I support Our Troops .
FAQ#6f-i.
From: tzukamoto
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 2:39 PM
Subject: Request Order
Hello Sir/Mam,
Hello Sir/Mam Sincerelly,
Cheers, Ee Manray, President
FAQ 6f-i Part 2:
===================
(Remember: These are actual emails
and real replies!
More
Super Swell Scams Collection here
FAQ #7. Thank you for all
your helpful replies. Are you single?
No, I have a dog .
And some fish. Well, I had some fish, but Mikey killed
them all when he was housesitting for me. I don't let Mikey
babysit my dog.
FAQ #8. Why do you name
all your new HIFI products after fish?
A Shrimp is a
crustacean.
FAQ #8a. What is a "monoblock"?
A "monoblock" is a hifi term meaning one chassis per channel.
We make lots of monoblock amplifiers such as the MAHI ,
SNAPPER , Neo-Classic
SEPP 300B , 250's ,
and 500 watt
models.
A "stereo" amplifier is two channels one one chassis
(like the Stingray ).
Our monoblock amplifiers are commonly sold as a pair. Two
chassis come with the pair. The pricing on our website is
always listed as the per pair price. One chassis for left
and one chassis for right channels. They don't care which
one is left or right. Each monoblock is shipped in its
own carton/box too.
And yes, you may order a single monoblock for half the cost
of a pair if you need only one channel, like say you want five
amplifiers for surround, or 2 1/2 pairs. No problem.
FAQ #9. I live in Europe and
I buy from the States because you make better versions for the
USA market. What are those differences exactly?
You
buy "grey market" from the USA because you think you
are trying to save money, subvert your government customs
collections department for the duties, screw over your local
importer who is there to help you, and you have a sick desire
to have no warranty on your gear. The only differences between
USA and overseas units is the power transformer being set up
for 220v (and the mains fuse appropriately adjusted for the
resultant current draw) and since it produces the same
voltages on the secondaries where the same audio circuitry all
is for all units produced for everywhere in the world, there
is NO difference between USA and Export units at all beyond
the operating voltage on the power transformer primaries.
Myth: BUSTED.
FAQ
#10. Is the SLAM!
shipping yet?
YES! Check out our NEWS
page!
FAQ #10a. When can I get one?
SONY: Soon Only Not Yet local
pro dealer .)
FAQ #11.
Are the micpreamps in the SLAM! the same as the ones in the Voxbox?
Read the SLAM! page
again and note the word "new". The mic preamps in
the SLAM! are similar to the input stage of the Steelhead
actually.
FAQ #12. Ahah! The Steelhead
is a fish!
No, the Steelhead
is a phono stage.
FAQ #13. Why didn't
you do a remote control and put some more line inputs on the Steelhead?
So we could design a product called the Lobster.
FAQ #13a. Why don't you have remotes
for all your preamps?
So you could buy one
of these instead.
FAQ
#14. Will the Lobster do multichannel?
You'll have to ask him yourself.
FAQ
#14a. Are you going to do a surround processor?
Thinking of Grouper.
FAQ #14b. When will
the Prawn preamp be released?
It will be ready 4
months ago!
FAQ #14c. I've read
that you have a new integrated amp called the Manta Ray with
an iPod dock and some clever features. Very cool! I
would like to buy one. Do you know when it will be
available?
We have started
design on the unit and licensing with Apple and will let
everyone know on our website when it is available. Maybe later
this year. Too early to give exact dates or prices at this
time.
FAQ #14d. And how
much will it cost?
We will have to
figure this out after we do final layouts and parts costing.
We will let you know.
FAQ #15. What
do you do for fun?
I type out these FAQs. Can't you tell?
FAQ
#16. Do you sell tubes?
I don't know what you're talking about.
FAQ
#16a. I need to retube my Manley amplifier. Do you sell tubes?
Sorry. Just kidding. Yes, of course we do. We have
about 100,000 tubes in stock of the several major types we
use.
FAQ #16b. Why should I buy
tubes from you?
