Manley 300B Preamplifier

Pkc_b2:
Thanx for your reply. I emailed EveAnna @ Manley and she was nice enough to help me work with my dealer (Thanx guys, if you ever read this) to let me have a 300B pre demo to try in my system. Here's my impression of the Manley 300B (5k) vs. Air Tight ATC-3 (3.5K with Mulards tubes)
1. Noise: The Air Tight is quieter when idle...The Manley emits a light buzz audible with my ear about 4-5" from the tweeter..its transformer also buzz a little too...but all of these are all inaudible from a few feet away.
2. The Air Tight is crisper in the Hi (but not bright)..Manley 's softer (but not dull)
3. Air Tight is quicker and tighter in the bass..but the Manley can go a bit deeper.
4. I LOVE the Manley's midrange!!!!! It sounds so lush when rendering strings and detailed at the same time. I hear more friction of the bow/strings more through the Manley.
5. Manley throws such a DEEP soundstage !!! I listened to the Firebird suit on Mercury with Antal Dorati on my Avid Acutus and i was speechless. The Air Tight is very very good too but i feel it's more direct, more upfront , closer to the orchestra
6. Tonally, i felt the Manley is a bit darker...just love it reproducing Oboe sound.
7. Just a personal preference, i DO NOT like the Manley's step-volume..cuz it's kinda hard to dial in the right loudness..sure it sounds good..but the Air Tight's volume is much easier to fine tune to the loudness i want.
Man...The Air Tight is so good considering 2k different in price..but i am so tempted right now to sell it or trade it in for the Manley..To be honest, i am not very crazy about Manley gears' look (Some might love them though), but something's interesting with this 300B...it's just ..charming!!

What am i gonna do??????

Jaytea - 300b's are noisy, midrangey tubes by their nature. I'm surprised you didn't mention the two headphone jacks or using them? Some people say the Manley stuff is dark, but I just find it to be that pro gear quality "no crap in the background" lack of contamination. So the 300b's get in the way of that a bit. I could live with the 300b nature, given the over gestalt. Dark isn't exactly the word I would use I guess. I'm a big Airtight fan actually, but "quiet" is not really one of the words I would use to descibe their stuff. Didn't you post something about your ATM-2 being "buzzy"? Airtight always seems a little hissy ...I mean "airy". So the noise issue seems secondary to me.

Hi Biomimetic,
I did not try the headphone outputs when i audition the 300B pre by using a demo from Kevin Deal @ Upscale audio. After i bought one, i did try them out and together with EveAnna Manley from Manley Labs, we discovered some very interesting things, which i described in details in my so-called "review" on this 300B pre (Look under my name and review thread).

You know, actually your first post doesn't say anything about headphones.

Bio: sorry i didnt get your question..what i meant when i said "After i bought one, i did try them out..." was that after i bought a new Manley 300B pre (not headphones), then i did try its headphones output (on the new Manley, not the demo..i didnt try the headphone outputs on the demo).

Hope the clarification help.