MANLEY LABORATORIES, INC. MANLEY STEREO VARIABLE MU® LIMITER COMPRESSOR OWNER'S MANUAL TUBES RULE brought to you by the clever folks at: MANLEY LABORATORIES, INC. 13880 MAGNOLIA AVE. CHINO, CA. 91710 USA TEL: (909) 627-4256 FAX: (909) 628-2482 email: emanley@manleylabs.com website: www.manleylabs.
CONTENTS SECTION PAGE INTRODUCTION 3 MAINS CONNECTIONS 4 INSTALLATION 5 FRONT PANEL 6 REAR PANEL 7 EXAMPLE SETTINGS 8 FRONT PANEL ADJUSTMENTS 9 OPERATIONAL NOTES 10 TECHNICAL NOTES 11 MASTERING AND M/S MODELS 12 GAIN REDUCTION CURVES 13 SPECIFICATIONS 14 SERVICE ADJUSTMENTS 15 WARRANTY 16 WARRANTY REGISTRATION 17 BLANK TEMPLATE TO STORE SETTINGS 18
INTRODUCTION THANK YOU!... for choosing the Manley Laboratories Stereo Variable Mu® Limiter Compressor. this unit has been our best selling product for many years. It is one of the very few compressors that has become a real standard in Mastering studios and contributed to most hit records over the last decade and probably the next. "Mu" is tube-speak for gain, and Variable Mu® is our registered trademark for this limiter compressor.
MAINS CONNECTIONS Your Manley Stereo Variable Mu® Limiter Compressor has been factory set to the correct mains voltage for your country. (Well, that is what we intended to do when we knew where it would be initially shipped.) The mains voltage that we set this unit for is marked on the serial badge, located on the rear of the chassis. There is also a brightly coloured sticker indicating the mains voltage setting next to the IEC mains entry socket. Check that this complies with what comes out of your wall.
INSTALLATION Please refer to the REAR PANEL section for a full layout of the rear panel of your Manley Stereo Variable Mu® Limiter Compressor. 1. Make sure your mains voltage supply agrees with the voltage this unit is set for as described on the previous page. 2. Be certain that the unit has the proper fuse installed. 3. Connect the input signal(s) to the 3 pin female XLR's on the rear panel.
FRONT 8 12 10 6 PANEL MANLEY STEREO VARIABLE MU® LIMITER COMPRESSOR 4 2 RECOVERY 0 MANLEY OUTPUT DUAL INPUT OUTPUT FAST SLOW 12 10 8 6 4 2 RECOVERY FAST 0 MANLEY SLOW LABORATORIES INC. LABORATORIES INC.
REAR PANEL FUSE 2A SLOBLO CIRCUIT GROUNDS CHASSIS CHANNEL B INPUT CHANNEL B OUTPUT CHANNEL A INPUT CHANNEL A OUTPUT IEC POWER CONNECTOR DE AB C DE A FUSE HOLDER Houses a standard 2 Amp SLO-BLO fuse. Replace only with the same type and size. B IEC MAINS SOCKET Standard 3 pin AC mains socket. See the section MAINS CONNECTIONS for more details. C GROUND TERMINALS Use these terminals to help with hum problems. Normally the two terminals are connected together. D OUTPUT XLR 3 Pin XLR BALANCED.
this page for example settings
FRONT PANEL ADJUSTMENTS Initial basic settings for line level use: 1 -Begin with POWER ON, BYPASS, SEP and COMPRESS 2 -Set all controls at 12:00 ( or THRESHOLD at min) (for calibration feed in a 1Khz oscillator at 0 VU and confirm the return from the unit is actually 0 VU. Switch from BYPASS to IN and adjust the individual OUTPUTs to also return 0 VU.) 3 -Switch from BYPASS to IN and adjust the DUAL INPUT to get 3 to 6 dB of gain reduction on the meter with either COMPRESS or LIMIT.
OPERATION NOTES The "MANLEY STEREO VARIABLE MU LIMITER - COMPRESSOR" is designed for multiple purposes. The unit can be used stereo or as 2 individual channels of limiting or compression. It can be used as a balanced line amp capable of 24 db! of gain and as a pre-amp for low level signals. . With higher input gain settings the unit can be used to create gentle tube distortion if desired.
TECHNICAL NOTES SWITCHING ON The power switch is located on the right hand corner of the front panel. Flip the switch up to turn on the Limiter Compressor and down to turn off . TUBE LIFE As with all tubes, their quality degrades with age. This is due to cathode emission, a natural process found in all tubes. We recommend that you have your unit checked every 4-5 years, depending on usage, usually the limiter will require re-tubing after this time has elapsed.
NOTES ON MASTERING MODIFICATIONS 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.
this page is for G.R.
SPECIFICATIONS Electronics Input Impedance Transformer Input, 3 dual triodes in balanced symmetrical variable mu circuit / line amp and Transformer Output per channel. Vacuum tube audio rectification for side chain. Custom Meters, Attenuators, etc. Input and output transformers designed by David Manley and wound inhouse at Manley Lab's magnetics department.
SERVICE ADJUSTMENTS These are factory presets. These should only be altered after a re-tube. A METER CAL - GR ACCURACY 1. Supply a line level input signal (1K TONE OK) 2. Adjust front controls for NO LIMITING 3. Back down the reduction control to achieve 6dB of actual limiting as observed on an external calibrated audio frequency test meter. 4. Adjust each channel's trimpot located on the extreme back edges on horizontal PCB to calibrate. B METER - Adjusts meter "ZERO". Needs to be well warmed up. 1.
WARRANTY All Manley Laboratories equipment is covered by a limited warranty against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 90 days from date of purchase to the original purchaser only. A further optional limited 5 year transferrable warranty is available upon proper registration of ownership within 30 days of date of first purchase.
WARRANTY REGISTRATION We ask, grovel and beg that you please fill out this registration form and send the bottom half to: MANLEY LABORATORIES REGISTRATION DEPARTMENT 13880 MAGNOLIA AVE. CHINO CA, 91710 USA Or you may FAX this form in to: +1 (909) 628-2482 or you may fill in the online warranty registration form found in the Tech Support section of our website www.manleylabs.
this page for templates
