One look at the photo that appears on this page and you can guess that this isn't your normal, everyday manufacturer (the ones with the straight-on product shots . . . yawn). So what's the story? Well, in recent years Manley has expanded and thrived under EveAnna Manley's leadership (that's her in the photo with the big stack of Manley gear). They now occupy an 11,000 sq. ft. building, which houses its own machine shop, printed circuit board manufacturing, audio transformer winding, engraving and silk-screening facilities. All custom design, R&D, assembly, testing, and quality control processes are performed right at the Manley factory, located just 35 miles east of picturesque Los Angeles.

The company takes a purist approach to everything they build; refining, executing, and expanding upon Manley's legacy of vacuum tube design philosophies, which have been proven over many years of real-world experience, using high quality modern components, many of which are fabricated in-house (most other small companies - and some large ones - will outsource much of this work). This attention to detail delivers the rich, present, and natural sound that vacuum tube designs are renowned for. Beyond this, Manley stresses reliability, real technical support and a company attitude that professionals can depend on.

Currently, the company offers so many products that it would be impossible to do more than quickly touch on a few of them, so don't expect any of the products to be described completely here - we'll be leaving the details to your Sweetwater Sales Engineer.

It looks awesome, but what is it? It's the Manley Voxbox ($4000 list), poised right at the top of that big stack of gear. Primarily, it is a mic preamp and voice processor, which in itself is not a novel idea, but the company felt the time had come to pull out all the stops and make a truly professional high-end statement. One that covered the needs of the project songwriters and big-time major studios alike. One whose all-tube signal path could bring every single instrument and overdub to life. One that, plain and simple, sounded unquestionably better than the rest, provided flexibility, simplicity, and well thought-out ergonomics - full of features, timeless style and robust build quality.

While Manley was designing the Voxbox, they couldn't help but notice how well it worked on other instruments besides voice. There are some great settings for drums, bass, guitar, and keys and the two separate sections can be used together or independently. Stereo using two Voxboxes? They couldn't resist planning for that as well, so there are Stereo Links for both the compressor and the De-Ess / Limiter sections, special compression settings and super-sweet EQ frequencies for your mix or pre-mastering. So don't just use it for voice.

The preamplifier is a clone of a highly regarded and popular mic pre: the Manley 40 dB Microphone Preamplifier. The mic input transformer is of their own design, wound in-house in the Manley Labs factory. High current 48V Phantom power is switchable from the front panel. The Gain switch is actually a clever variable feedback control that changes not only the gain, but the slew rate and flavor of the circuit. With it you can choose how laid back and mellow or how up-front and aggressive you want it to get. Headroom is a strong point in this circuit:+31dBu capable. This is 5 to 10dB better than almost all other pro gear.

The new compressor design is the result of blending the control ideas in their best selling Variable MU Compressor Limiter with the opto-isolator approach of the Manley Electro-Optical Limiter. They figured out how to compress the signal before it hit the tubes with no detrimental effect on distortion or frequency response. This way, it can prevent mic-pre clipping and eliminate whole stages of electronics. This cuts the typical path of mic to tape in half! As for EQ, they extended it to 33 frequencies in three bands with six new frequencies from 20 Hz to 150 Hz, and six more in the highs from 6.4 KHz to 20 KHz.

The Voxbox also includes a de-esser and peak limiter based on their own proprietary design with an added passive LC network to handle the de-essing - four carefully chosen notch frequencies from 3KHz to 12KHz. The fifth position gives you a limiter which totally mimics the famous LA-2A. This means you can both compress pre-EQ then limit here post-EQ. Another cool feature is the ability to insert this de-esser silently and smoothly as the music plays, using it as needed.

The Manley Massive Passive Stereo Tube EQ ($4800 list) is a two channel, four band equalizer, with additional high pass and low pass filters. "Passive" refers to the tone shaping part of this clever new EQ design which doesn't use any active circuitry. Only metal film resistors, film capacitors and hand-wound inductors sculpt the sound. This processor uses simple passive components and exploits their natural qualities rather than forcing a complex circuit to meet an arbitrary clinical or scientific goal.

The Massive Passive is intended both for the most radical EQ sometimes needed for tracking, as well as the most subtle shadings for vocals and mastering. It is designed to be a fundamentally different EQ but with the best strengths of choice console EQs, both parametrics and graphics. The difference is that this EQ allows twice as much EQ with half the coloration. It allows massive HF boosts without sibilance problems and unbelievable fatness without mud.

If you're just looking for a superior quality mic preamp, the Manley All-Tube Microphone Preamplifiers are available in both two-channel ($2400 list) or single channel ($1600 list) versions and are primarily intended for use with modern condenser mics. Tube complements are common to both models: One military five-star 6072A is hand-selected for lowest noise, and one 6414 for each high-current output stage. Each unit is painstakingly hand wired using silver solder and audiophile-grade componentry. Double shielded custom-built power transformers and custom-built high capacity reservoir capacitors demonstrate Manley's modern power supply design approach. 40 to 50 dBs of gain are selectable in precise 2.5dB steps by varying the amount of overall negative feedback on the Gain switch. This is a very interesting feature, allowing you to change the slew rate (speed), placement and tonal balance of the sound from mellow tube warmth and richness, through to faster, punchier and more aggressive timbres.

