Preamp Deal of the Century

Musicbead - the Manley is quieter than the Supratek. Less hum and less electronic noise. The Manley sounds good at low volume but tends to become harsh when the volume is turned up. The Supratek sounds good at any volume. I suspect the Manley 7044 tubes (used in the buffer stage) to be the big problem with that preamp and to cause most of the aggressive sound. I changed these tubes but could not find any which sounded better than the stock 7044. I did not try Bendix 6900 or Amperex 7119 which might have helped fix that problem. I found the Tung Sol Black Plate 5687 to darken the sound of the preamp too much.. however, others on this site have found that tube to be an improvement.

Telefunken CCa's are almost always the way to go in 6922 applications. They improve the Manley considerably.

The Phono is good on the Manley but not exactly better than the Supratek - they are different. The often mentioned "flexibility" of the Manley and all its switches is totally 100% over-rated and most of the knobs do nothing audible (very disappointing and very misleading) with typical cartridges. Of the five "adjustment" knobs, I found only one (the load setting) to make an audible difference.

The Manley will also make your woofers pump violently. It freaked me out and I began looking for rumble filters.

According to a local engineer who looked inside my Manley, there are a great many cheap parts used inside and the flimsy chassis acts like a spring inducing resonance.

That said, the Manley is actually one of the better sounding preamps available. A good value because it sounds okay in stock form (at low volumes) but could potentially be improved with some modification (replace parts inside), find better sounding buffer tubes, add a standoff in the center of the chassis which supports the top cover & keeps it from vibrating, add the DACT attenuator with remote.

Is the Manley better than a Supratek? Well... that depends on what you're looking for. To me, the Manley improved the overall listenability of the system (at low volumes) because there was less electronic noise. Electronic noise was a huge factor to me. I have dimmer switches in my home which caused the Supratek to oscillate.

One thing is for sure, you have to spend A LOT of money to do better than the Supratek given all its features, flexibility, and shocking good looks.

Musicubed - there is someone else in this thread that went from a Supratek to the Manley. Do a search in Agon for Supratek and Manley.

Hey guys, Jazzdude, I am wrapping up a preamp shoot out between a Tom Evans Groove +, Pass X-ONO and a Manley Steelhead.
For reference, I have owned several other preamps/phonos, including the Syrah and Rhea.
Like Brian, background noise really bothers me and for that reason, I prefer all three of these phono stages over my older Syrah. Sound wise, the Supratek is gem. I like its sonic performance. Its line stage competes very well with my EMM Labs DCC2 as well as the line section of the Steelhead. The linestage on the Syrah was very quite.
To get to the results, the winner for me is the Steelhead...at this point. The Steelhead is a bit more dynamic and much quieter in the phono section than the Syrah as well as the others listed here. I preferred using the Steelhead's MM side of the phono over the MC. The MM side gave a little more air and depth at a cost of a slight loss of fullness in the lower register. Yes, it had plenty of gain, even with a .24mv cart. Other than dynamics and noise levels(remember I am talking in my system) the Syrah and Steelhead have a lot more in common than not. Rich full mid ranges and great layering of the sound stage are just a few of the good things I will say about both of these preamps.
I did not have the same results as Brian did with his Steelhead in some areas. I have no "woofer pumping" at all, at any spl. I also do not get the harshness at higher volumes. Smooth all the way top to bottom. I might add that I ran in the Steelhead and the The Groove+ for 7 days 24/7 using the Granite audio burn in disc before putting on another 150 hours of actual music thru both of these new units. This, as well as a different tube compliment may account for the lack of harshness compared to Brian's Steelhead, I don't know.
I am using 60s Siemans 6922s and GE 5 star 5687s in place of the 7044s. I will be trying the TS 5687s next.
The cartridge termination capacitance adjustment that did not respond for Brian (two knobs per side) did make for a slight but audible difference in my system. It is set at 100pF for now.
So, as of now, the Steelhead is the best line stage and the best phono I have had in my system. Now, with any luck, my Grange will be shipped in the next few days and the Steelhead will be in a fight for its life, again. I can't wait for the next playoff game.

Cheers, Steve

P.S. has anyone heard the David Roth LP? His cover of Vincent is AMAZING!

.
Steve,
.
I am really looking forward to hearing your comparison of your new Grange vs. the Steelhead.
.
David Roth's "Vincent" is amazing and the LP (CD) should be in everyone's collection. It is that good.
.
I hope your Grange arrives soon.
.
Rgds,
Larry
.

I searched through the threads and found that Snook2 was the other agon member that preferred the Steelhead to the Syrah. I cannot comment on the comparison myself but to note that the Syrah and Chardonnay are no Cabernet. From my experience the Supratek linestages have been very quiet. The Sauvignon produced no hum at all. The Cabernet produces only the barest amount of hum when the volume is opened up all the way. Even then it is still quieter than the kitchen refrigerator and my music server.

If I read the recent posts correctly it looks like the hum has been from the phono stage portion of the Supratek preamps.