We are only as good as our worst tube. We are very
selective about which tubes we use in Manley products and we
have several different testing and burn-in jigs to test for
certain parameters which will be most important for that tube
in a given circuit. We will test and select a tube set for you
that will be optimized for your Manley piece of gear and in
most cases, your tube set will actually be tested in another
one of what you have.
FAQ #16c. Are tubes expensive?
Not especially. Although I might have made a killing in the
stock market had I invested the money I instead put into
finding and stocking these large quantities of tubes ten years
ago when the USA military were dumping their stocks of NOS JAN
vacuum tubes. Seriously, there is the stocking cost to
consider in the cost we must charge, development charge of the
computerized test jigs we built, then more importantly the
time it takes one of our guys to run a little tube through its
qualification procedures. Remember, a given tube cannot be improved
during testing. It is the way it is, and one hopes it stays
that way. It can only be selected, and in selecting that tube
that will work really well for your piece of gear, we probably
had to throw away several. In some cases we might have had to
go through 30 tubes to find the quietest one, or the one with
the lowest microphonics, or the one with the best internal
matching, depending on what parameters are important for that
circuit. That is all factored into the cost somewhat, but no,
overall, we don't charge enough for replacement tubes.
FAQ #16d. NOS? JAN? What does that
mean?
New Old Stock. Joint Army Navy. Yes our military used to
use vacuum tubes. As long as the glass doesn't break, tubes
are impervious to a nuclear explosion's electromagnetic pulse
unlike little silicon devices whose little junctions would go
poof!
My general thoughts on NOS are I see people paying stupid
money on eBay for Telefunken this or NOS that and it's all
up to pure luck if that tube you pay $75 for will be a pull,
used, half dead, work at all, noisy, a fake, or better
performing than what we installed brand new in your unit. We
do use a lot of NOS tubes here. We have loads of experience
with the types/brands/lots we use and we have thousands more
of them in stock. We chose each of these lots based not only
on being able to get enough quantity to sustain production
for many many years, but of course more importantly because
we get a good yield out of them and these types/brands work
exceptionally well in our circuits. Not all tubes are
created equal. You can get a lot of a thousand pieces
of 1960's Phillips 12AT7's that are absolute trash. Brand
new Ei's from Yugoslavia will whoop 'em performance-wise and
sonically. Or some mid-80's 6072A's that we already
rejected here and sold off as salvage stock! That pair of
(wow!) Telefunken's you bought on eBay for $150 might be
cleaned up pulls. Or they might be re-painted Ei factory
tubes.... you never know. If you are dealing with a known
reputable source of NOS tubes, such as Kevin Deal at
Upscale
Audio , you'll be in good shape. I will endorse him as a
high quality and trustworthy seller of NOS tubes. I will
additionally endorse him as one of my very dearest friends. He has
some very special rare tubes and he is a special rare person
of the highest caliber and integrity in this industry. However, when you buy a replacement tube from Manley Labs,
you are buying a new or New-Old-Stock tube that was
*specifically* selected for optimum total performance in
YOUR Manley piece o' gear. Each and every one. So weigh that
out in your tube purchasing decision.
FAQ #16d (part deux). I didn't read
anything you wrote above as I am not prone to reading anything
or doing research on my own so I want you to advise me if the
ECC2.14149 and the EL69-666 tubes I just bought on eBay will
work in my Manley Toob-o-Rific?
I have no personal extensive experience with any other
tubes other than what we keep in stock and use in our gear and
since I haven't personally tested those tubes you hold in your
hand I cannot advise you on them. You are on your own. If you
have enough money to spend on unknown tubes then you have
enough money to send the Toob-o-Rific in for repair if your
new fancy toobs cause it to blow up. Or maybe they will work great.
Probably the more money you spent on them, the better you will
think they work. Good luck and if you need more
personal affirmations, please read the answer to FAQ
#4a again and again.
