Manley Neo Classic 300B

[lonewolfny42]

Rich....

Maybe it's the 300b, maybe it's class A.

How hot do they get ? Thanks....

[richidoo]

Well, they're tubes so they're hot anyway. But it gets pretty damn hot between the amps when I adjust the volume or change the station. But I don't know if it's more than a AB amp would be? I guess it would have to be, since it is running at full throttle. It has dual tube rectifiers, plus input, driver and two power tubes per amp.  One thing I noticed is the output tranny is hot and the power tranny is REALLY hot.  On the snappers I could touch either, just very warm. These are hot. But it doesn't heat up the room that I notice.

[lonewolfny42]

Thanks Rich. Yes....most Class A amps run rather hot....some a little less than others.
In a small room...in WINTER....their nice - toasty ....a little rough in the SUMMER.

Enjoy....their nice mono blocks....

[Bill O'Connell]

5:30 came way to early!
You would think that after 55 years I would know better then to mix wine with scotch.Brutal morning but the 92 degree temp sweated all the poison out of me.
 Rich, it is not Tom's cable. the customer who is building them says the trick is in the winding somehow. He is the expert and I promised him I wouldn't duplicate.

[richidoo]

Glad to hear you made it Bill.... long day! Well you're lucky to have one of a kind cables!

I started experimenting with speaker position a little today, but couldn't improve on Carls spots he found at my last G2G - thanks Carl! It still sounds good. I'll set up the analyzer to find one bass note on My fav things last night was invisible while the rest were fine. Moved the chair in closer though, that helped.

[richidoo]

It's been interesting listening to the new tubes break in. Mostly tolerable, but I just got over a real bad hump. A week of very annoying something. Technically it sounded OK, but it just didn't connect. Now they are open and very powerful, hard to believe it's only 300Bs?  Now I understand how they could power a large movie theater with sensitive speakers. Ballsy!

I cleaned the variable feedback selector switches yesterday, one was noisy after 6 years. That really opened up the amps.

Sol is selling his lovely little Cary SLP98 preamp, so I am auditioning it. It is showing me where I need to go next. I love 6SN7 preamps, every one I have ever heard. Actually, they were all Carys. Hmmmmm  I have an Aikido octal PCB I gotta get that running.

[mgalusha]

Rich,

Are you running in SE or PP mode? That is one of the few amps I'd really love to try.

Mike

[richidoo]

I honestly find myself switching all over the place. Sometimes SE, sometimes PP, sometimes high feedback, sometimes (but less often) none. SE is surprisingly robust too. Even with only 11W in SE, it has big round satisfying bass, so it doesn't need to be cranked up to feel good. And that "lit from within" 300B thing is definitely happening, it's a special sound.

Tone is accurate and very enticing and exciting. SE is a little less sizzle, but the SE midrange offers other joys. It is not too syrupy, but with other tubes that came with it like stock SED and Sophias, it was a little too sweet for me. It has VT229s and RCA6SN7GTAs for signal tubes.

I was surprised to find it is actually even more revealling of my upstream components than the Snappers were. The class A smoothness is addictive and makes jitter or bad caps really stand out.

I can put it into PP with 10dB feedback and play symphonic and even rock at decent levels without falling apart. But it will not blow down the walls like the DNA500 could. Not with these speakers anyway. But it's perfect for how I listen.

I still have the Zeroformers, so I was gonna experiment with those, but with the tubes breaking in it seems like there really is enough power without  any help. I'll try them at some point.

[mgalusha]

Thanks Rich, good to know. I imagine with 95dB sensitive speakers they would be pretty fulfilling. Just out of curiosity I looked at agon and there is a guy about 10 miles from me with a pair for sale. I don't have the cash but I sent him an offer to trade for the Meadowlarks. Don't know what he'll say but figured why not.

mike

[richidoo]

Hey, that's cool! Is it Randall with the new ones, or is it the gold colored Retro 300B? That's the original version designed by David Manley. The new version is called Neo because it is a "redo for modern times," by Mitch Margolis back in 2001. The biggest difference is the output trannys. The Retro is supposed to make 40W!  That retro has been on the market for a while, two weeks ago it was marked sold, but now it's back... fyi....

[mgalusha]

Rich,

It was Randall's amp but alas he was not interested in a trade. Guess I need to get off my butt and actually sell some stuff. I spent entirely too much time last weekend reading Lynn Olson's stuff about the Amity/Raven/Aurora and Karna amps and that just reinforced my desire to play with something using PP DHT's.

Looking forward to your continued impressions of the Manley's.

mike

[richidoo]

Mike, you're one of the few people I know who could build a nutshell amp.  Why not take a couple months and $7000 for iron and tubes give it a try?   Seriously, you might do it for less than a used Manley. But Mitch Margolis is a very talented designer. And Manley's output iron is amazing. The 300Bs have 1.8ohm actual Zout!, Snappers had 1.5 and crystal clear. And they are relatively small trannies! I think that's the big benefit of this amp, along with the adjustability.  I'm already drooling over their Neo Classic 500.

I was gonna buy Randall's pair, even confirmed with Manley that they will have a new warrantee, when that very morning another older pair popped up for less $, with nicer tubes. I just got lucky, and I guess so did the seller. I didn't realize how old mine were until they arrived with previous color scheme and need of a little TLC. I do like the polished stainless chassis.

[mgalusha]

That is the issue of course, the cost of the iron and tubes makes this very much a large commitment. I suspect the end result would be worth it but it would be a long road. One of those where I buy chunks of iron as the budget allows, probably take me a couple of years to complete.

Another amp I'd like to hear and tinker with is the Jolida JD 3000, it uses a pair of 211 DHT's in push pull. Could be interesting, especially if the iron was good and the driver circuit was optimized.

The older VAC 70/70 using 4 300B's per channel would be neat as well. Expensive to retube but I'm guessing they would make sweet music.

I need to sell the LNPA's and the Meadolarks to free up some experimenting money. Dropped almost all my audio funds on the new shop, which is great but now I have to start saving again.

[richidoo]

I'd like to experiment with high sensitivity speakers, but some saving is necessary first. If I did not have my wife to remind me of previous failed speaker experiments I would have sold the Ushers to just fund the mission. It'll come, but at a realistic pace.

I was watching a show today about the fact that large atoms like iron are created in supernovae explosions. And atoms above and below iron in the periodic table are trying to become iron, it is the most stable atom. To a tube guy it is more precious than diamonds? Well we need diamonds for needles so more precious than... um..... shit we need all of those different elements.  OK plutonium.  Pund for pound MDF and iron take the cake in a stereo.

When I was researching what to get for my first system, a Legacy Signature review used a VAC Ren70. The guy was a real audio poet, and sucked me into the tube religion big time. When I finally met Kevin Hayes at RMAF, I had a case of audio idolatry. But he is a humble nice guy.  I would love to hear that amp too.

[mgalusha]

Sadly I have some of that as well. Spent 15 years working around it and some small amount is in my bones, so they tell me.

Back on topic now.

OK plutonium.