Manley Manley Massive Passive Stereo Tube Equalizer Owner'S Manual Download

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OWNER'S MANUAL

MANLEY

MASSIVE PASSIVE

STEREO TUBE EQ

MANLEY LABORATORIES, INC.

13880 MAGNOLIA AVE.

CHINO, CA. 91710

TEL: (909) 627-4256
FAX: (909) 628-2482

http://www.manleylabs.com

email: emanley @ manleylabs.com

email: service @ manleylabs.com

Rev. MSMPXxxxx

MANLEY

LABORATORIES, INC.

Summary of Contents for Manley Massive Passive Stereo Tube Equalizer

Page 1: ...ASSIVE MASSIVE PASSIVE STEREO TUBE EQ STEREO TUBE EQ STEREO TUBE EQ STEREO TUBE EQ STEREO TUBE EQ MANLEY LABORATORIES INC 13880 MAGNOLIAAVE CHINO CA 91710 TEL 909 627 4256 FAX 909 628 2482 http www manleylabs com email emanley manleylabs com email service manleylabs com Rev MSMPXxxxx MANLEY LABORATORIES INC ...

Page 2: ...RAMETRIC 10 WHY PASSIVE WHY PARALLEL 11 PHASE SHIFT WHY TUBES 12 CURVES 13 to16 TUBE LOCATIONS ETC 17 18 EQUALIZING EQUALIZERS GENERAL 19 EQUALIZER TECHNIQUES 20 to 24 TRANSLATIONS 25 TROUBLESHOOTING 26 27 MAINS CONNECTIONS 28 SPECIFICATIONS 29 WARRANTY 30 WARRANTY REGISTRATION 31 APPENDIX 1 EXAMPLE SETTINGS 32 APPENDIX 1 TEMPLATE FOR STORING SETTINGS 33 ...

Page 3: ...ght the right piece The Massive Passive is intended as an EQ platform and in the future should offer some interesting custom options At some point we expect to offer other EQ cards that can replace some of the passive cards for particular needs and special applications GENERAL NOTES LOCATION VENTILATION The Manley MASSIVE PASSIVE must be installed in a stable location with ample ventilation It is ...

Page 4: ...to look if you get a hum Make sure the strap hasn t fallen off or use a piece of wire to join the terminals The CIRCUIT Ground is the internal audio ground including the 1 4 jack sleeves The CHASSIS Ground is the metal chassis third pin electrical ground and pin 1 of the XLRs Some studios use special grounding practices and these terminals are meant to make it easy to hook up this unit for a wide ...

Page 5: ...but with drastic EQ this kind of comparison is of little use The range is small to allow easier and finer adjustments 4 Low Pass Filters They pass lows and chop highs There is a separate filter for each switch setting and they only share the switch and one resistor The filters are entirely passive and inserted between the boost sections and cut sections The 18kHz filter is probably most useful for...

Page 6: ...12K say for 10 dB which provides a few gentle gradual steps BTW the maximum boost in the example is 10 dB not 14 and occurs around 20 kHz You maynoticethatasyouswitchbetweenbellandshelftheamountof grab mayseemtobelessinshelf Notreally botharecapable of 20 db boosts but towards the extremes that boost may be sub sonic or super sonic because we spec the shelf at the 1 2 way point 10 dB not the 3 dB ...

Page 7: ...a Bandwidth control that seems to push the frequencylower and at12 00essentiallyflattenstheEQat22Hz SowechangedtheBandwidthcontrolforthosetwolowest frequencies so that it acts as a HP filter as you turn it CW and tends to prevent boosting excessive sub sonic frequencies To our ears it seems to tighten up the shelf and removes some of the sloppy looseness associated with those sub sonics The 16kHz ...

Page 8: ...s quite deliberate Hopefully it sounds better sweeter more musical and it complements your console EQs We saw little need for yet another variation of the standard parametric with only subtle sonic differences We suggest using the Massive Passive before tape for the bulk of the EQ tasks and then using the console EQs for some fine tweaking and where narrow Q touch ups like notches are needed The M...

Page 9: ...ept coming up We started with these goals modern parametric like operation passive tone techniques through out and features different from anything currently available and most importantly it had to sound spectacular The Super Pultec Manley Labs has been building a few versions of the Pultec style EQs for many years as well as an updated version of the EQ 500 another vintage EQ These are classic p...

Page 10: ...nted pots Mechanical center and electrical center are rarely the same The Passive Parametric For years we had been getting requests for a Manley parametric equalizer but it looked daunting because every parametric we knew of used many op amps and a conventional parametric would be very impractical to do with tubes Not impossible but it might take upwards of a dozen tubes per channel A hybrid desig...