FAQ #16d (part trois) In Dick
Olsher's seminal Stingray review , he recommends changing
all the tubes. What do you think about using the so-and-so
EL84's and the blah-blah-blah 12AT7's? What other 6414's can I
buy?
That review was written a looooong
time ago, specifically when there was a political embargo on
for products of Yugoslav origin, such as the Ei 12AT7 and Ei
EL84/6BQ5. Now there's not, but the factory is again in a
funky state and we're our of stock once again on the Ei tubes.
Rats. Next best are the Russian ones we are using. All the 6414 types we have ever run
across are as good as the next type/brand. What really matters
is that we selected ones that had good triode-to-triode
matching for best performance as the phase splitter. Whatever
you buy off the shelf somewhere will have not gone through
that test. We ship the Stingray with:
Output Tubes: 8 x EL84 Ships
with Russian EL84M (We are out of Ei 6BQ5.) Driver Tubes: 2 x 6414 Ships
with GE or RAYTHEON JAN NOS USA or 6414W Input Tubes: 2 x 12AT7EH Ships
with: 12AT7EH large plate Electro-Harmonix Russian
Those are the tubes that we can score
large quantities of to sustain reliable and consistent
production that we think sound
best in the Stingray. Plus all the tubes we install are
matched, batched and fully selected based on numerous and
specific parameters specifically for best performance in your
specific amplifier. Feel free to go spend bunches of more
bucks on some other tubes, new, pulls, NOS, or otherwise (how
do you know what you really are getting?) that were not
matched batched and selected for your amplifier. Just don't
ask us for personal affirmations regarding your decision. Keep
reading everything in this FAQ#16 over and over. Have at it,
but without our blessings or help. You iz on yer own! Because
you guys obviously know more than we do about our own
products, right?
FAQ #16e. How long do
tubes last?
Some of them are dead out of the box. Some tubes don't make
it through burn-in and after a few days they just go noisy or
quit. Sometimes UPS sabotages our shipments and after all our
testing efforts the tube arrives broken at your place.
Sometimes a tube decides to end it all early and intentionally
misbehaves after a few months. Other tubes are real troopers
(like my 98 year old neighbor* ) and run strong for 30 years. We
have documented cases of power tubes in Manley amplifiers
going over 60,000 hours non-stop in recording studios 24/7/365
without a re-tube. In one case in particular, the amplifiers
were never turned off and had their own dedicated air
conditioning for the amplifier rack they lived in. This
certainly contributed to their long life.
*whoops my 98 year old neighbor finally called it quits in
Dec. 2002. RIP.
FAQ #16f. Should I turn off my gear
between uses?
While power cycling is a factor for ultimate tube life,
there also is a fixed number of electrons that can ultimately
jump off the cathode. In general we do recommend if you aren't
using the gear for more than a few hours you should power it
down. Do you leave the lights on in your house when you are
away?
Leaving tube gear on 24/7 just uses up tube life, and
creates a lot of heat which is tough on other components.
While we're on the subject, make sure your tube gear has
plenty of ventilation, preferably some kind of positive
airflow, especially if installed in a rack..
FAQ #16g. But it sounds different
when you first turn it back on. What is the warm-up time for
this gear?
I generally recommend 45 minutes warm-up time for
everything to reach operating temperatures and sound like it's
supposed to.
FAQ #16h. What about break-in time
for new gear?
We burn in the gear for a couple of days before it is
shipped out. Folks report that after about a week of break-in
that it sounds better. Some of the more fussy people of course
report that full break-in takes much longer....
FAQ #16i. How do I know a tube is
broken?
All the vacuum has leaked out.
FAQ #16i.i After the vacuum leaks
out, where does it go? Is there some way to
You have to suck really hard.
FAQ #16j. No really, how do I know a
tube is broken?
Usually a tube whose glass has been broken or cracked
usually will
have a white powdery like substance inside it where all that
silvery stuff used to be. No, it is not cocaine and we didn't
put it there..
FAQ #16k. Does the glass explode?
