The Steelhead on its own is a good preamp. I was a little annoyed when a local audio engineer looked inside the chassis and pointed out all the cheap, bad sounding components.... but intrigued by the thought of what could be possible with the Steelhead after a little mod work.
I used the Steelhead MM inputs and fixed output running into a LAMM L2 preamp. The LAMM improved on the Manley line/buffer considerably.
The sound of the Steelhead with stock Sovtek 6922's and (GE -JAN) 7044's is interesting but somewhat barbaric. Replacing the 6922's with Telefunken CCa's maintains the clarity of the Steelhead while adding a degree of sophistication in the form of less edge.
I think the stock 7044 tubes are the primary problem with the Manley line stage because they are quite harsh. I often felt as if I was being assaulted by the music. Trading in some Tung Sol 5867's seemed to immediately cure the harshness and sounded quite nice - but after a few hours warm up, the sound became dark & closed in. This is strange because in most applications, the TS 5867 is punchy and open sounding. Perhaps they are running the buffer stage too hot? Usually causes darkening with power tubes.
Ultimately, I left the 7044's in place. Even though they were harsh, I think they were more accurate than the TS tubes.
Anyhow.. Perhaps some 7119's would help? I don't know but would have liked to try them.
As stated above, I used the LAMM L2 with the Manley fixed output (bypass the buffer tubes). With the LAMM everything was just right.
I used the Steelhead MM inputs and fixed output running into a LAMM L2 preamp. The LAMM improved on the Manley line/buffer considerably.
The sound of the Steelhead with stock Sovtek 6922's and (GE -JAN) 7044's is interesting but somewhat barbaric. Replacing the 6922's with Telefunken CCa's maintains the clarity of the Steelhead while adding a degree of sophistication in the form of less edge.
I think the stock 7044 tubes are the primary problem with the Manley line stage because they are quite harsh. I often felt as if I was being assaulted by the music. Trading in some Tung Sol 5867's seemed to immediately cure the harshness and sounded quite nice - but after a few hours warm up, the sound became dark & closed in. This is strange because in most applications, the TS 5867 is punchy and open sounding. Perhaps they are running the buffer stage too hot? Usually causes darkening with power tubes.
Ultimately, I left the 7044's in place. Even though they were harsh, I think they were more accurate than the TS tubes.
Anyhow.. Perhaps some 7119's would help? I don't know but would have liked to try them.
As stated above, I used the LAMM L2 with the Manley fixed output (bypass the buffer tubes). With the LAMM everything was just right.