I have to go down to the USPS to pick up my Chinook Special addition Mark II, that I bought from Upscale Audio in California.
The owner of upscale, Kevin deal, really loves the Manley Chinook. So much so, that he worked out a deal with Manley to create a Special Edition that is only sold from Upscale Audio.
For research, Go to the Upscale Audio website and click on the Manley Chinook SE. It will take you to a page that will show you a video of Kevin talking excitedly about the Chinook.
Kevin’s SE version uses 4 Tungsram 7DJ8s, which he specifically selected for this phono after a lot of tube testing. The SE version also gets rid of the rack mount holes, and makes it a cleaner design.
Last week when I ordered the SE from Kevin, he had sold 3 that day. In fact, he had enough orders that the delivery of SEs from Manley was slightly backordered.
Im not a phono aficionado, but I study the helk out of this shilt. I didn’t want a lot of tubes in my phono stage because I already have tubes in my preamp and also my room usually heats up with tubes. And I don’t have AC.
So I chose the Chinook because it only has four tubes. True, the Allnic may sound just as good as the Manley, but the Allnic has 6 to 8 tubes. That’s a lot of heat and a lot of high cost for an NOS tubes. You can use lesser tubes, but IMO you’re cheating yourself if you do.
best