I haven't seen it happen. Usually the glass will just crack
at the base of the tube if it is going to physically break due
to a sudden change in temperature and "all the vacuum
will leak out".
FAQ #16l. Other than outright failure
of a tube, how do I know when it is time to re-tube?
Generally speaking, for the small tubes, if you notice an
unacceptable increase in background noise ("hiss")
then the tube who is responsible for making the gain in the
circuit probably needs to be replaced. The tube(s) making the
gain will usually be shorter than the output tube. Common
types we use for gain in most of our circuits will be 12AT7,
6201, 12AU7, 5814, 12AX7, 5751, or 6072. The output buffer
tube in most of our line-level circuits will be either the
7044 (or 5687, same difference), 6414, or 12BH7. These tubes usually don't cause too much
trouble and either work or don't work. Turn the lights off and
see if you see the little tubes glowing. Look for one that
looks like it has cocaine in it.
For the power tubes in our amplifiers, after a few years if
you notice a small revolt going on where several of the output
tubes are misbehaving or getting hard to bias, you might
consider doing a full re-tube. Keep the old ones that did not
join the revolution as emergency spares.
FAQ #16m. Can I change a tube myself?
R.T.F.M
and look at our General
Troubleshooting page. Do you call in specialists to change your
light bulbs for you?FAQ #16n. One of the
little tubes makes a big bright flash when I turn it on. Is
that dangerous?
Nope. IT IS NORMAL. Do not worry
about it. Most of those Yugoslav Ei little tubes do that,
and it doesn't mean a damn thing. Not to worry. Please
continue on with your life. Ignore. Worry about something
else instead.
FAQ #16o. Channel A has
been making the old "bacon frying" noise for a
little while and now does not put out any signal at all.
Channel B works fine. I'm hoping this just means an
It sounds like a good tube gone bad.
Best thing to do here is exchange the tubes one at a time
between the two channels to confirm this. This is something
you can do yourself if you want; just unplug it, let it sit
for a half hour or so to discharge the volts so you don't put
your hand somewhere and get zapped, take off the top cover,
and exchange the tubes one at a time and see if the problem
switches channels. If you find that it's a tube, you can order
one from us.
FAQ #16p. I would like to
change the resistors in my Manley unit to my favorite brand.
Will this make my factory guaranty become void?
FAQ
#16q. I purchased this unit second
hand and I want to change
Great. So what's
stopping you? Go for it.
FAQ #16r. Hi Hutch, This is Kenny from Taiwan, I was wondering
if you can tell me the a
little thing on our website explaining that it was the
transformers that were mostly responsible for vintage color
in both tube and discrete units. Prior to that nobody had
suggested such a thing (and we have every scrap of print
ever written about audio transformers since 1930). Now
nobody knows who said it first and it has gotten as out of
hand and is as surrounded in myth these days as "tubes
make it warm". The truth is: a good transformer is
rather transparent, a transformer is very dependent on the
source and load (generally one is unknown), the 'rich lows'
of some transformers (especially the big old ones) is just
distortion due to hysteresis effects of cheap steel lams
(modern transformers generally use higher permeability
laminations and tend to be cleaner). Sorry to shoot down
another myth, but unless your name is Rupert Neve (who
started his career as a transformer designer), I highly
suggest that you forget those transformer swapping ideas. It
will just cause expensive repairs and a lot of time when
those boxes will be unusable or dead. Bad idea.Cranesong
HEDD and dial up the "IRON" knob to taste.TNT
preamp and had to deliberately mess up the transformer
drive to make the "IRON" knob somewhat audible
like people anticipate. By the way that knob allows for
"anti-iron" and thatVariable Mu 's
and SLAM!'s and Massivo's
and have almost never asked about changing them. In fact
more get angry if I suggest that I might revisit the design
and try to make an improvement or two. Only a few losers on
the BBs ever express dissatisfaction and I think they do it
to seem notorious and uber-hip or they are just parroting a
few jerks who have no track record but plenty of time to
kill on the PC. The important thing to remember today is
that it is not the gear, it is how one uses it.
