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Manley Stereo Variable Mu Mastering Version with MS Mod option

$7,399.00

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Stereo Variable Mu® Limiter Compressor The Mastering Version with MS Mod Option

Proudly from our beginning, we at MANLEY LABS have been closely involved with numerous mastering facilities around the world. For these most demanding engineers in our industry, we have created specialized products such as our all-tube tape repro head amps, digital converters, high-powered vacuum tube monitor amplifiers, through to custom monitoring consoles, all the way up to complete facility design and installation.

The Mastering Version

The Mastering Version of our Variable Mu® Limiter Compressor incorporating detented and logable steps built with 1% metal film resistors on sealed gold-contact Grayhill switches is available. NO, we will not mod a “normal” unit to the Mastering Version. The Mastering Version of the Variable Mu Limiter Compressor uses expensive Greyhill rotary switches with gold contacts where conductive plastic pots were used. The steps are determined with a large number of 1% precision metal film 1/2 watt resistors. The best conductive plastic pots only have 10% or 20% tolerance. The ten fold improvement in precision helps a great deal in left-right matching. There is a subtle audible improvement with stepped switches as well. Audiophile HI-FI often uses that technique to wring the last drop of performance out of a preamplifier. And I bet you wanted stepped switches mostly for resets.

The INPUT LEVEL is a five position switch with a generic optimum setting of “0” in the 12:00 position. Each step in either direction is 2 dB. For reference, Unity Gain is “0”.

The OUTPUT Attenuators are in half dB steps. Reference Unity is -11.5 or fully counter-clockwise. You might think of these as “gain makeup”. They are marked technically, in that “0” or fully clockwise has zero attenuation in the circuit. The tube circuit actually has 15.5 dB of gain. The Input attenuator at “0” removes 4 dB and the Output attenuator removes the last 11.5 producing “unity”. With a little compression the “gain make-up” available with the Output Attenuator is very handy.

The Threshold is in half dB steps calibrated to LIMIT mode. In Compress the steps are approximately 1/4 dB. There are 24 steps so LIMIT gets a 12 dB range and Compress has a 6 dB range of adjustment. In some cases it is common to use the Input Attenuator to find a good starting point. Some Mastering engineers find using the combination of Input, Output and Threshold to achieve a little different “drive”. Another good reason for stepped gains.

The Attack Time has been slightly extended in both directions compared to a regular Variable Mu and divided into 11 steps.

The Recovery 5 position switch is exactly the same as a regular Variable Mu.

Mid/Side (a.k.a. Vertical/Lateral, or Sum/Difference)

This modification opens the door to stereo encoding and decoding as well as exciting image enhancement processing capabilities. For instance, setting to compress only the in-phase information allows the augmentation of the stereo image as the out-of-phase content is left untouched. Or, conversely, if you need a “more-mono” mix for broadcast, or vinyl-cutting for instance, you can set it to kill off more of the out-of-phase info which leaves more in-phase material in the final result. Read more about the MS Mod in the Owner’s Manual.

In order to add both M-S and the HP SC mods, we move the power switch to the rear panel and install both channels’ HP SC switch to the center hole where the power switch was. The M-S switches then flank this switch.

  • Input: -4 to +4 in 2 dB steps
  • Output: -11 to 0 in 1/2 dB steps (24 detents)
  • Threshold: -11 to +1 in 1/2 dB steps LIMIT(24 detents) and 24 x 1/4 dB steps in COMPRESS
  • Attack: 11 positions CW (fast) 15mS, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90mS (slow) CCW
  • Release: 5 positions CW (fast) 200mS, 400mS, 600mS, 4S, 8 Seconds (slow) CCW
  • Input Tubes: 2 x 12AT7A NOS GE specially selected by Manley Labs for lo-noise and stable bias
  • Output Tubes: 2 x 12BH7 (or 6414W NOS USA) dual triodes
  • Balanced XLR Line I/O: MANLEY IRON® transformer-coupled Balanced Inputs and Outputs
  • Gain: 20dB max Limiter Gain
  • Input Impedance balanced input XLR combo jack: 2 kOhms
  • Input Impedance unbalanced input 1/4” combo jack: 10 kOhms
  • FET Limiter: Attack: approx. 100μS; Release: 10mS to 2Sec; Ratio: better than 20:1
  • ELOP Limiter: Attack: approx. 10mS for 6dB GR; Release: 2.5 Sec; Ratio: 10:1
  • Frequency Response: 5Hz to 60KHz
  • Maximum Output: +32dBm, +30dBm (into 1KΩ load)
  • THD+N: <.05% @ 1KHz
  • Dynamic Range: 115dB typical
  • Output Impedance: 200Ω
  • Power Consumption Slam! Analog: 0.480 Amps (480 milliamps = 480mA) @ 120V = 57.6 Watts
  • 0.240 Amps (240 milliamps = 240mA) @ 240V = 57.6 Watts
  • Outboard Power Supply: factory set for 100V, 120V or 220-240VAC operation for original destination country’s mains voltage.
  • Operating Mains Voltage: changeable with power transformer re-wiring via switch and fuse value change.
  • Mains Voltage Frequency: 50~ 60Hz
  • Size: 19” X 12” X 3.5” (occupies 2u)
  • Shipping Weight: 25 lbs.

WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including lead, which is known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. 
For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.

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