Manley NU MU

The Manley Nu Mu Stereo Limiter Compressor uses the special T-Bar mod tube front end of the legendary Variable Mu® with same super smooth side chain and timing characteristics followed by a high voltage discrete and FET solid-state amplifying and output stage for a faster and punchier audio path. It is like a “clean” version of the Variable Mu, especially suited for modern digital and electronic music where you don’t necessarily need to color or mask the sound like we did in the early days of digital.

Featuring Manley’s new HIP function, the Manley Nu Mu finesses dynamic control to bring up lower level details without knocking the life out of exciting transients. Smartly engineered to build efficiently and esthetically designed to elicit ravishing compliments from your clients, both visually and ergonomically, the Manley Nu Mu breaks new ground in performance and value, all proudly hand-built in California, of course!

NOTES FROM EVEANNA MANLEY:

“So: taking the smoothest & best version of the Variable Mu – the T-BAR mod where we use two 6BA6 Pentodes strapped as triodes to achieve characteristics just about identical to the revered 6386 tubes of the original version (or the Fairchild) – we have the same front end as the Variable Mu. From there we then go into high voltage discrete transistor and FET amplification and drive circuitry. No chips! So this is, yes, less expensive than the all-tube Variable Mu; and also being transformerless on the outputs, very much the clean version of the Variable Mu.

“Let’s think back to the early 1990’s when the Variable Mu first came out. Recording was a different world. There was still plenty of recording to tape occurring in the big studios. And then digital was not really excellent yet. It was flat sounding and a bit “glary”. A big round heavy-handed vibey sound like The Variable Mu was exactly what was needed then. Skipping forward to today, we have really excellent digital converters, and of course it is our de facto standard now. So we don’t need this big masking sound for everything we are doing today, especially for electronic music / EDM where we want to retain super crisp and punchy sounds. We don’t want to add more vibe or slow down the sound. Thus a clean, fast and punchy solid state limiter compressor is what the world needs now. And here is what we have with the Manley Nu Mu – and for all of our individual musician and home recording customers, it is very well-priced for them.”

SPECIFICATIONS

Manley IRON® input transformers
4 x hand-matched 6BA6 vacuum tubes
Balanced XLR inputs & outputs
Manley HIP function raises soft dynamics without squashing louder passages
MANLEY POWER® High Voltage Switched Mode Power Supply custom designed for our vacuum tube audio circuits
INPUT Level Preset 3-way switches -3dB, 0, +3dB
Continuously variable OUTPUT level controls
Unity Gain set INPUT to “0” and OUTPUT control to 11 o’clock. (Input source Z= 150 Ohms, Output load Z= 100 kOhms)
Maximum input level: (1 kHz Sine, <0.3% THD+N)
-3 = +25 dBu
0 = +21 dBu
+3 = +18 dBu
Maximum GAIN: 13dB
GAIN makeup: 10dB (gain above unity)
Output Headroom: 23dB (referenced to +4dBu)
Variable ATTACK control: 13msec – 130msec
RECOVERY switch 5 steps: 0.1s, 0.16s, 0.32s, 0.64s, 1.7sec.
Continuously variable THRESHOLD controls
Hardwired Relay Bypass Switch
Ratio Mode switches between LIMIT (1.5:1 to 12:1) or COMPRESS (1.2:1 to 3:1)
HP SC: High Pass Side Chain Filter -3dB @ 100Hz @ 6dB per Octave
Stereo Link establishes Left-Master dynamic control for THRESHOLD, ATTACK, and RECOVERY controls
Beautiful illuminated stereo VU meters read Gain Reduction or Output Level

Sidechain INSERT per channel via 1/4″ TRS jack TIP=SEND, RING=Return, SLEEVE=Ground
Maximum Output: +27dBu (18Vrms) into 100K Ohm load; +24.5dBu (13Vrms) into 600 Ohm load. (1Khz Sine, < 0.3% THD+N, BW 20Hz – 20kHz).
Frequency Response: – 0.8dB @ 20Hz, -0.5dB @ 50kHz
Total Harmonic Distortion: <0.05% THD+N (1kHz Sine, +4dBu, BW: 20Hz – 22kHz)
Noise floor: -85dB typical (BW: 20Hz – 22kHz)
Dynamic Range: 112dB
Signal to Noise Ratio: 89dB (referenced to +4dBu)
Common-Mode Rejection Ratio (CMRR): 74dB (BW: 20Hz – 22kHz, +4dBu, 1kHz Sine)
Output Impedance: 100 Ohms
Input Impedance: -3dB= 1 kOhms, 0dB= 2.5 kOhms, +3dB= 4.5 kOhms
AUTOMUTE warmup delay: 30 Seconds
Power consumption: 35 Watts
Standby Power Consumption: 0.5 Watts
Operating mains voltage: 90 to 254 VAC (internal universal supply)
Mains Voltage Frequency: 50-60Hz
Dimensions: 19″ x 3 1/2″ x 7″ (occupies 2u)
Unit Weight: 8.5 lbs.
Shipping weight: 11.5 lbs.