, essentially, I don't want to spend $100k+, but it seems that many highly esteemed pre-amplifiers are selling for $10k-40k, which I suppose could be a reasonable range.  

I am not partial to any particular brand either:  perhaps the Atma-Sphere pre-amplifiers would suit all amplifiers the best due to its transparency, although maybe a Lamm pre-amplifier would be better suited for the M2.2 amplifiers.  Or perhaps there's another lesser known pre-amplifier that would suffice?

(I have Sound Lab speakers, and listen to purely classical and chamber music.)

Thanks.

If you have SL speakers driven by Atma-sphere amplifier s, I strongly recommend a balanced phono linestage. Of course the Atma MP1 would be logical. The atmosphere amplifiers really do come alive when driven in balanced mode. I would not spend big money on a single ended phono line stage to drive balanced amplifiers.

@lewm

Thanks for the pointer. That restriction would exclude the CJ line, so A-S and Lamm could still be options, as well as other balanced (XLR-based) pre-amplifiers.  Ideally, I suppose the pre-amplifier would include both XLR and RCA output lines.