FAQ #16s. That was a kind
way to ask a simple question. But for me, I choose to be an
asshole and overreact when I write to you. Please
read my letter .
Oh yes that was my favorite
customer letter of all time and as promised, I have posted it
on the internet for all to enjoy. Catharsis must be a good
thing for you.
FAQ #16t. What's all this about vacuum tubes? How does a tube
work?
Go read this Taste
of Tubes beginner's guide written by those ol' SFI folks.
That will get you started.
FAQ #16u. How do I order tubes from
you?
Fill in our parts
order form and Manny Q will get that rocking for you.
FAQ #16v. Why do I have to fill in
the form?
Because if you just send us email you inevitably will not
give us all the information we need to help you. And my
anti-spam-bot will probably eat your email anyway.
FAQ #16w. Can I call in my spare
tubes order?
Sure. Give a call to the factory
(909) 627-4256 and ask for Manny Q in the parts department if
you already know what you need.
FAQ #17. Do you accept credit cards?
Yes we do: Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. But
don't be emailing those numbers. Call or FAX them in.
FAQ #18. What's your fax number?
Plastered all over the place. FAX: (909) 628-4256
FAQ #19. Chino. Where is that?
About 35 miles east of Los Angeles.
FAQ #20. Sounds appealing. Why are
you there?
I love the smell of cow shit in the morning... smells
like... victory.
FAQ #25. Do you give factory tours?
Yes, as long as you aren't too creepy. You can email
EveAnna to arrange a factory tour if you are in the area. We
even allow other manufacturers to come visit. There is also a factory
tour available on-line if you are not in the area or if we
deem you too creepy...
Questions 67 and 68. What
music do you listen to, EveAnna?
I rather like
Chicago.
Oh I get it. Clever question
and answer. No really.
Please tell us.
I love Tom Jones.
(Remember: These are actual emails
and real replies! FAQ #69 was submitted to me by
Fletcher. He was so stunned at the question that he was unable
to answer it himself and enlisted my assistance so I suggested
the following answer for him.)
FAQ #69. My wife left me
about a month ago... how should I set up my Pultec so I can
Hmmmm. I see why your wife left you....
FAQ #150. Will you send me some HIFI
catalogs?
No, they are so severely out of date that it would be a
waste of postage. Please refer to the HIFI
section of our website for real up-to-date info. We will
try to make new HIFI catalogs sometime this decade. Or next.
FAQ #150a. Well, will you print out
your website pages for me?
Why do people think we are Kinko's service bureau? We are a
manufacturer of audio gear not a Kinko's service bureau.
FAQ #150b. Well, will you send me a
PRO Gear catalog?
Nope. We ran out of them in Dec. 2005. Use the website as
it's way more up-to-date and informative and interesting too.
Or if you want to relive history, you can print out our
2001 Pro Gear catalog from the PDFs here .
FAQ #124K. Why did you switch all
your hifi cosmetics recently from that wonderful gaudy gold
and shiny stainless-steel back to your old classic colors:
black and that blue-grey color?
A few reasons: First, I'll go on record and state that I
personally never liked the gold look although many audiophiles
are like crows and like shiny things. But what I like takes a
back seat to what you guys like, so we were doing this 24K
gold plated faceplate thing for everyone since about
1994.
Second, this was a massive headache. We must have gone
through ten different plating houses trying to get a flawless
job consistently done. We probably rejected getting near to
80% of the panels at times and I don't want to know how much
that really cost us over the years.
Third, especially in
humid countries, we were finding that the
gold-over-nickel-over aluminum process was really not
"lasting forever" and the plating was flaking off
the faceplates. I do not like this and neither would you if
you had to keep sending customers in Hong Kong and Singapore
new faceplates every year. We even tried lacquer over the gold
to seal it all in but again, this also was problematic and
many panels would get rejected for flaws in the lacquer (sags,
dust, runs, etc.) We know you guys will not accept flaws in
the finishing. What I am trying to tell you here is that
flawless gold plated panels are nearly impossible to achieve
especially for large production runs.
