I owned the Steelhead for two years and liked it more as a phono stage. I compared it as a line stage to VAC Phi Beta, Bent TAP-X with autoformers, and Mac C2300 and preferred them all, in that order. As a phono stage, one of its greatest strengths is dynamics, which I thought were softened a bit by itself. Of course, a lot of sonic changes can be made by rolling all the tubes, so you can probably find a mix that works very nicely for you.
