Manley Labs Chinook Phono Stage
 

I wanted to put this into the Manley Labs Section.

I've had this piece for about 3 weeks or so. At first, I'm hearing things in the music I did not hear before, also the timbre of the instruments are more real like. Also, a very very nice 3D image. After now, with about 60 hours on this piece, it is opening up very well, soundstage is deeper and wider, voice's are incrediable/natural, a very nice airyness to the music as well. This upgrade was definitely worth the money.

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...g/IMG_2267.jpg

It will open up even more at about 200 hours. Break in periods can be long and frustrating, if you have a reverse RIAA board which costs around $50 the process will be sooner. Enjoy!

Sweet ! ..........from what did you upgrade ?

BTW, I enjoyed traveling through the Wasatch mtns while heading East by train a couple of weeks ago, great ride San Fran to Denver.

I use to have a Dynavector PK75 MII, and a Dynavector 10x5. I have the Dynavector Karat 17D3 now.

Looks like the MC loading jumps from 400 to 800. My cartridge likes a ~500 ohm loading. I've tried 380, but that's too laid back and timid, so I'm at 475 on my Nova Phonomena.

Load setting on brand X phono stage is not necessarily what you would set the loading on brand Y phono stage......a good example is my Benz Gullwing likes to see about 400 ohms on my Steel Head and Chinnok but with my Aesthetix Rhea Sig it likes 500 or even a 1K load setting.......bottom line the load setting will vary from phono stage to phono stage.

Just got myself one
 

Just received a Chinook and trying settings for my Benz Glider SM.
It would seem that 400 load and 0 capacitance is good but is there a better setting?
It have given me more info than my Dyn P-75II and a smooth sound.

How does the Chinook handle .25 cartridge outputs as I am looking at going further up the line with a Benz or Dyn?

I will just enjoy this for a while until the funds grow.

Great to Join the CLUB.:banana:

Cool. Sorry, I cannot help ya, my dealer set mine up.:music:

With the Glider being a smidge on the lively side I run them closer to the manufactures recommendation, may want to check out the 265 setting.

benz glider
 

"With the Glider being a smidge on the lively side I run them closer to the manufactures recommendation, may want to check out the 265 setting."


Thanks will give it a go.

Thanks

Any other users of this pre? Since I'm down to a headphone setup for now I need a dedicated phono pre for my analog setup.

The Chinook, K&K maxxed, Parasound JC-3 and Herron VTPH-2 Are on the top of my list.

I also saw a Plinius Koru come up on Audiogon that looked intriguing but couldn't find anything online about it.

As a subscriber to What-Hi (and a few other UK audio mags) I recall they did a review on it a few years back – gave it a 5 star rating (not hugely common for What-Hi) and really raved about it – I seem to recall they did mention it was not hugely forgiving and you needed a fairly top end vinyl setup to get the most out of it however if you did have the system they essentially implied you could do no wrong with it.

Worth trying Genalex E88CC
 

Hi
Just wondering how the Genalex E88CC/6922 valves would be in the Chinook. I had good results with Genalex in my McIntosh cC220 over their standard valves but I understand the 6922EH in the Manley are very good to start with so at about $50 each here in Aus it is not cheep to test.
I am not unhappy with what I hear now but just wonder if for $200 I can get an improvement that I can hear.:scratch2:

Any advice please?

Thanks

I do not have alot of experience with phono stages in general, but for the money the Chinook is very hard to beat.

I never heard a Chinook, i did have the Steelhead for about 6 years and rolled alot of tubes in it. To the extent the circuits are comparable, the best sounding 6922 in the Steelhead was a NOS Tele. You have to buy those from a reliable source, though, and they aren't cheap. I don't know what tube is in the other slots on the Chinook- in the Steelhead, it was a 7044, and there I found NOS Raytheons to do well, not terribly pricey, but those should be replaced periodically. I can do a little more research if this is unclear.
At least in the case of the Steelhead, tube rolling make a big difference in the sound of the unit. The stock tubes that came with the unit did not let you hear what the unit is capable of.

That is what is so AWESOME about tube amps, preamps, phonostage's.

Different but not necessarily better......

Ran some JAN Sylvania 6922s in a BAK VK-30 and was quite pleased with them. If I was rolling tubes in a Chinnook think I would start there. Seem to be about the same price as reissue Genalex.