Fourth, I find that the shiny stuff scratches easily leading
to more rejects we have to eat and gear not looking as
beautiful as it should after a few years. The black wrinkle
powder coat now used on the chassis is as tough as nails and
the brushed aluminum anodized faceplates are much more durable
and scratch-resistant.
Fifth, We have found the magnetic properties of aluminum
chassis to be more favorable. The stainless steel chassis
makes the circuit a little more noisier (hummier). The
aluminum chassis for the power amplifiers is actually the
better way to go.
I always liked our classic look and the blue-grey anodize
which is called "pewter grey." No other hifi
manufacturer uses this color and so this yields a unique
family look to our products. I have worked with our anodizers
to leave the panels in the dye tank even longer so our newest
color we are in the process of getting everything switched
over to pulls out even more of that beautiful deep blue/purple
tint. I hope you will like it as much as we do.
FAQ #124Ki. That all sounds
reasonably explained and I am sorry you have gone through so
much grief on this gold issue, but I really prefer the
gold and stainless steel cosmetics. Can I order my new
amplifier with the gold look?
Yes you can, at the same price, if we still have parts, and
that will vary model to model. Once we have run out of gold
plated panels, which we already have for everything except the Stingray, if you insist on having gold faceplates, we can
either anodize in a good looking gold color for the same price
or charge you a lot more to have to strip, repolish, re-linegrain,
then re-plate a set of 24K gold plated panels for you and hope
that we do not have to do ten pieces to get you a nice looking
pair. Furthermore, to do these 24K gold plated faceplates
custom for you, we will also require a bank transfer of
$53,000,000.00 (FIFTY-THREE MILLION DOLLARS OF UNITED STATES
CURRENCY) sent to the ex-deceased-prime minister's late wife's
bank account in Nigeria. (She's been writing me all these
letters lately...) We do have some
24K Gold Stingray faceplates if you want to order black
chassis and gold faceplate Stingrays.
FAQ #124Kii. Well, now that I have
thought about it, what I really want is a Teal colored
hammertone finish to pick up an accent color found in my
living room draperies. Can you do this for me?
Sure, that will fall into the custom category and anything
custom will need to be custom quoted.
FAQ
#125. I just bought a Massive Passive. One question: the unit
I got is purple metallic. I've never seen one in purple just
brushed aluminum. Is this an option? Looks cool though, kinda
mean.
You guys are slow. We changed our official
color back in January 2002.
So, if it is pre-2002 and has a lighter silver-y panel with
BLACK silkscreen, it is the "old" color.
If it is post-2002 and has the darker blue/purple panel
with the light-grey silkscreen it is the "new"
color.
FAQ #125a. Aw
shite. But it doesn't match my 5 year old silver-y colored
Manley Mic pre? What to do?
For $150 we will change
out your old light colored faceplate to a new darker one. (Or
a gold plated faceplate to a "Manley Blue" one.) That's what we can do. No we won't do it for free.
FAQ #250. What tubes should I get for
my Manley 250's?
For the output tubes, we use the EL34EH (Russian), and have
found these to be quite good. We sell them at $14/ea in
quantities of 20 (two matched sets of ten). We also use the
Slovakian JJEL34's which are pretested for us by my good
buddy, Aspen Pittman at Groove Tubes who imports them. I have heard good
things about the Svetlana's too but they are hard to procure
at times. 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 odball, 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.
FAQ #250a. Do you recommend I use the
XLR or RCA inputs on my 250's?
The XLRs go through an additional balancing transformer so
in the spirit of
FAQ #250b. I just bought one
of your Manley amps. What speakers and cables should I buy?
As far as what's "best" speaker, man, that's
such a personal choice. What I may like, you may
hate... but my fave speakers & cables are listed
on
my
links page .
Really you need to go to your dealer and try stuff out and
find what you like best.
It's like "what's the best car to buy?"
Do you want a truck, SUV, convertible, sedan, sportscar?
