Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: Manley Laboratories Manley Stellhead Phono Preamp by cjfrbw

Model:	Manley Stellhead
Category:	Phono Preamp
Suggested Retail Price:	$7300.00
Description:	Phono Preamp
Manufacturer URL:	Manley Laboratories
Model Picture:	View

Review by cjfrbw ( A ) on July 09, 2004 at 11:52:48
IP Address: 24.5.235.220

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for the Manley Stellhead

The steelhed had been extensively reviewed. For four professional reviews, go to:
http://www.ecoustics.com/Editorial/Reviews/Phono_or_Turntable/Alpha_Name/All/
You gotta love those critics. Michael Fremer gave a very nice review in Stereophile, declaring the Steelhead the next best thing since mother's milk, then in a review of the Boulder phono unit eight months later, said that after Hearing the Boulder, listening to the Steelhead was liking being "flogged with a wet noodle." Ah, the poetic license of the audio critic! Critics are like stock brokers, always calling with a hot new tip trying to churn your account for commissions, keeping the tease of the unattainable alive. There is no market if the market is static, and critics aid and abet the market. I like Mr. Fremer's reviews, but to some extent all critics suffer from this "Tellig-itis".
The nice thing about AA is that a consumer can post a rant and within reason still be heard, even without the aura of being privy to the complete host of the celestially expensive products and their politiking. The Steelhead has been around long enough to be the object of high end debate, but nobody has reviewed it in AA, so here goes!
That being said, I think overall Mr. Fremer's review of the Steelhead is the best and most descriptive. I'll try to cover just some stuff that doesn't completely overlap. He didn't like the looks, but I really like the art deco/Frankenstein Lab looks of the Steelhead.
I bought the Steelhead from an East Bay High End shop. They called when I was on the verge of buying a different unit. I won't name them, but they were reasonably cool. I was a junkie walking into the velour pimp palace of his pusher. They set up a room for me to audition the Steelhead and let me take it home for an overnight no obligation try out. They let me listen to three of my records without anybody around:. Peter Gabriel "So', Brand X "Livestock" and Angel/Melodyia Russian performance of Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead." They used an SME 10 turntable (same as mine) and a Benz Ruby 2 cartridge. The listening room was treated for acoustics. The speakers were large Wilson speakers (MAXX) with the Star Wars space wing Halcro solid state amps. If anybody in the East Bay wants the shop's name and web site, you can e-mail me.
Strangely enough, I couldn't really decide much from listening there. The big Wilsons and the solid state amplification left me oddly unmoved. This is the second time I have heard big Wilsons with SS amps and was curiously unimpressed. Believe me, before hearing, I wanted to be impressed and was kind of drooling at the prospect of hearing them. I hope Mr. Wilson doesn't show up and lash me with his riding crop for not being impressed by his life's work.
However, after taking the Steelhead home, with a short audition on my own stuff, I called them and told them to run the charges through.
I had bought several cartridges from one of our AA collectors, some rebuilt, some close to new, and was able to give them a run through over several days with the Steelhead: rebuilt Benz MC 3, Benz Ruby H, retipped Kiseki Blackheart, retipped Spectral, Van Den Hul MC 1 Special, Lyra Lydian original, and my own Sony XL55 Pro. Sensitivities ranged from 0.2 mv to 0.8 mv, and the internal impedances from 3 to 80, the recommended impedances from 3 to 47K. I didn't have a MM to try with the Steelhead. The SME 10 turntable is pretty nice, because with an extra headshell, you can set up a different cartridge in about 20 or 30 minutes. I mounted all of these at some point. With front panel adjustments, the Steelhead had no problem with any of them, they all sounded outstanding, albeit with their own arrays of characteristics.
Surface Noise and Phono Amp Noise:
Pops and clicks were mostly placed wide off the side away from the main music image, other noise dispersed as a fine confetti again not interfering much with the main music image. Run in and run out grooves were for the most part silent except for the set down and end of record "tocks". The Steelhead has the best noise performance I have heard so far, reducing surface noise to mainly a non event that even when present seldom disturbs the music. I could both listen and even enjoy my noise "torture tests", a blistered copy of Quicksilver Messenger Service "Happy Trails", and a Phase 4 copy of the Planets conducted by Bernard Hermann, in which the "Venus" track has large rhythmic pops running through this lovely, quiet piece. At first I wondered if the Steelhead had some kind of muting circuit, but apparenty not. Noise performance improves at least partly with the speed of the transient response. The noise behavior seems to reflect the Steelhead's transient speed, image dispersal and channel separation.
When I first hooked up an MC cartridge, there was some hum when the transformer was on line, but I wrapped my silver wire phono cable with some copper EMF shielding and it disappeared. The Steelhead did not seem to pick up any other hum within usual listening levels, even though it was placed right under one of the VTL monoblock amps. I could not hear any other inherent noise at all within the usable volume range and noise limits of my Sonic Frontiers Line 1. As most on this forum would know, if you can eliminate hum, a coil is about the quietest way to amplify the phono signal in its first stage.
Coils:
I have experimented with a few coils with the Sonic Frontiers SFP 1: a Fidelity Research XF-1 H and some Beyer DIY coils. The imaging of these devices surprised me. They give a sound that is immediate, neutral, consolidated, but warm. My take on coils is that they sound like what transistors would sound like if transistors sounded like what they should sound like instead of what they actually sound like. Coils approach the audio from the earth side of the equation very well vs. the fire of tubes. These coils that I tried also have an uncanny ability to do something that even tubes have trouble with by themselves: the impression of vertical imaging. There is width and depth, but coils also seem to be able to decisively layer sounds on top of each other and give dynamic projections of sound up and down. I do not know if this is true imaging or some kind of phasing anomaly, but it sounds real. The MC connection on the Steelhead can create this coil sound and also add a nice splash of triode response, giving the incredible immediacy of coils with the expansiveness of a triode.
Using the MM inputs and bypassing the coils, the sound becomes more classical triode sound without the immediacy and imaging characteristics of the coil. Of course, that ain't necessarily bad, depending on the cartridge or the vinyl, and the Manley website encourages experimentation. Try your MM with the MC input and vice versa to see what produces the best sound. The Steelhead is neither "warm" nor "cold" nor "analytic". It can be any or all of these depending on how you change the tubes, the controls, or which input you use. Overall, I preferred the MC cartridges connected through the MC coil input with its remarkable imaging capabilities.

