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Preamplifiers & Converters | Little Amps | Big Amps | Integrated Amps |
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New Neo-Classic Design for 2000! Same great ballsy sound, new chassis design to fit in those HUGE new transformers! The NEO-Classic 250 are available now. A magazine reviewer once wrote the following about the Manley 250's: "In triode mode a pair of Manleys produces a remarkably three dimensional soundfield that is both convincing and seductive. When switched into tetrode mode, the Manleys have the brawn to deliver a full symphony orchestra directly into your living room." "When I listened through the same cut through the triode mode tube amps, I cried. Yup, tears ran down my cheeks while I bounced up and down, waving my arms, physically buffeted by the raw emotion of the music. Emotion- that essential component at the very core of great music. The Manleys pass through that emotional information, but the (solid-state amps) don't." Tried and true: The Manley 500 and 250 Watt Monoblocks are our most powerful push-pull production-models. Both the circuit design and the selected componentry have been refined over years and years of development. Reliability that you can depend upon combined with musical accuracy and emotional authority is what these amplifiers promise- and deliver. They are able to switch operation modes allowing the listener to choose between the sonically seductive qualities of triode and the more powerful tetrode configuration. We use big, beefy reservoir capacitors in the high voltage supplies giving plenty of instant energy for dynamic performance of transient peaks and bass impact and weight which often exceeds that of rival solid-state amplifiers. We run high voltages on the plates of the output tubes but operate them at lower current which will result in their longer life. Although each output tube has its own bias-adjust. We carefully fit each amplifier with computer-batched tubes for optimum performance. The bias adjustment pots and measuring points are conveniently located behind the oval front panel insert. To avoid a heavy power drain when the cold amplifier is first switched on, we conceived a "Soft-Start" mode which also functions as an "Ever-Warm" position allowing the amplifiers to be always warmed up for pleasurable listening. Each amplifier only consumes 30 watts of power in Ever-Warm mode. A blinking green LED reminds the user that the amplifier is in warm-up mode because as all the power supplies are at half-voltage, the amplifier will still play tunes (albeit not-so-great-sounding-tunes) when the Ever-Warm mode is engaged. We added a front-panel mute switch and created a new angled-back chassis to make it easier to hook up the interconnects, speaker cables, and IEC power cord. In our own in-house magnetics department, our R&D team completely redesigned all of our output transformers in 1998 with the goal to reclaim that luscious rich mid-range of our vintage designs. In 2000 the 250's were completely overhauled once again. We also specifically set out to achieve a deeper bottom register at higher power with lower distortion. Hours and hours of listening tests, measurements, and fine-tuning brought an exciting and stunning result to our ears. We hope you will agree.
Click above for a huge view of that picture.
Rear view |
2006 PRODUCT OF THE YEAR!
The Manley Neo-Classic scored The Product of the Year 2006 in Poland from High Fidelity Magazine there. Fantastic!!!! Read more here.
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Features And Specifications |
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Manley Neo-Classic 250 Watt Monoblock
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FAQ #250. What tubes should I get for my Manley 250's?
If you are retubing, we would suggest the stock original tubes. For the output tubes, we use the EL34EH (Russian Electro-Harmonix), and have found these to be quite good. We sell them at $14/ea in quantities of 20 (two matched sets of ten). At times we are also using the JJ Slovakian EL34's supplied to us by our good buddy Aspen Pittman at GT. I have also heard good things about the Svetlana EL34's but have not evaluated them extensively because factory supply from the Svetlana St. Petersburg factory is unreliable. It's tough to evaluate the lifespan of a tube until it dies so we stick with what we know works and sounds good. The 6414 driver tube is a bit of an oddball, with GE and Raytheon being the ones you will probably find (that's what we have here- $15/ea). The 12AT7 input tube is very common, and we use the Ei version here ($15) which most audiophiles are fond of. I am personally a little afraid of untested "new old stock" tubes at high prices. There may be a reason they have been kicking around for 30 years. And also as we run each and every tube we put in all of our gear through a battery of noise, operation, gain, and matching tests and purposefully select every tube specifically for best performance in that specific product and circuit, we think we are putting the very best tubes in Manley gear that we can possibly put in there.
FAQ 251: Help! A tube blew!
Read this: Checking
your bias, B+ fuse, tube and Cathode and Screen Resistors
Also shows Cathode & Screen Resistor locations and PCB layout and
tells you what to do if a tube blows. And even how to fix it without
soldering!
FAQ #252. How do I re-pack the box? The foam pieces confuse me.
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(Candles not included) The Neo 250 is no
longer offered |
| Photo by Baltazar Hernandez |
24K Gold Plated version is NO LONGER available by special order
Worldwide
Dealers
