The MANLEY brand has been around since the late 1980's. 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. In this history lesson, we'd like to direct special focus on our people at Manley Labs. The people whose years of dedication, service, and expertise bring you people, our customers, these products. It's all about the people.
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. Baltazar Hernandez, already with two years experience, taught her how to solder in those first few days. It was in 1989 that the first Manley professional products were developed, starting with the original 1u Reference 60dB Microphone Preamplifier and soon followed by our Manley Enhanced Pultec and Mid Frequency Equalizers .
Here for only three years, David Manley abruptly left the company and the country in 1996. Between 1996 and 1999 EveAnna Manley was left in de facto charge of the company. It was during this time that the modern form of Manley Labs began to take shape. Customers' requests were granted and almost all the existing products were renovated and improved during these years while new designs took a new direction with Hutch and EveAnna making the decisons as evident in the innovations with the Stingray , the Voxbox , and the Massive Passive which came out during these years. The results were a doubling of sales and volume during this period. People started to really notice.
EveAnna Manley brought already ten years of experience with this gear and this crew to the table when in 1999 she officially took over the company and the deal was signed. Now free to let 'er rip, EveAnna solidified the the team at Manley Labs and developed the crew of 40 some-odd people into the powerhouse of production it is today. Planning for the future, EveAnna purchased the building next door which is a twin to our existing building. This will double the size of the Manley factory to well over 20,000 square feet.
Manley produced the first modern 300B high-fidelity amplifier, the first modern high powered tube power amps, the first new power tube design in thirty years, the KT90. Manley was also first to utilize the ULTRAANALOG? converters in the USA and the first in the world to show a converter with tubes. Within this web site we show the first amps capable of switching topology between single-ended or push-pull and the world's first 300B preamp. We invented a new thing with the Passive Parametric Massive Passive... but hell, this is all old news.
"First" is exciting. "Best" is the real goal. "Affordable" is honest business. "Most Expensive" is for others, not us. We try to describe these products in basic terms with valid scientific and engineering data. We do, however, indulge in just a little "audiophilia nervosa": high purity wire, gold contacts, good layout, hand soldering and wiring, overkill power supplies, silver solder, 1% metal film resistors, film & foil capacitors, selected tubes, solid chassis, etc. We do this scientifically and sincerely: for the music, for you.