FAQ
#4-40. Hey I just took delivery of one of your new Manley
Amplifried Conanbobulators and when I unpacked it and got
ready to install it I hear this rattling noise inside so I
took the cover off and found THIS thing running around loose
inside. What do you have to say about this quality control issue?
Damn
no matter how often we spray, those little buggers get in everywhere.
But you know, we didn't charge
you extra for that little 4-40 nut so you don't have to waste your time
complaining about it. But please do put Paco's two rings back
inside the unit where you found them.
FAQ #666. How do I bias this thing,
calibrate my so-and-so,
R.T.F.M
FAQ #666a. Help! There's no bias
reading on any of my output tubes and there's no sound coming
out of the speakers! Help!
R.T.F.M
Your B+ fuse is blown. Check and change that. Then get rid
of the bad tube that blew up and caused the B+ fuse to blow
and you'll have bias and tunes again. In some of our
amplifiers, like the Stingray and the Snappers, the B+ fuse
is INSIDE. So please read your manual, and then ask
questions...
FAQ #667. But my amplifier that was
built by that other tube amp company in Chino isn't listed on
your website?
We do not service any other gear
except for MANLEY-branded gear or Langevin gear that we built. I don't care who designed it,
or tested it, or where or when it was built, if it doesn't
have one of the following logos on it, then we don't service
it.
If it is branded with a
3-letter acronym, then we certainly don't service it! ***except for VTL-branded
CR3A microphone and VTL-branded
Tube Direct Interface
FAQ
#667a. But according to your bio
page , you used to work there. Why can't you help me?
I don't fix picture frames I built in
high school when I worked at The Framers on Peachtree either.
We only service gear with the Manley brand on it or Langevin
gear that we built here at Manley
Labs. If any of the info in our Tech
Support section or any of the Manley
gear owner's manuals can help you, feel free to download
them and learn from them, but remember they are manuals for
our gear. If you need help or manuals from some other company
for some other gear, please go seek that help from that other
company and not from me. Chino Hills Ford won't service my
Lancia and for some reason the local Dairy Queen cannot
provide me an owner's manual for my Honda lawn mower. I know
this is as hard for me to understand and accept as it is for
you, but sorry, that's the way it is.
FAQ #667b.
I need a schematic for a Maytag Serial Number MAV7600AWW.
My problem is that when you put bleach in the dispensor, it
runs down to the floor. Can you help me?
FAQ #667b1. I filled out your
service form for model number 14600, our tekno puppy needs a
new bone.
(If you think I am making these FAQ's
up, you are dead wrong!)
FAQ #667c. I have an old Langevin
thing built in the 1960's. Do you work on these or can you
provide me with schematics?
Sorry,
no. We just bought the name and rights to use any of the old circuits.
We didn’t build the old stuff and never have had parts or real
documentation. If we didn't build it and you don't see it on our
website, then the usual experts on vintage gear and restoration are
your best bet. Try asking your question on USENET
rec.audio.pro or searching the groups at Google
or any of the other various pro gear web boards.
FAQ
#667d. Well, what about GML gear? I know that's another
3-letter acronym, but you're building that stuff now aren't
you? What about tech support for my GML processors?
You need to contact:GML, LLC (George Massenburg Labs)
Engineering and Technical Support:
615.515.6656
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Please
goto The GML website directly
FAQ #8200. So, can I buy GML
gear from you?
If you are here in the USA, contact
the GML Sales Office: Transamerica Audio Group, Inc.
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goto The TransAudio website directly
EveAnna Manley
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FAQ #6414. I'm
not sure if I heard back from EveAnna personally, or one of
the other engineer/technicians at Manley, but I wanted to
say thanks so much information. I had one of the most
pleasurable music listening sessions I've had in a while
with the Wave in my system. The reason for my original
question was that I was having a compatibility problem with
my [other brand] pre-amp and [my other brand amplifier].
I had to have the [other] pre-amp turned up to 1-3:00 to get
good volume from my speakers (Martin Logan Quests).