:grumpy::grumpy::grumpy::grumpy::grumpy:
The Power supply has packed it in after 6mths in my service. I got mine second hand as it was traded in for another valve amp to a dealer so here in Aus NO Warranty that is a shit. The Main transformer started to short then went completely.
Not happy now with Manley.

An Expensive main transformer $500 all up & that includes a $100 freight for the transformer from Manley to the AUS distributor/agent. Thanks Manley.

Bung99.......Manley did not cause your transformer to fail. You purchased the Chinook used without a clue how the previous owner used and/or abused it, so being upset at Manley seems misguided to me. Replacement parts are rarely cheap, but $500 isn't that bad if it will get you back up and running. It could have been worse if Manley didn't have replacement transformers available. Then you would have a Chinook door stop.

Bung99 - Indeed. If you are looking for a warranty with used audio gear you'll need to look at Bryston. Can't think of any others who have transferable warranties. Even Bryston requires a paper-trail for same these days. Ain't no free lunch.

That said, how do you like the sound of your Chinook? Done any tube-rolling?

I have been using this for about 2 months. I put in some amperex bugle boys, found the midrange and vocals much improved over the stock tubes. To be fair I dont think the original tubes were fully run in. Anyone else out there roll in any tubes? I am using a Benz Ruby H now, but have a Kleos SL on the way. Anyone using a Lyra or low output cart with the Chinook? 60 db is a lot of gain, so I figure it should be able to handle .25mv. Thoughts?

Am using JAN Philips 6922s and prefer them to the Bugle Boys in my Cary.

Can you characterize the differences?

Not sure if it isn't a synergy thing. The best sounding (to my ears) set of tubes is the JAN Philips 6922, Tung Sol reissue 6SN7, Tung Sol reissue 6550 and JAN Sylvania 5U4GB. This mix of tubes beats the Svetlana 'Winged C' 6550 with JAN RCA 5U4GBs, GE 6SN7 with the Bugle Boys. When I leave the BBs in with my preferred mix of other tubes, the sound is not as 'solid' to my ears. Sorry, but I lack the "reviewers phraseology" for this.

Any updates on the Chinook & tube selections? I have had mine for about 5 months now and surely have enjoyed it over my previous Acoustic PH1P.

I am loving mine with some amperex 7308's. Too be fair I never burned in the stocks, but the amperex 6dj8 were so much better from the get go, I didn't wanna suffer through. The 7308's just overall better. Great pre! I have a cardas golden reference PC and it made a huge improvement(3-400$ used), so definitely experiment.

Jeff

I'm also running some Amperex 7308 in both stages of the Chinook. Pretty big difference in sound over the stock tubes.

I just added a Chinook in the studio for test pressings and regular listening and love it.

I've had a Chinook since December.....still running it in but sounds awesome. I am a little confused about the capacitance switches.......I don't hear much of a difference on different settings and I've read that it has little to no effect with MC cartridges (I'm running a Dynavector XX2 mkII.). Any experiences with the different capacitance settings? I talked to Manley a little about it on the phone but pretty much got a "whichever sounds better to you is where it should be." Now I understand that and all, but their manual explains it in more scientific terms based on the capacitance values of your cables and cartridge, which apparently is impossible to find. Is it true that with a MC cartridge I shouldn't fuss with it?

Buck

Yep......... loading on an MC cartridge often makes little difference. Or not. It is one of those "whatever sounds best to your is where it should be" things. For real. You can ask your IC maker what the capacitance is per foot or meter for your ICs. You may find more change in the sound from your cartridge by varying the resistive loading rather than the capacitance.

Not sure if Mikey Fremer at Stereophile has reviewed the Chinook, but one good thing about his reviews is, regardless of cartridge, he generally reports on the results of varying the two different loading parameters. May not be your cartridge he is using with the Chinook, but could provide some insight into what is possible.

Thanks for the response, haven't thought about emailing M. Fremer, I may give that a shot and see what he thinks.

I just placed my order for a Chinook and just had a question.

Which input will the Chinook be plugging into on the back of my preamp? Line-in or MM phono-in?

The terrible waiting begins.

-Mike

The Chinook is a complete phono stage used in place of the built in phono stage of your preamp, so you feed its output to a line level input of your preamp. If you were just getting an MC step-up device like a transformer, then that would connect to the phono input.

Here is the Chinook owner's manual.

http://www.manley.com/content/pdf/HI...mch_manual.pdf

Read the manual? I thought that would be considered cheating!

Yes, line in. Good choice for the money.

Bill.......Real men don't need a stinking manual. :lmao:

Thanks for the help everyone!