MANLEY LABORATORIES, INC. OWNER'S MANUAL MANLEY STINGRAY INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER MANLEY LABORATORIES, INC. 13880 MAGNOLIA AVE. CHINO, CA. 91710 TEL: (909) 627-4256 FAX: (909) 628-2482 email: emanley@manleylabs.com Web site: http://www.manleylabs.com REV.
CONTENTS SECTION PAGE INTRODUCTION 3 MAINS CONNECTIONS 4 OPERATIONAL NOTES 5 CONNECTING YOUR STINGRAY 6&7 SIMPLE TROUBLESHOOTING 8 FRONT PANEL, LAMP, BACK PANEL 9 TUBE LOCATIONS 10 SIDE PANELS 11,12&13 OPTIMIZING YOUR SOUND SYSTEM 14&15 TUBE FAQ 16&17 REPLACING TUBES & SETTING BIAS 18 CREDITS 19 SPECIFICATIONS 20 WARRANTY 21 WARRANTY REGISTRATION 22 2
INTRODUCTION THANK YOU!... for choosing the Manley STINGRAY integrated amplifier for your loudspeaker driving requirements. You have possibly chosen this product because you auditioned it in a store or heard it at a hifi show and were impressed with the sound. It may have been the right combination of price, power, features and styling for you. It may have been because you know the Manley Labs reputation for quality, reliability, and integrity.
MAINS CONNECTIONS Your STINGRAY 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 built this STINGRAY to operate with is marked on the serial badge, located on the rear of the chassis. Check that this complies with what comes out of your wall.
OPERATIONAL NOTES PREPARATION FOR INSTALLATION Budget a suitable space in which to place the amplifier and associated interconnect and mains power cable. This space should be free of strong external magnetic and RF fields, and reasonably removed from strong loudspeakergenerated acoustical fields. This space should also be free of excessive heat or dust and large enough to permit easy flow of cool air to the top, bottom and sides of the amps.
CONNECTING YOUR STINGRAY Setting up this integrated amplifier is rather easy. Please refer to page 8 for a diagram of the back of the Stingray. 1. You will be connecting power last and turning the system on after all other connections are made to prevent ugly noises as wires are connected and to prevent possible damage to the amps and speakers. In general, it is best to make any connections with the power off or the volume control turned all the way down.
5. Connect the speaker leads to the terminals on the top far left and far right of the Stingray. Be sure that the RED (+) positive terminal is connected to your positive (+) wire and the NEGATIVE (-) (white or black) terminal is connected to your (-) Negative wire. Connect the opposite ends to the speakers also RED (+) to RED (+) and Negative(-) to Negative(). This insures that your speakers will be "in-phase". All too often people accidently connect their speakers out-of-phase and it do sound strange.
Troubleshooting: It is rare that any of these problems occur but if they do here are some things to try. HUM - Try a mains ground adapter if they are legal in your country. Or try one anyway unless you fear the Electricty Police. A mains ground adapter is also called a "3 pin to 2 pin adapter" or a "cheater" and is available in hardware stores. There should be one ground to the wall in your system and only one.
FRONT PANEL A C B A - BALANCE - This is a special Noble balance control. Unlike most balance controls, this one has no loss at center (detented) and can be considered to be a straight wire if it is in the 12:00 position. It only reduces the volume of one channel at a time B - VOLUME - This is also a high quality Noble conductive plastic precision attenuator. C - BACKLIT PANEL NOTE: Models produced after April 2003 use super bright LEDs for badge illumination, not incandescent lamps.
IO D E/ U L AC TI VE /B YP AS S TR SU SE N D R EC O U T /L O O P R ET U R N O U B MAINS LO O P EC R ON/OFF T LO O P SS PA BY / VE B TI SU AC P L O U E/ LO D IO TR U O P O LO R U ET R U O T P O O /L B+ FUSE MDL 1/4 (underneath) FUSE WARNING: TO REDUCE THE CAUTION: DO NOT OPEN, RISK OF FIRE OR ELECTRIC HIGH VOLTAGE.
The Rear Panel Controls: In the summer of 2005 we added a bunch of features to the Stingray production version 3 that previously were available as add-on individual options. Read on to learn how to make the most of the Stingray in your system. Please note that when we describe an "input" we really are referring to the stereo inputs, left and right. There are two of everything, one set for left one set for right.
LOOP RETURN- This input comes in after the Input Selector and just before the Stingray's Balance and Volume controls. If you have all your sources going into another external preamplifier, or even a Home Theater surround processor, then you could plug that preamp's outputs here and let the Stingray just function as a stereo power amplifier when the Loop switch is set to Loop Active. The Volume and Balance controls still function in this mode.
SPEAKER POSTS - The speaker connection posts are on the back side panel and labeled on the top panel. The RED is positive and WHITE (or black) is negative (ground). Be sure you have speakers (or a 4 to 8 ohm load resistor) connected to these terminals before powering the Stingray. Tube amps (unlike solid state) require a speaker if there is any chance there will be a signal applied.
Optimizing Your Sound System This section is full of little hints that may help you get the most out of your stereo - and it may not cost anything or cost very little. Probably, you know most of this, but hopefully some of it may be new or refresh your memory or just be refreshing reading in a manual. A very important factor is your speakers. Hopefully you have good speakers and they are appropriate for this integrated amplifier.
You may have bought a great system but there is a good chance that you are only getting a fraction of it's potential. Very frequently we have experienced top quality electronics sounding unimpressive simply because acoustics were ignored. Even amongst studio engineers, few can really tell the difference between good speakers in a bad room and bad speakers in a good room - but they all know good speakers in a good room and very likely so do you.
TUBE FAQ A few general all-too-frequently-asked vacuum tube questions from the manleylabs.com FAQ as found on our website are answered here in case you don't have internet access (which we don't doubt because after all you bought vacuum tube amplifiers, didn't you?): (Don't take that comment personally. EveAnna still drives air-cooled Volkswagons... We're not perfect either.) FAQ #16. Do you sell tubes? I don’t know what you’re talking about. FAQ #16a. I need to retube my Manley amplifier.
More silly vacuum tube questions... 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? FAQ #16g. But it sounds different when you first turn it back on.
What should I know about BIAS? Bias is a simple DC (negative) voltage that sets, what is called, the "operating point" of the tube. For our purposes it "fine tunes" the current going through the tube. We want each of the 4 tubes per channel to be equally sharing the load. This gives the amplifier's lowest distortion and the tube's optimum life. When we set "bias" we are adjusting that voltage and measuring the current at a pin called the cathode.
CREDITS An EveAnna Manley Production Featuring concept, layout and industrial design by EveAnna Manley, Starring: Paul Fargo for Input Innovations Hutch for Output Outovations Mastered by: Baltazar Hernandez Titled by: J. Gordon Holt Contributing Players: Michael Hunter Marcelino Tornez Elias Guzman transformer specialist assembly supervisor silk screens and PCBs It all began at the HI-FI '97 show, at the bar of course -J.
SPECIFICATIONS Output Tubes: 8 x EL84 Ships with Ei 6BQ5 Driver Tubes: 2 x 6414 Ships with GE or RAYTHEON JAN NOS USA or 6414W Input Tubes: 2 x 12AT7WA Ships with: Ei 12AT7 large plate Lamp type 1/4 X 1 1/4, 12 volt, .15 amp NOTE: Models produced after April 2003 use super bright LEDs for badge illumination, not incandescent lamps. The LED's will probably never burn out. MAINS Fuses:120VAC operation: MDL 3 AMP / 250 Volt SLO-BLO 240VAC operation: MDL 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.