Page 11: ...inductorspacing togetsomehum buckingactionbutavoidmagneticcoupling with careful positioning Some kinds of interaction suck and some are beneficial Why Passive If you hate tech talk just skip this section it has to do with electronic parts and circuits and design philosophy AllEQsusecapacitors Theyareveryeasytouse predictible cheap and simple Some sound slightly better than others Inductors do almo...

Page 12: ... few spare tubes which covers 90 ofemergencieswithimmediatefixes Ourservicedepartment has a great reputation with phone support and fast turn arounds too Phase Shift Deadlytopic Thisisprobablythemostmisunderstoodtermfloating aboutinthemixingcommunity Lotsofpeopleblameornamephase shift for just about any audio problem that doesn t sound like typical distortion We ask that you try to approach this s...

Page 13: ... Narrow Bandwidth just for reference 22 Hz Shelf Wide Bandwidth 22 Hz Shelf Narrow Bandwidth 33 Hz Shelf Wide Bandwidth 33 Hz Shelf Medium Bandwidth 22Hz and 33Hz are different shelves when the Bandwidth is Narrow The top graph is for the other 20 Low shelves LOW SHELF CURVES Just like most EQs a 100Hz low shelf doesn t reach max until about 10 Hz 13 ...

Page 14: ...HELF BOOSTING THE HALF WAY 10 dB POINT HAS SHIFTED TO 50 Hz THESE CURVES SHOW ONE OF THE IDEOSYNCRACIES AND IT IS POSSIBLE FOR A LF BOOST TO SOUND AS IF IT HAS LESS LOWS DEPENDING ON THE FREQUENCY AND INSTRUMENT SIMILAR CURVES APPLY TO THE HIGH SHELVES AND PARTICULARLY 10K AND 12K CAN BE STRANGE WHEN THE BW IS NARROW THIS IS ABOUT 1 5 DB AT 300 Hz AND NEGLIGIBLE MORE 100Hz SHELVES SHOWING BOOST AN...

Page 15: ...Bandwidth Bandwidth at 12 00 Narrow Bandwidth dB set at max 20 dB and changing the Bandwidth Max Boost Narrow Bandwidth 12 00 Boost Narrow Bandwidth Max Boost Wide Bandwidth 12 00 Boost Wide Bandwidth Changing dB and Changing Bandwidth TYPICAL BELL CURVES 15 ...

Page 16: ...LOW PASS FILTERS HIGH PASS FILTERS 1 5 dB bump on the 6K 7 5K and 9K Filters 16 ...

Page 17: ... 29 4 Changing the 1 4 phone jacks for 10dBv levels The Massive Passive is factory wired for professional 4dBu levels for both all of the XLR and 1 4 phone jacks This procedure only changes the 1 4 jacks not the XLRs Do not assume that balanced implies 4dBu levels or that unbalanced implies 10dBv consumer levels Balanced only means that there are 3 wires in the cable and that 2 of these wires carr...

Page 18: ...ut the card Once the ribbon is free at the EQ card end unscrew the two allen keys holding the oblong black anodized panel Gently pull the card towards you being sure the ribbon cable is not catching on any of the EQ card components To return an EQ card into its slot do the procedure in reverse The only difference is that you need to watch the back of the card and align the 14 pins into the connect...

Page 19: ...f prices Almost all have limitations either in boost cut range Q range frequency range or overlap and audio performance Now we have a new breed of digital parametrics that have few limitations otherthandoesitactuallysoundgoodandisitavailable for your format and is it stable and bug free and is it a hassle to get a signal in and out of it Within their realm some are getting good Passive EQs have co...

Page 20: ...ll be to finesse your available EQ Hit Record finesse it in the mix More important to get the vibe than to burn out the band doing sound checks and tweaks If mic choice is a mystery you might want to research some Steve Albini or George Massenburg interviews Rather than guess wrong some engineers compare 3 or 4 probable choices Some choose the mic that minimizes EQing later some hear the mic s tra...

Page 21: ...fferent individual units like mics like rooms consoles engineers The last problem was that they only had a few weeks to shout at each other Avoidthattechnique Yougottabecreative playitbyear use your own variation if it works out that way this time Only the final result counts There are many ways to get a killer sound and too damnfewthatworkeverytime Youmayknowmostofthisalready General Suggestions ...

Page 22: ...ussion There are two big tricks The first is don t trust VU meters usepeakmetersanddon tgettooclosetofullscale Thekey word is percussion and the peaks or transients are very short and impressively hot When in doubt turn it down Actually when in doubt listen to a short bit recorded then turn it down if it was crunchy The second trick is to EQ these tracks in the mix not soloed We tend to make thing...

