Manley SHRIMP User Manual

MANLEY

LABORATORIES, INC.

THE SHRIMP

OWNER'S MANUAL

TUBES

brought to you by the clever folks at:

MANLEY LABORATORIES, INC.

13880 MAGNOLIA A VE.

CHINO, CA. 91710 USA

TEL: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

email: [e-mail]

website: www.manleylabs.com

RULE

CONTENTS

SECTION PAGE

INTRODUCTION 3

MAINS CONNECTIONS 4

GETTING STARTED 5

MOVING RIGHT ALONG 6

FEATURES AND APPLICATIONS 7 & 8

SIMPLE TROUBLESHOOTING 9

REPLACING ATUBE OR LAMP 10

TUBE FAQ 11

MORE SILLY VACUUM TUBE QUESTIONS 12

OPTIMIZING YOUR SOUND SYSTEM 13 & 14

CREDITS 15

SPECIFICATIONS & FEATURES 16

WARRANTY 17

WARRANTY REGISTRATION 18

2

INTRODUCTION

THANK YOU!...

for choosing the Manley "SHRIMP" PREAMPLIFIER. You have possibly chosen this product because you
auditioned it in a store or heard it at a hi-fi show and were impressed with the sound. It may have been the right
combination of price, power, features and styling for you. It may have been because you know the Manley Labs
reputation for quality, reliability and integrity. If any or all of these were the reasons, you made a good choice and for
that, we thank you.

The SHRIMP shares key outward features found in many of its counterparts both past and present. It is a two-channel
single-ended line level control preamplifier with five sets of stereo inputs, and two sets of paralleled stereo line
outputs. A five position input selector switch routes the chosen signal directly to the first amplifier tube’s control
grid. Amplified signals, boosted about 4 times [11.8 dB] are then fed through special high quality NOBLE stereo
variable attenuators, known for their stability, long life, ease of servicing and good inter-channel level tracking
characteristics. This is followed by a similarly appealing set of high quality NOBLE stereo balance potentiometers.

The attenuator network output is then fed to a special White-follower output stage. This output circuit has been a
favourite of ours for many years mainly due to the stage’s inherently low output impedance, simplicity, wide
bandwidth, ease of drive, modest feedback requirements and graceful overload characteristics. Ordinarily, the typical
SHRIMP user would not ever begin to approach the limits of this output stage under normal line and loading
circumstances.

High quality polypropylene dielectric film-and-foil capacitors have been employed at all signal-coupling points in the
circuit along with two extravagant 30 microfarad metalized monsters coupling the output stage signals to the output
RCA jacks. These are all MultiCaps made by our buddy Bas Lim at Rel Cap. We know you would rather listen to
superior capacitors such as these over some cheap electrolytic capacitors like you might find in other gear.

But the MANLEY SHRIMP’s cardinal feature is its uncomplex non-inverting signal path. This minimal signal path
approach is designed to bring unbalanced RCA-type line inputs up to levels suitable for proper drive of downstream
power amplifiers in the simplest and most direct way possible. This is accomplished by using only two active stages,
as described above, through the judicious use of vacuum tubes, whose purpose-designed application in audio
amplification is, as always, pressed to full advantage. By so doing, the endeavor here is to provide the most direct,
uncolored, quiet and wide-band signal path possible so that the native character of the chosen source material may be
heard without encumbrances from a set of imposed limitations brought on by the preamp. In this spirit, there are no
provisions for balanced inputs or outputs. Since the whole guts of the Shrimp is inherently single-ended, adding
balanced I/O would require additional circuitry, transformers, or IC's which would inevitably color the sound.

Please read over this entertaining and enjoyable owner's manual carefully as it contains information essential
to the proper operation and maximum enjoyment of this instrument.

Thank you again, and please enjoy your new Shrimp! (and the clever Owner's Manual.)

UNPACKING: Unpack the amplifier carefully and make sure that all supplied accessories are present. Carefully
examine all items for any possibility of shipping damage. All four tubes should be standing at attention in their
sockets, and should show no signs of distress such as chipped glass, loose internal components or obvious breakage.
If the preamplifier is damaged or fails to operate, notify the shipper or your dealer or us or your local authorities
immediately. Or if you suspect The Shipping People threw it off the airplane and onto your front porch whilst flying
overhead at 30,000 feet, notify the shipping company without delay and complain to them as we only guarantee this
unit to be able to survive a drop of 23,487 feet or less.

Your SHRIMP was packed by Manny Q. with extreme love and includes the following components and accessories:
a) 1 each, 6 foot IEC 3-conductor power cable (that you will probably replace with an expensive audiophile cord anyway.)
b) 1 each, Owner’s Manual (that we hope you will keep reading.)

It is prudent to retain the shipping materials for future use, as they are custom-formed for the preamp and
will greatly minimize the chance of shipping-related damage should you ever need to put your precious
Shrimp in the careless hands of The Shipping People again.

