Manley SKIPJACK User Manual

MANLEY

LABORATORIES, INC.

THE SKIPJACK

OWNER'S MANUAL

TUBES

brought to you by the clever folks at:

MANLEY LABORATORIES, INC.

13880 MAGNOLIA AVE.

CHINO, CA. 91710 USA

TEL: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

email: [e-mail]

website: www.manleylabs.com

RULE

CONTENTS

SECTION PAGE

INTRODUCTION 3

OVERVIEW 4

BASIC OPERATION 5

SKIPJACK MENUS 6 & 7

CLEVER USAGES 8

COMPARING CABLES 9 & 10

COMPARISONS DEFINITIONS 11

THE FUTURE 12

OPTIMIZING YOUR SOUND SYSTEM 13

CREDITS & SPECIFICATIONS 14

EXAMPLES 15

2

INTRODUCTION

THANK YOU!...

for choosing the Manley SKIPJACK for your audio switching requirements. The MANLEY SKIPJACK was first
conceived as perhaps the world's first audiophile-grade A-B switcher. It was meant to be simple but then we started
getting too clever for ourselves and expanded it to a 4 into 1 or 3 into 2 switcher, added ABX switching, a remote
pickle remote controller and fancy lights and such to make it into the product you now hold with endearment in your
hands. After a year and a half of design work and programming, we hope you will appreciate the effort we put into this
seemingly simple product and we hope you will enjoy it immensely.

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. Many of the remarks contained herein are especially
pertinent because the SKIPJACK is quite clever, so read on and don't miss any of the cool features!
Thank you again, and please enjoy your new SKIPJACK! (and the clever Owner's Manual.)

UNPACKING: Unpack the SKIPJACK carefully by removing all the custom foam packing material and make sure
that all supplied accessories are present. Carefully examine all items for any possibility of shipping damage. If the
SKIPJACK 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 SKIPJACK was packed by Manny Q. with extreme love and each box 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.)
c) 1 each, SKIPJACK switching unit
d) 1 each, power supply unit with captive power supply cord
e) 1 each, 25 foot remote Pickle Switcher, RJ-45 connector on one end and Pickle Switch on the other end

It is prudent to retain the shipping materials for future use, as they are custom-formed for the unit and will
greatly minimize the chance of shipping-related damage should you ever need to put your precious
SKIPJACK in the careless hands of The Shipping People again. We have heard that certain rodents might
enjoy munching on the packing foam. We are sorry to report that we do not warranty the packing foam
against attack by mice, rats, or other hungry critters, hungry children, hungry neighbors, etc. Try glue traps
or spring-traps loaded with peanut butter to eliminate these unwelcome freeloaders from your property.

Your SKIPJACK has been supplied with a universal power supply which will work with any and all mains voltages
on the planet from 100Vac to 240Vac. There is no voltage changeover switch! Just plug it in and it will work.

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.

3

OVERVIEW

The Manley Skipjack is a novel little multi-purpose product. In its most basic form, a partial list of what it might be used
for is:

Selector of 4 x Stereo Inputs to 1 Stereo Output.
Selector of 3 x Stereo Inputs to 2 Stereo Outputs.
Routing 1 Stereo source to one of 4 Stereo Destinations.
Routing 1 of 2 Stereo Sources to 1 of 3 Stereo Destinations.

These basic functions may be just what you need to extend the number of Inputs on a typical Hi-Fi Preamplifier or
Receiver which often have too few, especially those Surround receivers that only have one set of “Direct Inputs” that
bypass all digital conversions and processing. It is also intended as a wonderful way to compare multiple audio products
with minimal electronics in the audio path. In fact, the audio only passes through the high end RCA phono connectors, a
few inches of audiophile wire, and is switched by sealed gold contact relays where both the signal sides use 2 switch
elements and the ground uses 2 switch elements for reliable redundant and leakage free connections. In other words, a
stereo pair needs 4 relays and the Skipjack has 40 relays to perform all routing needed.

Switching signals and grounds separately allows us to control the timing to a fine degree to minimize clicks. Of course,
when switching between any two different signals may generate a click, depending on the relative difference between
instantaneous voltages on those two signals. The method we use generates practically insignificant artifacts when the
signals are matched, because both “overlap” and “dead air” are minimized.

A wired simple single button remote control (known as “The Pickle” in recording studios) gives one immediate and
confident A/B (or A/B/C/D) switching. Additionally, the Skipjack is designed with the possibility to accept both infra-red
and radio-frequency remote controls, through the the use of additional modules and remote controls through the same

back panel port. Each Remote Control opens the door to other purposes particularly useful to equipment reviewers, audio
retailers and audio R&D labs, including a variety of A/B/X tests, with various modes of blindness and statistical reports.
This port could also be used (with the appropriate cable adaptor and software) to accept commands from a computer and
report status. The aforementioned extra options have not yet been developed, but should the demand arise in the future...)