The front panel 1/4" Direct Input jack makes these preamplifiers serve double duty as a pure tube line stage for instruments such as bass, drum machines, and keyboards when you need to get your music through some tubes before hitting a sterile digital recorder. Total gain in this mode becomes 20dB less than indicated on the Gain switch. Both transformer-coupled balanced and direct (via humongous metalized film MultiCaps) capacitor-coupled unbalanced outputs are provided giving you the choice of audiophile-purist or big iron sounds. Perennial shoot-out winners, Manley's single-ended preamp designs have become favorites among top engineers and home recordists alike looking for "that rich sound with tight bass and a top end that goes on forever." This is sound that begs to go direct to tape or hard drive!

The Manley Variable Mu Limiter / Compressor Amplifier ($4000 list) has actually been their best selling product for several years now. Although the Variable Mu is not a clone of one, the Fairchild 670 series used a similar limiting principle and those who are familiar with that wonderful piece know how special the sound is. In fact, Manley is the only company in the world currently manufacturing a true Variable Mu limiter. (BTW, "mu" is tube-speak for gain or amplification factor.) How's it work? The unique 5670 variable mu dual triode is at the center of the peak-reducing and compression action constantly being re-biased by the vacuum tube rectified side-chain control voltages which cause this tube to smoothly change its gain.

The Compress mode is soft-knee 1.5:1 ratio while the sharper knee Limit mode starts at 4:1 and moves to a more dramatic ratio of 20:1 when limiting over 12dB. Interestingly, the knee actually softens as more limiting is used. Distortion can be creatively used by turning up the Input and turning down the Outputs while using very little or no compression. The audio signal passes only through super-clean high-current vacuum tube line amplifiers and internal gain adjust is factory preset for 10 dB. The Bypass controls disable the limiting circuitry, leaving only the line amplifiers. Each channel can be run separately or switched to "stereo-link," enabling an innovative channel balance control for exact image centering. The meters can be switched to read output or gain-reduction.

Working on an entirely different principle, Manley's popular Electro-Optical Limiter ($2500 list) has its own special uses and sound colors, too. The principle of operation is based around using a rectified sample of the audio to shine an LED (Light Emitting Diode) onto an LDR (Light Dependent Resistor). The photo-resistor in combination with a fixed resistor simply act as a changing voltage divider to attenuate the signal. A similar principle was found in the older Teletronix LA-2A, LA-3, and LA-4 units which used a slower electro-luminescent panel-light on a conventional LDR encased in a light-tight enclosure. The Manley unit uses modern Vactrol technology (but with a trick!) for exact sample-to-sample similarity and no high frequency loss.

The Manley Gold Reference Multi-Pattern Mic ($8000 list) is, according to the company (and they should know), one of the finest microphones that money can buy in the pursuit of truly accurate musical recordings. The Gold Reference Series employs their own design of large capsules which are executed to precise tolerances made possible by modern micro-milling machinery. The capsule rings and back-plates are milled from solid brass and are mounted on Teflon insulator rings. The 3 micron gold diaphragm film comes from Germany and is tensioned using proprietary techniques which ensures capsule-to-capsule constancy, combined with the speed, "air" and superb ultra-high frequency response you dream about. The polar pattern control is continuously variable between the Omni, Cardioid, and Figure 8 positions. The company chose a very open weave stainless-steel grille for the capsule window for zero-loss acoustical transmission.

For those who want a mono version of this mic, but wonder if they are sacrificing quality, you should know that the stereo version of the Gold Reference microphone is identical in every respect to the Mono Gold ($5500 list), but with two complete systems installed in one case with the upper capsule being fixed and the lower capsule being continuously rotatable through 90• for X-Y Blumlein-Style coincident pair recording technique. The Reference Cardioid Microphone ($3000 list) shares the same electronic attributes as the Gold Reference Series, but has a fixed cardioid-only capsule with a thicker gauge (6 micron) gold sputtered diaphragm. With the similar film thickness and construction, similar high frequency resonance (a little edge), similar proximity effect and pretty good immunity from pops and sibilance problems, the Reference Cardioid more closely recalls how many of the vintage European tube mics (such as the beloved U47) sounded like when they were new. It's rich tonal balance and liquid character is consistently admired for instruments such as guitars, drum overheads, saxophone and especially vocals.

If you find yourself leaning on your compressors and boosting the 5 to 10kHz range at the mixer to score just a little bit more testosterone with your present microphone, then the Reference Cardioid just might be the mic you're looking for. If you seem to be constantly boosting 12 to 18kHz and trying to get a clean, intimate sound, then probably the Reference Gold would be your safest bet. One thing's for sure, at these prices, you know these babies will perform superbly!

There are many other innovative products available from Manley Labs, but as usual, we're out of space. So call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer for additional information and special pricing on the entire range of products from this impressive company!