Manley Labs STEREO EQ owner manual The Front Panel, mini

THE FRONT PANEL

					3						3	2					3					3
			LOW FREQUENCY EQ		BOOST		HI FREQUENCY EQ				BOOST	EQ IN			LOW FREQUENCY EQ		BOOST		HI FREQUENCY EQ			BOOST
	FREQUENCY		BANDWIDTH	LEVEL	OUT	FREQUENCY		BANDWIDTH	LEVEL		OUT		FREQUENCY		BANDWIDTH	LEVEL	OUT	FREQUENCY		BANDWIDTH	LEVEL	OUT
		150		8			3K9		8					150		8			3K9		8			mini
	100	220			CUT	2K7	5K6				CUT		100	220			CUT	2K7	5K6			CUT
	68		330			1K8		8K2					68		330			1K8		8K2
BY MANLEY LABS	47		470		SHELF	1K2		12K			SHELF	POWER	47		470		SHELF	1K2		12K		SHELF		massive
	33		680			820		16K			BELL		33		680			820		16K		BELL
								0		20					0		20				0
	22	1K	0		20	560	27K		PB				22	1K				560	27K			20
		HZ		P B	BELL		HZ				BELL 2			HZ		PB	BELL		HZ		P B	BELL	2
		7	6	5	4		7	6	5		4	1		7	6	5	4		7	6	5	4

1)The Power Switch: First things first, flip the toggle up to turn on the Mini Massive. There is no "power on LED", instead the "Bypass" LED indicator is lit red for a few seconds as the unit warms up and stabilizes. If the "EQ IN" switch is also up, then a few seconds later the LED changes from red to green. The Mini Massive has a "hard-wire bypass" so even when power is off it will pass audio untouched. In fact, because this EQ is quite transparent when set flat, one of our tests is cycling power on and off while listening for any audible change - it should be as transparent through the unit as when hardwire bypassed.

2)EQ IN toggle: This activates both sides of the EQ and is intended as a convenience feature. Of course, it is pretty easy to bypass the two individual sections per side using the "OUT" setting (Switch#3) so one can easily use the unit as two mono EQs. This master EQ IN switch makes auditioning and comparing the effect of the total stereo EQ extremely easy.

3)BOOST / OUT / CUT, TOGGLE. Each band has individual toggles to select whether that band will boost or cut or be bypassed. "OUT" is a hardwire bypass for that band. Unlike most EQs, you must select boost or cut for each band. There are several good reasons for this arrangement. First, because the boost part of the circuit is in a different place than the cut part because it is passive, this allows us to use the same components in both sections but doing essentially opposite functions. The conventional arrangement of a boost/zero/cut pot (baxandall) circuit was avoided to really make it passive. This switch also allows twice the resolution of the "GAIN" pot and a much more accurate "zero". The center detent of conventional EQs is rarely the "electrical" center of the pot so what you expect is zero is often a little EQed. This toggle allows some of us, who use dip EQ to reduce offending frequencies to verify those frequencies in "Boost" and then switch to "Cut". Finally, it allows us to bypass each band individually, without losing our "GAIN" pot setting rather than resetting a band to zero or bypassing the entire EQ.

4)SHELF & BELL toggle. The two lowest (leftmost) bands can each be a special Low Shelf or conventional Bell shape. The two highest (rightmost) bands can each be a special High Shelf or conventional Bell shape. Shelf & Bell describe the EQ's shape. We included some diagrams to help visualize these curves. Bell curves focus their boost and cut at given frequency and the further away we get from that frequency, the less boost or cut. The bell curves on the Mini Massive are moderately wide and the "Bandwidth Control" does not have a lot of range and it also affects the maximum boost and cut (like a Pultec). Shelf slopes generally boost (or cut) towards the highs or lows (thus high shelves and low shelves). These are not to be confused with "high or low filters" which purely cut above or below a given frequency. Shelves also have gain or dB controls which allow you to just boost or cut a little bit if desired - filters never have these controls.

The High band also has a special setting labelled BELL 2 that only operates on the 4 highest frequencies. It simply narrows the Q for those 4 highest frequencies. This can be useful for controlling the apparent air or sweetness of the extreme highs. One may notice the ovals marked around the 4 highest freqs and a corresponding oval around the Bell 2 setting.

It is a bit of an refinement from the Massive Passive which doesn't offer that feature and which followed a more general philosophy of maintaining very similar curve shapes across the spectrum. While the SHELF curves on both the Massive Passive and Mini Massive are capable of good control of 'air', it seems many users missed that idea because they generally favor bell curves and in the case of the Massive Passive the bell Q is probably too wide for great 'air' control. The Mini Massive includes 3 features that vastly improve 'air' control. The first is this narrower Q in Bell 2, the second is reshaped curves for the 4 highest shelf frequencies, and the third is the incredible clarity offered by the Rapture amps along with transformerless outputs, which extents the frequency and phase response. These features were considered important for a basic 2 band stereo EQ more aimed at mastering than the Massive Passive was, where ironically it has seen a lot of use.

Similarly, we reshaped the 4 lowest shelf curves for more fatness, depth and punch compared to the Massivo. These new curves might be considered more Pultec-like but are not in the strictest sense. They just offer a similar usefulness and essentially increase the range that the bandwidth control can be effectively used for those lowest freqs. It also breaks away from the philosophy on the Massivo of maintaining similar curve shaping across the spectrum. The Mini shifts the dip aspect of the shelf curves more towards the low mids and mids for those lowest 4 frequencies.

It may also be worth pointing out that the shelf curves that were introduced by the Massive Passive were quite unique at that time and while there have been imitations since, these shelves are still unique, unusual and certainly unconventional compared to most EQs and are worth exploring and learning. Let us just say that the biggest fans of the Massive are the engineers who quickly learned the strange shelf 'features' and those who approached it as a whole new tool, and not just a standard EQ.

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