Anyone compared Whest Audio with Manley Steelhead?

I sell both and them them both very much. That being said, the Manley Steelhead is in a different leagur than the Whest. The Whest at the 2600 price point is terrific, but it is not a fair comparison with the Steelhead.

I had the Whest.20 with Nottingham Spacedeck/Ace arm and ZYX Airy3 SB in my home and played it next to my ARC PH3 SE with VPI Aries 2/JMW 10 and ZYX Fuji S combo. It was very good indeed, but not enough to make me sell my SE. Each had its strengths...they both had huge soundstages and excellent dynamics. The Whest excelled slightly at bass tightness and coherency. The ARC had deeper bass(with tubes! with more bloom and depth. One cavaet is that the Whest was still breaking in with about 50 hrs on it..so it would still be getting better.

I suppose the point is that I agree that if it was that close to my PH3 SE..then would it be fair comparison to the Manley? I would think the Manley would be killer and perhaps as Jtinn suggests..in a different league.

I've heard both, and in my opinion the Steelhead is leaps ahead of the Whest. More dynamic, far greater textural depth, wonderful balance to it. I agree with Jonathan, that for $2600, the Whest is a great value. But the Steelhead is awesome. For $4500+ more, I'd expect that it should be.

I recently heard a Steelhead that was not fully broken in and compared to my Whest. The Whest equaled the Steelhead when the Steelhead was operated via either its MM or MC inputs to a line stage. However, when running the Steelhead directly to my BEL amps, it clearly outperformed the Whest. The sound was pure, dynamic, and extremely detailed. Is it worth extra $4700 to get the ultimate improvements? I still have to figure that out. I will compare again when the Steelhead is fully broken in and make a decision as to whether it is worth extra $4700.

I have not responded to this thread because I can't help with the Whest part of your question. I can tell you that I have had some highly regarded pre/phonos in my system in the last six months (Tom Evans Groove +, Supratek Grange, Rhea, X-ONO, TAG ...etc)and the phono stage in the Steelhead was my favorite by at least a slight margin against any other I have heard. I should say several of these phono stages were good enough to have been welcome in my system. The line stage is another story however! With four 5687 Tung Sol black plate tubes installed, the Steelhead's line stage was and is the most full bodied, detailed AND musical linestage I have had in my system by a large margin. I am amazed by the improvement in digital sound the Steelhead's line stage delivers. Before the Steelhead entered my system, CD's were used to warm the system for vinyl play. Now CD's, while not vinyl of course, are none the less just as enjoyable to me. The phono in the Steelhead has received its fair share of praise but the line stage section deserves as much or more IMHO. So if you consider that the Steelhead is a great full function preamp ( hey, how about a remote volume control Ms. Manley?), the list price of $7300 seems like one of the better buys in this crazy sport. And remember, if you shop around, you can buy a new unit for much less than retail.