3

MAINS CONNECTIONS

Your SHRIMP has been factory set to the correct mains voltage for your country. (Well, that is what we intended
to do when we knew where it would be initially shipped.) The mains voltage that we built this Shrimp to operate
with is marked on the serial badge, located on the rear panel. Check that this complies with what comes out of
your wall.

There is no voltage changeover switch! Different model power transformers are used for either 117v or 230/240v
countries so be sure to check the sticker and the serial number voltage indication for proper mains voltage. Failure
to properly comply with mains voltage requirements can cause extensive damage to the system, which of course
would not be covered by the warranty. If you relocate from, say, a 120v country to a 240v country, you will need
us to replace the Shrimp's power transformer for you or use a step-up outboard converting transformer.

The mains fuse may be checked by first disconnecting the IEC mains cord from the power supply’s power inlet
plug. Then gently push and rotate counterclockwise the fuseholder retainer cap. The fuse and cap should spring
outward toward your fingers. Inspect the fuse for the proper rating; change if necessary. Refer to the fuse rating
chart in the specifications section of this manual. If you do not know what a blown fuse looks like, you may
measure for continuity across the fuse ends. If your meter reads “OL” when you measure across the fuse, that
means “Open Leads” and that would mean the fuse is blown. A blown fuse usually indicates A Very Bad Thing
occurred. If this has happened to you, try to figure out why it may have happened. (Using a Fast Blow fuse when
we have specified a SLO-BLO fuse is one reason...) If you have no idea why a fuse might have just blown on its
own, you might want to consult with Manley Labs or your dealer for further advice as something Very Bad might
have occured, like the power transformer might have decided to retire early.

One way this could happen is by running the wrong mains voltage into the unit. Be sure not to do that.

If you live in a strange place...

Export units for certain markets have a moulded mains plug fitted to comply with local requirements. If your unit
does not have a plug fitted the coloured wires should be connected to the appropriate plug terminals in accordance
with the following code.

GREEN/YELLOW EARTH terminal
BLUE NEUTRAL terminal
BROWN LIVE terminal

As the colours of the wires in the mains lead may not correspond with the coloured marking identifying the
terminals in your plug proceed as follows;

The wire which is coloured GREEN/YELLOW must be connected to the terminal in the plug which is marked by
the letter E or by the safety earth symbol or coloured GREEN or GREEN and YELLOW.

The wire which is coloured BLUE must be connected to the terminal in the plug which is marked by the letter N or
coloured BLACK.

The wire which is coloured BROWN must be connected to the terminal in the plug which is marked by the letter L
or coloured RED.

DO NOT CONNECT OR SWITCH ON THE MAINS SUPPLY UNTIL ALL OTHER
CONNECTIONS HAVE BEEN MADE. (...or else...)

4

GETTING STARTED

PREPARATION FOR INSTALLATION

Budget a suitable space in which to place the preamplifier and associated interconnect and mains power cables.
This space should be free of strong external magnetic and RF fields, and reasonably removed from strong
loudspeaker-generated acoustical fields. This space should also be free of excessive heat or dust and large enough
to permit easy flow of cool air to the top, bottom and sides of the preamp. Do not connect the SHRIMP to the AC
mains until the other interconnections and items outlined below have been completed.

Keep other associated equipment some distance away from the preamp. This will help keep airflow unrestricted,
and cut down interference from radiated magnetic hum fields that can eminate from certain power supplies.

Before plugging in your interconnects, take a quick visual inspection of the tubes. Sometimes either through
shipping or unpacking things get jostled. Make sure all tubes are firmly in their sockets and not sagging or leaning.
You might also verify that none have turned white inside. That indicates that air has leaked inside the tube (or the
vacuum leaked out!). Though it is rare, a tube is sometimes cracked or broken in shipping. It would need to be
replaced before powering up the Shrimp.

Once in place, connect the input and output cabling to the signal sources and loads as desired.
Plug in your interconnects, one at a time, from each source, ie CD, Tuner, AUX, then connect each input to the
appropriate RCA jack on the Shrimp. All RCA jacks are clearly labled as to a typical function. Each input is for all
intents functionally and electronically the same - only the labels are different.
CD - Plug in your audio outputs from your CD player or "D to A Converter" here. Kind of obvious. A good spot
for the main L & R signals from a DVD deck. Do not patch lines marked "digital output, SPDIF or AC-3 here
though. These are un-decoded digital signals and not audio (yet).

VIDEO - Audio actually, from a VCR or Laser Disc player's audio outputs. Again, watch out for AC-3, video
output and S-video. Don't plug those things into your Shrimp.

TUNER INPUT - Connect your FM/AM tuner outputs here. Another good input for a second VCR too.

AUX - Plux your Aux in here. What is an Aux? It stands for Auxilliary and basically means "extra", so this is just

an extra input for any other source that we didn't label or you have two of. Most people use it for tape deck
playback and some use it for computer audio.

If you need to connect a turntable (vinyl!) you will need a separate phono preamp to raise the level from and
perform RIAA equalization to the tiny signal from the phono cartridge to bring him up regular line levels like what
the Shrimp wants to deal with. The Manley Steelhead can do this for you...

