[Whart]

I had a Steelhead in my system for a long time. The stock tubes (Sovteks, if memory serves, for the 6922/6d8j) do it no favors in my book. I rolled a lot of tubes in it. I also experimented with the step-ups and the MM inputs and wound up preferring the MM inputs, both on a Lyra Titan i and later on the Airtight PC-1. I also preferred using it with an additional line stage (over most of its life, a Lamm L2) which gave it additional weight and palpability- it sounded more fleshed out. No doubt the bass, particularly with the Titan i, was spectacular and the highs very illuminated, but in my system, it sounded more 'hi fi' straight in. It might have to do with how the volume control and associated circuitry were implemented; to my ears, it sounded better bypassing all that, running it from the fixed, rather than variable outputs into a separate line stage and controlling the volume there.The unit was extremely well made, pretty easy to change out tubes, and support from Manley was second to none.