So, I bought a Manley Steelhead which arrived last week.

Last April, when the Rockport was shipped, my seller was lazy and negligent in packing the tonearm and instead of disconnecting the RCA block with the arm, he left it on the stand and cut the tonearm leads. Because of this I sent the arm to Andy Payor (who has been the classiest, saint of a guy and helpful beyond belief along with Mike LaVigne and Jonathan Tinn) because the wires and air hose had to be routed through a coupling with such tight tolerances I could not do it. This turned out to be great as Andy reconditioned the arm to new status (which I have a receipt for and you can confirm with Andy). The seller also knocked off a pressure fitting which Andy ordered for me. Between all of this and my inexperience and skiddishness with the table/arm, it has taken me (not Andy's fault) many months to get this table up and running but it certainly is a marvel. However, my Colibri then had a coil go out (with only 100 hours on it) and is back in Germany being repaired. Then, I waited for the Manley and, after 8 months of frustration finally got everything hooked up. Well, sad to say, I am having a compatibility problem with my Lamms blowing fuses every time I try to play vinyl -- NO, there is no DC offset, no grounding problem, and definitely no table/arm problem - all have been checked. I am being told there is a compatibility problem between amp and phono stage (allegedly the wider bandwidth of the Manley [down to 5hz reported] allows the low rumble to be seen as DC by the Lamm and the fuses blow). Or, who the hell knows [I certainly don't] it could by my Innersound bass amp/crossover unit. All I know is that my digital is dead quiet and sounds great and my analog has been down 8 months and I am done. I simply cannot keep buying new amps, preamps, line stages, phono stages, cartridges etc. to figure it out. Simply stated, I am 48, just want to relax and listen to music and am not experienced enough to trouble shoot this problem any longer. So, I will take the proceeds of my analog sales and get some world class speakers and stick to 1's and 0's.

Back to the table/arm. Not only is the arm new now, you will also get:
 
1. BOTH the Sirius II motor controller (with the Damian Martin analog upgrade) and a BRAND NEW (with the plastic still on) $2,500 medical /industrial Chroma motor controller (recommended by Mike LaVigne who uses his to great advantage);
 
2. A brand new custom made 10' power cord for running from the Chroma to the motor so you can keep the Chroma in another room if you like;
 
3. A brand new custom made dust cover which is gorgeous and keeps the dust off that incredible arm;
 
4. I will throw over $1,000 of BRAND NEW Wally Tools made for this table (the Tracker, the $600 Azimuth Shop which has a cable cooker, azimuth adjuster with the digital VOM and a cartridge demagnetizer, the VTA)

All in all, this is the deal of a lifetime and my loss (and age) is your gain. This table weighs over 700 lbs and ships in 8 wooden crates. I strongly prefer that the buyer either drive to Michigan or fly here to inspect the table and see it operate before buying.

I have over $20,000 in this table which, as comprised, would be over $50,000 new. You rarely see these for sale and with the new arm, two motor controllers (one brand new), new Power Cord and new Wally Tools, is priced so outrageously, please do not eMail with low ball offers as they will be ignored. Rating is due to age but, if you know this table, you know it is built like a tank.
 
I will be in and out over the Holidays so feel free to call my cell phone with any questions!!
 
Happy Holidays!
 
Bill
 
PS. Buyer pays all PayPal fees