Tube Rolling:
The Steelhead is influenced by tube rolling. A single pair of 6922/6dj8, and the sound character changes noticibly. I don't particularly care for the thin sound of the ubiquitous Sovtek 6922 (although the older Sovteks are supposed to sound better) and changed over to Amperex orange globe 6dj8's, which provided an immediate richness and warmth in the midrange. A pair of expensive Ediswan tubes enhanced the sense of detail and immediacy with an excellent overall balance.
In spite of being an expensive unit, tube rolling is relatively efficient, because it can be done with just two 6922/6dj8/7308 etc. tubes, so you can knock yourself out with the NOS types without replacing a ton of expensive tubes. If you want chilly analytic, use the sovteks through the MC input. If you want a soggy, fat, tubey thing, get a fat, soggy tube an listen through the MM input. The Steelhead still sounded dynamic and detailed with a different character depending on the tube I used.

Using the Steelhead as a volume controlled Preamp feed:
I did this a couple of time and preferred the fixed output of the Steelhead feeding my Sonic Frontiers Line 1 preamp. Maybe this was just a problem of system synergy, and maybe the direct feed would have sounded better after a while of breaking it in this way, but I just didn't bother. The volume controlled direct feed bypassing the line preamp sounded a little odd on my system, perhaps I just wasn't used to it. Again, I didn't play with it enough to make a decisive statement about its merits or demerits. I like the sound of the Sonic Frontiers Line 1 and of course the ability to use a remote controlled volume pot. The Steelhead needs to warm up for 30 minutes for the sound to reach full subtlety even from Sleep mode.

Using knobs as tone controls for different vinyl:
The Steelhead has taken the Zen pretensions right out of me. It makes the Zen master look like a crock in a smelly loin cloth. It's not a less is more component. Listening is Zen. Audio components are not Zen. Audio component are manipulation and artifice. If you are going to manipulate, you better be able to do a good job of it. The Steelhead appears to be a studio type component. It is pragmatic, and that means if something doesn't sound good, you ought to be able to make it sound good. Once I used the Steelhead with its adjustments, the "black box" approach to phono stages lost its allure. No more bending over to remove the component, take off the top, and solder in a resistor or capacitor or use a bent out staple to reach a DIP switch, and then wonder if that was really the right thing to do after putting it all back and trying to guess if the sound really was better. This assumes your box even allows this.
There are a couple of other phono stages that don't adopt the black box pretense. The EAR 324 and the Aesthetix Rhea allow extensive intervention of the capacitance and loading, the Rhea by remote control. However, the Rhea doesn't have the coils (all tube) and the EAR has coils but uses transistors (yuck) without tubes. I guess that the Steelhead also uses a JFET somewhere in a manner that is generally harmless to its tube-ness.
The impedance controls are connected to separate taps on the input coil for MC input, and are resistor types ( I think) for the MM input.
It is possible to dial the impedance in order to get the kind of high frequency air that works with the cartridge and your system. The manual suggests that this requires experimentation, and they seem to be right, and also suggest that one setting may not always be right for all music or records. The Spectral MCR Sig cartridge has in internal impedance of 2 ohms. From the usual coil wisdom, you would want an input impedance for coils close to the 2 ohm internal impedance. For an active input, however, Spectral recommended 47K, which is really high for an MC cartridge. Using the 20 ohm tap made the cartridge lush without a lot of air. Notching it up to 40 ohms added a lot of detail and air and seemed to have the right balance for my sysem. For most sources with the Spectral, higher impedance settings did not really improve the balance or the air, but reduced the volume. So if you hook this cartridge up according to a fixed standard, you may not entirely get the kind of sound it is capable of, and the Steelhead gives immediate feedback through listening. The optimum settings for the best sound were often different than matching the the internal impedance of the cartridge would have indicated. If a given record is a little rich sounding, notch it up one or two steps and adjust the volume.

