Manley launched the Steelhead phono stage at CES 2001. Continuing the aquatic naming theme, The Steelhead, is an "upstream" device with a very clever MC variable load auto transformer designed by Manley's staff HiFi designer Mitch Margolis. The factory's Manley Magnetics department brought this to fruition (which makes the MC stage so very clever).

The unit has two Moving Coil inputs with selectable impedance load 25, 50, 100, 200 and 400 ohms via a very clever "Steelhead" transformer/autoformer. It also has variable and selectable Moving Magnet input impedances too 25, 50, 100, 200 ohms and 47Kohms. Very nifty too is the selectable-dial-able-in-able-from-the-faceplate-able capacitive loading for all three of the MM & MC inputs 0 to 1100 picofarads in 10 picofarad steps. Very clever stuff this. TEN picofard steps! Now you can dial your perfect cartirdge match.

The Steelhead uses six tubes. 2 x 6922 plus 4 x 7044. It has a nice large volume control. It can drive an amplifier directly if you want, if you don't "do" digital and, if you happen to have three turntables set up, it gives you 2 x MC and 1 x MM selectable inputs! It has variable and fixed volume outputs and all-tube very low Z tube buffered outputs. Inherently, 20 ohms plus a little 47 ohm "OK drive those high capacitance audiophile cables" resistor, so it's real output impedance is only 67 ohms. No cathode follower output here like other manufacturers. The Manley Steelhead provides real low impedance all-tube outputs.

It has selectable 50, 55, 60, 65dB gain (the switch even auto-mutes as you change so no nasty bangs) Gain switch markings are referred to from the input of the 1st active electronics at 1 kHz to the fixed output @ 10k load, regardless of whether source is MM or XFMR stepped-up MC. It is not really practical to include MC step-up gain on the front panel markings due to the variable SOURCE impedances of the MC cartridges and the variable LOADING that the input XFMR will have on any given cartridge. All of this total MC gain variability should be confined to about 3 to 12 dB of range though. XFMR step-up gain plateaus as the load Z on a given MC cartridge is optimized. This produces no VOLTAGE gain but does offer a slight POWER gain. All this means you can set a load Z to best suit your MC cartridge and adjust gain to suit your system's operating level. Whatever you do, it's very unlikely anything will be damaged.

In essence, gain-a-plenty. Enough to do justice to your favourite lo-output MC cartridge.

It has a mute switch. It has a "just turn it down while I cue up so I don't throw my woofer cones across the room but I still want the same volume I was listening at before I flipped the side" DIM switch and, as a perfect accompaniment to the latter (thus reminding customers that Americans have a tangible sense of humour) what could be nicer than a SUM button to double as the MONO button? It has a hyper-regulated outboard power supply that connects via a very large mil-spec multipin connector. And you can hit the "standby" button to keep the family at bay while you take a brief holiday in Tuscany. A backlit "MANLEY STEELHEAD" illuminated badge reflects back to vinyl-days-of-yore while LEDs remind you this is modern cutting edge engineering & design.

The tube-lover's dream!

MAY 2004 STEELHEAD UPDATED!

Manley are now shipping Steelhead Version 2 which has a LINE input as standard. This means you can drive amplifiers directly from the Steelhead's Variable Outputs and select whether you are listening to the Steelhead phono stage or any LINE source (CD, SACD, Tape, Tuner, a whole different preamp's main line output, whatever). This feature turns the hifi world upside down. It is novel.

Other features on Version 2:

• LINE input comes after RIAA stage, but before the volume control and
• Variable output white follower buffer. New button on faceplate selects LINE input or built in RIAA stage. Version 2 has FIVE push buttons, not four.
  
• Clever new anti-RFI grounding options user selectable via dip switches on back for those in high Radio Frequency Interference zones. If you're picking up a local radio station through your system, try playing with these switches.
  
• DIN MC2 connector has been scrapped. Now MC2 input is another pair of RCA/phonos.
  
• Additional pair of RCA's added for bi-amping or driving amps and a subwoofer directly from the Variable Outputs. This second set of outputs is wired in parallel to the Variable Outputs. If you would like them wired to the Direct Outputs, this can be done upon request.
  
• Badge illumination changed to long lasting white LEDs.
  
• Output Muting relays changed to short outputs if power is turned off.
  
• STANDBY button now called SLEEP
  
• Audio (audible) circuitry remains the same as Version 1 and Version 1.5.