This is not bad and in fact sounds very good. The only
problem being when I used phono pre-amps such as the Klyne
7PX, Thor and Joule's own phono I had to turn the volume
almost all the way up and was not comfortable doing that.
With the Wave, I am anywhere
from 11-1:00 on the volume, which is plenty, whenever I
played a cd through the line inputs. I was a little
nervous at first having to turn the volume up to 3:00 when I
played directly through the Wave's DAC but geeez, the
improvement in the sound. Wow! I soon became
very comfortable listening to music with the volume control
around 3:00 with all the wondrous music I was hearing.
Now I'll have to see how the Wave performs with a phono
pre-amp and hope I don't have to turn the volume control all
the way up. Something tells me that I don't think I
will. Thank you very much.
Yeah that wuz me. Let me help you with another concept here:
In the WAVE and in most preamps, the volume
control is first in the signal path followed by the
amplifying stage.
There is no standard for how much amplifying
takes place (gain). Some line stages have little gain, some
have tons. Add to that that there is also no standard
anymore as to how much output anything has. Many phono
stages rely on the line stage making up the next 20dB of
gain. Most CD/DACs have enough gain to drive the amps
without additional gain in a line stage. Passive preamps are
not quite right because at least if nothing, you need some
low impedance drive to drive the cable without losses. Total
system efficiency also plays a factor.
Say you had a hot
output DAC going into the preamp driving amplifiers whose
input sensitivity was, say 0.400 V, driving 104db efficient
speakers. I'll bet you never could get past 9:00 on that
system. Take the same front end and drive some 2V
insensitive amps and insensitive 84dB speakers and you might have
to be at 2:00 on the volume control to get them same level.
So designing preamps is hard because you are
trying to accommodate everything and anything. The volume
control is your friend and allows that preamp to go from
extreme to extreme.
Now, back to the first statement: the
volume control is first in the signal path . Think about
this for a minute. It's only job is to stop tunes from
getting INTO the preamp. It is IN THE WAY. Ideally, you
would want a volume control turned all the way up impeding
the signal as little as possible. Master faders in a
recording studio are like a big volume control and they are
usually set full open all the time and only pulled down to
do a master fade at the end of the tune. There is no harm
having the volume control at 3:00. Or at 5:00. There is only
convention and what you are used to that makes you feel
uncomfortable "going past 1:00". There is no speed
limit here. If you have to turn it up on any preamp to 3:00,
who cares? The end result is still "the same loud"
as you want to listen to and the amplifying stage in the
preamp is receiving the same amount of level as that higher
level source driving it with the volume control back at
11:00. You won't blow anything up.
I hope you'll think about this volume control
thing differently now.
FAQ #9999. I just happened to be
browsing the web and came across your page: http://www.manleylabs.com/containerpages/dualmono99.html
As an English teacher, to those who don't speak English, it
caught my eye that one of your links says "click on the
link for more bigger views." I just thought I
would point out that its not grammatically correct to use a
double superlative. Either use the 'er' or the 'more'
but not both. I know this is a minor error, but it
does impact English learners who come across things such as
this. They see it on a website and think since its in
print, or on the web, that it must be correct. Then
they have to be retaught how to describe things the correct
way. Thank you for your
time.
In order to help teach the world English, and just in
case second graders or their teachers just happen to
be browsing the internet and come across my website, I
have posted your comments on our FAQ page and added the
following disclaimer to our Owner's Manuals:
All the strange and extraneous remarks you have noticed
so far in this Owner's Manual have been put here on purpose because we know you will
keep reading so you don't miss
the next quip. In the rare case that you find a
mispelling or an error in grammer in this
Owners Manuel, please consider that it was put there for
a porpoise as their are allways some peeple looking for missteaks and they might as well
find them hear.
And by the way, "retaught" is not exactly a word,
and you are missing an apostrophe in the contraction
"its". I hate it when people get "it's"
and "its" mixed up.
enough for today.... more FAQs as they come up...
