Manley Absolute Headphone Amplifier

Manley Absolute Headphone Amplifier

4 920,00 

Manley Labs is proud to announce the release of a stunning design: the Absolute Headphone Amplifier. Brimming with functionality, this new art piece from Manley Labs is as enthralling musically as it is handsome visually.

The best-equipped headphone amplifier ever

There are fifteen independent controls available, each of which was exhaustively developed for convenient adjustability and aural variety. Two selectable stereo RCA jack pairs receive the input signals. Even these RCA jacks are of our own design. Teflon® insulated and gold plated, we have been producing these excellent RCA jacks since the mid-1990s. The volume is controlled on the facia by the sexy front thumb wheel and also by the included Radio Frequency remote control, both of which operate a precision stepped relay ladder matrix attenuator in half dB steps. The RF remote can be operated anywhere in the home, even through walls or cabinetry, especially useful when using the unit as a stand-alone preamplifier. Next to the front volume control wheel you’ll find the Mute switch to instantly kill the signal. Spinning the volume wheel all the way to minimum also mutes the signal.

There is also a user adjustable Headphone Overload Protection System which declares maximum output level to protect precious headphones and your ears!

Thinking about you and your headphones

Balance Control

In case your source needs some correction or if your own ears do not hear equally, we have included a Balance Control which can swing the signal up to 72dB either way. In its center detent position, this special balance control is completely out of the circuit. Also to be able to execute some sonic authority over what is handed to you in a given recording or to just make your headphones sound nicer (to you!) we have provided historically proven pleasing and gentle Tone Controls – and these Baxandall Bass and Treble equalizers can be completely bypassed at the push of a button. Try them! We think you really will enjoy having the choice to enliven and enrich your sonic experience.

Along those lines, the Variable Feedback control allows you to control the amount of overall negative feedback applied to the amplifier from 0dB, or no Global Negative Feedback, to 10dB of NFB. Negative Feedback in electronics is when a small portion of the output signal is re-introduced back to the input signal to provide a more stable and beneficial corrective result. This control is very useful when determining how “tight” you want your amplifier to sound. For example, a simple female vocal with minimal percussion can sound more intimate with very little feedback, but a complicated symphony orchestra passage may sound better positioned with more feedback. Applying different amounts of negative feedback can also affect the slew rate and apparent “speed” of the sonic character. Other aspects for which to listen include placement, forward or relaxed, darker vs shimmering, or punchy vs mellow. Feel free to play with this knob and listen for the not-so-subtle diversity that altering the amount of feedback provides. It’s one of our favorite circuit tricks and we’ve been pulling this one for decades!

 
 

Variable Feedback control

Switching Topology

We’re pretty sure we originated this concept in the audiophile world back with the Manley SE/PP 300B power amplifiers and it’s only because we have our own in-house magnetics department that we are able to devise such complaisant output transformers that can accommodate such radical demands. The Absolute Headphone amplifier features custom hand-wound air-gapped dual-mode MANLEY IRON® output transformers, designed and manufactured at the Manley Labs factory in California. Interestingly, the output tube stage can be switched on-the-fly between all-triode Push-Pull to Single-Ended topology. This completely alters the harmonic structure from odd-order to even-order and basically halves the output power again providing yet another spicy ingredient to flavor the sound.

The Absolute Headphone amplifier incorporates our own innovative purpose-designed-for-audio High Voltage switched-mode power supply. All super-low impedance DC rails are fully regulated and worlds quieter than any linear supply we have ever encountered. The resulting sound is fast and dynamic with a deep punchy bass, deadly-quiet inky blacks, and superior headroom.

Innovative purpose-designed-for-audio High Voltage switched-mode power supply

SPECIFICATIONS

Vacuum Tubes:

2 x 12AX7 (ECC83)
4 x 6AQ5A (EL90)

Maximum output power

1 W

Frequency response

Push-Pull: Flat 10Hz – 20 kHz (-1dB @ 40 kHz)
Single-Ended: 20Hz – 20 kHz (-0.5dB @ 10Hz, -1dB @ 50 kHz)

Gain

Load 16 ohm: 12 dB (Min FB), 3 dB (Max FB)
Load 62 ohm: 17 dB (Min FB), 8 dB (Max FB)
Load 200 ohm: 22 dB (Min FB), 13 dB (Max FB)

Weight

5,5 kg

Dimensions

30 cm x 14 cm x 21 cm (LxWxH.)

Additional materials

We care for our clients by providing them with the necessary information.

Manley’s first commercially available products were upper echelon high-fidelity vacuum tube amplifiers and preamplifiers constructed at the old Vacuum Tube Logic of America factory.
On January 30, 1989, a 20 year old EveAnna on sabbatical from her studies at Columbia University met the crew and was hired on to the production team. She quickly learned to solder and assemble vacuum tube amplifiers, and after training a new team of assemblers, EveAnna worked her way into the Quality Control department.

It was at this time that the first Manley professional products were developed, starting with the original 1u Reference 60dB Microphone Preamplifier and soon followed by the Manley Enhanced Pultec and Mid Frequency Equalizers. These products, along with the Manley Reference Cardioid and Reference Gold microphones, all made their debut at the 1990 Los Angeles AES Show.

In 1993, Manley Laboratories, Inc. became a separate entity apart from VTL.
The new Manley Labs factory at 13880 Magnolia Ave. in beautiful and bovine Chino, California was outfitted to house the Manley Hi-Fi and Pro Studio manufacturing as well as the Langevin production lines, our newly acquired machine shop, and printed circuit board facilities. The following year, the factory’s capabilities were augmented by the addition of a computer-controlled mechanical engraving machine and, very importantly, a transformer winding department.

manley

As the motto of Manley Labs says

TUBES RULE