The Steelhead manual states that the capacitance controls can be fine tuned in conjunction with the known cable capacitance, which they estimate at 90pF for the average one meter phono cable, to best match the requirements of a given cartridge. The math and the science indicate that MC cartridges with their low inductance and impedance, shouldn't be particularly sensitive to capacitative loading. However, I did find using the MC input and lowering the impedance to minimum and then cranking up the capacitance that digitally bright records were less edgy and more listen-able. The sound balance seemed to shift toward the midrange with the upper frequency glare scotched. Although I am not sure there is any science behind this, and the effect may vary with different cartridges, I have found myself using this on records from the digital dark ages of the 80's and 90's that have this brightness. However, it would be nice if there were some math or science to support the listening so I didn't have to wonder if I have bats in my psycho-acoustic belfry. It is also possible to run the MC cartridge through the MM inputs (the MM inputs have just as much gain as the MC inputs)and get a more tube like sound.
After using the impedance and capacitance controls, I do not consider them a frill. Even if you have used the same cartridge for a long time, you can adjust your cartridge for the sound of different vinyl with the controls and MM/MC inputs. You can also run the MM cartridges that can function with lower impedances through the MC inputs/coils as well as running the MC cartridges through the MM inputs (again, the gain is the same through both) and the Manley website encourages this as experimentation for sound tuning.

What do you get for the price of admission? Macrodynamics, Microdynamics and Everything-In-BetweenDynamics, flexibility and quick, painless adaptability, easy tube rolling, multiple inputs and potential for direct preamp feed.
A lot of the music lives in those tiny, transient dynamic spaces, and the Steelhead delivers. Slaps, bleeps, blats, rips, rings, scrapes, scratches, knocks, breathing, burs, burps, sighs, yowls, plucks, snorts, flying spittle, and even music. My Sonic Frontiers SFP1 Sig and YS SOLO headamp combo are a treat to listen to, but I would miss the speed, the dynamics and the imaging of the Steelhead , not to mention the ability to quickly adapt to cartridge and vinyl. I spent some time putting the SFP-1/ YS SOLO back into the system with the best NOS tubes I have. They sounded great, but I would estimate the Steelhead has at minimum 30% more expansive stage, increased speed and inner detailing with a particular MC cartridge over the SFP-1. In the diminishing returns/cost game, that is pretty decent even for the large price difference. I even hooked up the SOLO to the MM input of the Steelhead at 47K and 50db gain. It sounded tasty through the Steelhead, making the Steelhead ultra high gain and even more triode-ey. To my ears, though, using the MM inputs the Steelhead and bypassing the coils makes it lose some of its imaging magic. However, some commentators prefer the Steelhead through the MM inputs even for MC cartridges. Does listening to the Sonic Frontiers SFP-1 Sig after hearing the Steelhead sound like being flogged with a wet noodle? No way!
So the Steelhead lives up to its press and it makes better music for me!
Now I am going to have to go sour grapes to the guys with the 10K buck and up components and tell myself "well, they are just paying megabucks for a 2% improvement," so I have pushed myself into a whole new higher league of grousing.

Product Weakness: Is there any way to turn off those blue lights? Remote controlled volume would be nice. I am getting major butt-rot from listening to records.
Product Strengths: Quickly optimize a given cartridge (or vinyl) with immediate aural feedback, dynamics, speed, imaging, adaptability, flexibility, use coil/tube or all tube, potential for direct preamp feed, musical, minimizes impact of surface noise, helps get the most out of a given cartridge.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	VTL 450 Signature Monoblocks
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Sonic Frontiers Line 1
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	SME 10, SME 10 tonearm
Speakers:	Apogee Stage/upgraded crossover
Cables/Interconnects:	Mogami balanced, Monster
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Jazz, Classical, C&W, Synthesized, Rock
Room Size (LxWxH):	19 x 13 x 10-16
Room Comments/Treatments:	Trapezoidal Room, Use Ambience Recovery MC with Yamaha
Time Period/Length of Audition:	weeks
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Several Powervar etc.
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition):	High End Store

Product Weakness:	Is there any way to turn off those blue lights? Remote controlled volume would be nice. I am getting major butt-rot from listening to records.
Product Strengths:	Quickly optimize a given cartridge (or vinyl) with immediate aural feedback, dynamics, speed, imaging, adaptability, flexibility, use coil/tube or all tube, potential for direct preamp feed, musical, minimizes impact of surface noise, helps get the most out of a given cartridge.