REC OUT - This is an unbuffered Record Output. The signal present at these RCA jacks is the same as whatever
is selected right as it enters the Shrimp. It does not pass through any circuitry other than the selector switch. It is
not affected by the volume control. You can use this output to record from. Plug this into your tape deck recording
inputs, CD Recorder audio inputs, or computer audio inputs if you want to record or dub whatever you are listening
to. Note: some sneaky recording devices can play funny tricks on unbuffered Record Outs which could adversely
affect your audiophile listening experience. Some devices have low-ish imput impedances which can "load down"
the selected input as they are directly seeing each other. Other bastards, if they happen to have certain IC circuitry,
and they happen to be turned off, can present a most undesireable loading condition on also what is your main input
to this Shrimp. To avoid all these surprises, it is recommended to only plug in recording devices to the REC OUT
jacks when you are actually going to record something.

MAIN OUTS - This is what you plug into your power amplifiers. We gave you two sets of paralleled Main
Outputs so you don't have to use an external "Y" cable if you are driving two sets of amplifiers in a Bi-Amp
situation or if you are driving satellites and a subwoofer. We try to be thoughful as we can.

5

MOVING RIGHT ALONG...

Why can't I have balanced ins or outs?

Like we said earlier, since the whole guts of the Shrimp is inherently single-ended, adding balanced I/O would
require additional circuitry, transformers, or IC's which would inevitably color the sound.
If you have some gear that you are trying to hook up to the Shrimp that offers both balanced and unbalanced
connectors, in many cases, you will find that the XLR balanced jack does indeed go through extra stuff just to
become balanced, and in many cases this was done purely for marketing reasons because sometime in the 1990's
somebody started telling everyone in the Hifi biz that "balanced was better" and everybody started banging on extra
balancing thingies and all the cable guys got to sell everybody new cables. (end of cynical rant...) Balanced runs are
indeed mandatory for very long runs of cable, and certainly there are benefits of Common Mode Rejection and
cancellation of odd harmonics in balanced circuitry, especially fully differential circuitry. However, to pull this off
in tube-land with no coupling transformers or extra "stuff" to have to listen through is quite a challenge and in our
experience, the purity and elegance found in low-level single-ended tube circuits just can't be beat.
In the quest for The Ultimate Good Thing, we adopt the "Less is More" mantra. Try it and see.

If you have other gear that only has balanced ins or outs, check its owner's manual to see how it prefers to be
hooked up to a single ended device. Some equipment, especially transformer coupled gear, must have something
always hooked up to both legs. Presuming the convention of Pin 2 = HOT, one would wire an RCA to XLR cable
as follows:
RCA PIN to XLR Pin 2
RCA Outer Shield/Ground to Pins 1 & 3

If the device you are trying to interface with the Shrimp prefers to NOT have anything hooked up to Pin 3 in an
unbalanced interface, (some IC gear is like this) then hook up:
RCA PIN to XLR Pin 2
RCA Outer Shield/Ground to Pin 1 only, leaving Pin 3 empty and neglected.

Check with the manufacturer of your other balanced equipment to see how best to hook it up. It can be done.

NOW THAT YOU HAVE ALL YOUR CABLES PLUGGED IN, you may now connect the IEC power cord to
the preamp and to an energized power outlet.

(Unless you live in California and are in the middle of a Rolling Greyout®™.)

Set the VOLUME control to about 9 o’clock. Choose an active input, as necessary, with the INPUT control. Place
the balance control at the center detent position.

Place the preamp’s mains power switch in the ON position. The MUTE switch lamp will start flashing and the
MANLEY SHRIMP badge will light up. The winking MUTE lamp indicates the beginning of a 30 second warm­up mute delay, during which time the muting relay is engaged; no output will be heard from the preamp. As soon as
everything is settled down inside, the MUTE will go off and stop winking at you. If the MUTE light is still steadily
illuminated, then push it so the MUTE will go off and tunes can play.

DURING OPERATION

Once audio is heard from the SHRIMP the exploration for comfortable volume and balance control settings can
begin. Notice that it takes about 45 minutes of warm-up time for the system to reach thermal equilibrium. During
this warm up time, go walk your dog, make dinner, or play some lite pop music. The Monkees would be a fun
choice. Or even Tom Jones.

POWER DOWN

At the conclusion of your listening session rotate the power knob to the OFF position to cut power to the preamp.
Notice that effort has been made to keep power engagement and cessation noise generated by the preamp to a
minimum. Nevertheless it is wise to remove power mains and signal feed to your power amps when the preamp is
undergoing a power state change. As a rule, power up your amplifiers last, power down them first so they do not
amplify any stray noises which could occur upstream from source components powering up or down. Additionally,
it is best to cut power to the SHRIMP when not in use rather then leaving the power on indefinitely. This will
enhance tube and system life. The tubes should last thousands of hours under normal conditions.