Recording - October 2015 - 40

B Y PA U L V N U K J R .

Manley CORE Reference Channel Strip
Manley Laboratories Inc. needs little
introduction to experienced studio hands.
The "Tubes Rule" folks at Manley have
brought us high-end pro audio and hi-fi
products for over 20 years. Most recently
(February 2015) we reviewed the wellestablished Massive Passive equalizer as
part of a thorough side-by-side comparison with Universal Audio's Massive
Passive plug-in.
Manley Labs' 11,000 sq. ft. facility in
Chino, California ("Chino, not China," as
the website proudly states) is manned by
a staff of over 30 people who build every
Manley box by hand in-house. Manley
HQ has its own machine shop, R&D
department, and even a warehouse full of
zillions of vintage tubes that all get tested
by hand! Everything from circuit boards
and custom transformer winding to panel
engraving, silk screening and more is
done in-house. The chassis and additional metalwork is handled by a CNC shop
literally down the street.
I point all of this out to highlight the fact
that most Manley gear comes unapologetically with a very healthy price tag.
The VOXBOX retails for $4600, the
Massive Passive is $5600, and the
SLAM! compressor is a humbling $7400.
Luckily for those of us who wish for this
kind of quality at a less daunting price,
company President EveAnna Manley and
her team have been working on a more
cost-conscious lineup of boxes aimed at
project studios and even home-based
recording artists. So far there are two
pieces in this new series: the CORE
Reference Channel Strip reviewed today,
which sells for $2000 street, and the
FORCE 4-channel mic preamp (review
forthcoming), which sells for $2250 street.
That's not taco money, but keep in mind
that both units sell for less than half the
price of most other Manley fare. How did
40

RECORDING October 2015

An all-in-one tracking solution at a very approachable price

they manage to pull it off? In the sidebar
interview, EveAnna Manley tells us how
the company was able to achieve its costconscious goals for the CORE without
sacrificing its essential quality.
Looks and build
The Manley CORE is a tube-based
channel strip with a microphone preamp,
instrument DI, opto-compressor, Baxandall
EQ, and FET brickwall limiter. Manley bills
the CORE as a "greatest hits" package;
most of its sections borrow heavily from
past Manley products in both inspiration
and design.
The CORE is a 2-space 19" rackmount
box and features the exact same thick
brushed-blue face plate, the same knobs,
buttons, and switches, the same VU
meter, and even the same smooth-yetnicely-resistant Bourns potentiometers as
you would find on any of the company's
other boxes. In other words, no quality
compromises here. Internally it also
makes use of Manley's own customwound 1:8 MANLEY IRON® transformer.
Preamp
The Preamp section on the CORE is an
all-tube audio path with a 12AX7WA for
input gain and and a 6922 White cathode
follower tube on the output stage. It runs on
300V B+ rails with lots of headroom.
The Preamp section starts with a knob
labeled Input Level. This is followed by 5
buttons for: Mic/Line input selection, 120

Hz Highpass Filter, Hi/Low Gain, 48V
Phantom Power, and Phase Invert. There is
also a front mounted 1/4" instrument input;
note that this 1/4" input is self-switching,
and supplements a pair of separate individual XLR inputs for Mic and/or Line in
that can be found on the rear panel.
Also on the back are the Main Output
(on XLR) and the Direct XLR output, which
sends the signal output from the mic preamp and compressor prior to the EQ and
limiter. There is also a 1/4" TRS send/
return insert jack for adding further processing into the chain between the preamp/compressor and EQ/limiter sections.
Getting the hang of the gain
Before we move on, it's important to
know how the input of the CORE works.
Unlike most mic preamps, the CORE's
Input Level knob is not an input gain
knob, but an attenuator. Also, the Hi/Low
button is not high/low impedance switching, but is a simplified version of the multiple gain stage levels offered in the preamp section of the Manley VOXBOX.
When the Input Level knob is fully clockwise the preamp circuit is wide open with
a gain of 40 dB; turning it counterclockwise attenuates the signal down to zero.
In many respects it is essentially a variable 40 dB pad knob. The Hi/Low button
increases the input signal by 20 dB, giving the CORE a maximum mic input of 60
dB, which is great for low powered ribbons and dynamic mics if need be.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - October 2015