Page 23: ...Do you understand the difference its not just attitude 3 Therestofthegearinmajormasteringhousesisalsosoimportant that cost is no object The engineers regularly shoot out new gearandwillalwaysbuyifitISbetter Inapromasteringhousethere are no weak links in the chain and no semi pro gear 4 There isn t a single processing unit that is the key but more like a combination of several that are mostly sligh...

Page 24: ...ssive The Circuit The Massive Passive is a not a particularly complicated circuit The audio comes in is converted from balanced to unbalanced and DC servo d and given enough power a few watts to drive the EQ and output in bypass on the two vertical boards that the 1 4 jacks are mounted on It uses a BB OPA2604 op amp and a complementary pair of medium current transistors richly biased into near cla...

Page 25: ...4700 Experiment with the bandwidths and frequency selects Try adding the 220 and 6K filters last rather than first Attack usually the upper mids but depends on the instrument For example on drums and bass for more attack try boosting 2200 Hz for piano try 4700 or 5600 Limiters usually remove some of these transient heavy areas and may seem to dull the attack The cure for that is longer attack time...

Page 26: ...t too many years ago even your parents could fix their own stuff by taking a bag of tubes down to the corner and checking the tubes on a tube tester but these testers are hard to find today A visual inspection can usually spot a bad tube just as well Be careful there are some high voltages inside the chassis and tubes can get pretty warm but if you can replace a light bulb you should be able to cr...

Page 27: ...while we get a call from a client with a digital studio with confusion about levels They usually start out by using the digital oscillator from their workstation and finding pegged VU meters the first place they look and they know it can t be the workstation Even a 6 level from their system pegs the meters Some of you know already what s going on That 6 level is referenced to digital full scale an...

Page 28: ...lug proceed as follows The wire which is coloured GREEN YELLOW must be connected to the terminal in the plug which is marked by the letter E or by the safety earth symbol or coloured GREEN or GREEN and YELLOW The wire which is coloured BLUE must be connected to the terminal in the plug which is marked by the letter N or coloured BLACK The wire which is coloured BROWN must be connected to the termi...

Page 29: ...Bm 85 dB A Weight ref to 4 dBm Signal to Noise 120 dB typical A Weight ref to 37 dBm Input Impedance 20 K ohms Output Impedance 150 ohms Power Consumption 72 watts 600 mA 115VAC Fuse 2 Amp Slo Blo 120VAC 1 Amp Slo Blo 240VAC Size 3U 19 x 5 25 x 10 Actual Weight 21 Lbs Shipping Weight 27 Lbs MANLEY MASSIVE PASSIVE STEREO TUBE EQUALIZER preliminary specs subject to change BLOCK DIAGRAM SHOWING SIGNA...

Page 30: ...tories will not pay for express or overnight freight service nor will Manley Laboratories pay for shipments to locations outside the USA Charges for unauthorized service and transportation costs are not reimbursable under this warranty and all warrantees express or implied become null and void where the product has been damaged by misuse accident neglect modification tampering or unauthorized alte...

Page 31: ...rranty and registration Thank you again for choosing Manley gear and reading all the way through The Owner s Manual We really mean that sincerely the bit about thanking you for choosing our gear THANK YOU MODEL _______________ SERIAL __________________ PURCHASE DATE ______________ SUPPLIER ______________________ PLEASE DETACH THIS PORTION AND SEND IT TO MANLEY LABORATORIES MODEL _______________ SE...

Page 32: ... 7K5 22 39 68 120 220 18K 0 0 POWER 9K OFF 6K 7K5 OFF 9K 18K 12K OFF OFF 220 120 68 39 22 BOOST CUT GAIN 6K LOW PASS HIGH PASS SHELF BELL 220 10K 82 3K9 22 1K 560 27K BELL SHELF CUT OUT BOOST BOOST OUT CUT SHELF BELL BELL SHELF CUT OUT BOOST OUT IN IN 4 6 6 4 BELL CUT OUT SHELF BOOST 560 27K BELL CUT OUT BOOST 220 10K BELL CUT OUT BOOST 82 3K9 CUT BELL OUT SHELF 22 1K BOOST This Preset is a great ...

Page 33: ...RING MASSIVE PASSIVE SETTINGS 1K2 1K8 27K 12K 8K2 5K6 3K9 2K7 1K8 1K2 820 560 220 330 470 680 1K 1K5 2K2 3K3 4K7 6K8 10K FREQUENCY FREQUENCY 2K7 FREQUENCY 3K9 820 560 390 270 180 120 82 FREQUENCY 680 1K 470 330 220 150 68 47 33 22 100 100 22 33 47 68 150 220 330 470 1K 680 FREQUENCY 82 120 180 270 390 560 820 3K9 FREQUENCY 2K7 FREQUENCY FREQUENCY 10K 6K8 4K7 3K3 2K2 1K5 1K 470 330 220 560 820 1K2 ...

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