Perhaps the biggest use of the port will be to link Skipjacks. For example 3 Skipjacks could be used for some great 5.1
switching and routing. A very low cost adapter allows one to join up to 4 Skipjacks and have them follow one set of
commands.

The Skipjack is surprisingly heavy for a little box. The weight is to stabilize for the heavy and stiff audiophile
interconnects. With 5 pairs of thick wire connected plus the pickle wire (or a Cat-5 cable) and power supply wire we
wanted the Skipjack to sit solidly.

At first glance, one might suppose that the logic required to handle the switching and LEDs might be simple enough to
be accomplished with standard TTL or CMOS logic. Instead there is a simple microprocessor to do this. Before your
“warning bells” sound off, 99.9% of the time the processor is “sleeping” and the clock is shut down. It comes to life
once a button is pushed or it receives an external command, performs the necessary action, stores its state, and goes back
to sleep in a fraction of a second. If power is removed and returned, the Skipjack returns to the last state. The audio paths
are completely isolated from the control electronics and external power supply.

The LED indicators on Skipjack are also a bit more elaborate than one might fist guess. The MANLEY badge can be lit
by a combination of four colors, from an array of LEDs behind it. Button “D” uses a two-color LED to help show which
mode it is in and whether “D” is controlling an INPUT or OUTPUT.

The Skipjack uses a small external supply, followed by linear regulators in the box. The power supply is designed for a
worst-case scenario (1 in, all 4 outputs on), which while a rare and unlikely possibility, does require 32 relays and 4
LEDs to be turned on and requires almost 2 Amps of power.

5

BASIC OPERATION...

Operating Modes:

There are two main operating modes: 4x1 and 3x2.

In the 4x1 mode, the jacks labeled ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, and ‘D/OP2’ are connected to the jack labeled ‘OP1’.,
by pressing the buttons labeled ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, or ‘D’. Normally OP1 is connected to a destination like the
input of a preamp or amplifier, and signal sources are connected to jacks A, B, C, and D. But because the
connections are made by relays, Skipjack can be used in reverse – a signal source can be plugged into
OP1, and routed to the A, B, C, and D jacks by pressing the corresponding buttons. The buttons are
interlocked so when you press one, any others that were on are turned off.

You can override the interlock feature by pressing one of the buttons and holding it while pressing one of
the other buttons. This allows you to ‘mult’ two or more sources to an output, or if Skipjack is being used
in reverse, route one signal source to multiple outputs. To remove a source or destination, press and release
any lit button. Pressing an un-lit button will turn all others off and the pressed one on – the interlock.

It is important to remember that since Skipjack is a passive switch, no buffering or mixing takes place. This
means that if you route one source to multiple destinations, the source sees the loading of all destinations in
parallel. Also, if you turn on multiple inputs to one output, the sources are all hardwired together with the
results depending on the signal source output drivers.

In the 3x2 mode, the ‘D/OP2’ jack becomes output-2 and the ‘D’ button is disabled. Any source connected
to the ‘A’, ‘B’, or ‘C’ jacks can be routed to ‘OP1’ and/or to ‘D/OP2’. The ‘X’ button allows one to
switch control and display between output-1 and output-2. When the ‘X’ button is green, the ‘A’, ‘B’, and
‘C’ buttons show and control the routing to ‘OP1’. Pressing and releasing the ‘X’ button will change the
color to red and the ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ buttons show and control the routing to ‘D/OP2’. The routing for

the outputs is not changed by pressing the ‘X’ button, only the display and ability to select inputs for
that output is changed. To say it again in another way, the "X" button is not an output selector. OP1 and

OP2 are always "live". You use the "X" button in green mode to view which inputs are active for OP1, and
the "X" button in red mode to view which inputs are active for OP2. If you do not want to hear audio in
one of the outputs, then go to the red or green mode (as appropriate for which output) and DE-select the
inputs. All other operational features work in the same way as in 4x1 mode.

When in 3x2 mode, it is especially important to remember that Skipjack is a passive switch. If any input is
selected to both outputs, the outputs are effectively connected to each other.

The Pickle:

The Pickle is a button in a small enclosure that might remind one of a small pickle, or perhaps a lavalier
microphone from 1962, or maybe an XLR shell… The cable gets plugged into the RJ-45 jack on rear panel
of Skipjack. (CAUTION: RJ-45 jacks are also used in computers, telephone systems, and in other

devices. Plugging any of these devices into Skipjack will probably ruin everything, including your
reputation.)

The Pickle’s function is to cycle through the inputs. For example, if Skipjack is in 4x1 mode and button
‘A’ in on, pressing the Pickle will turn off ‘A’ and turn on ‘B’. When you release the Pickle button, it will
blink twice. The next Pickle press switches to ‘C’ and the Pickle will blink three times when released.
Predictably, landing on ‘D’ gets four blinks and on ‘A’ one. It goes A-B-C-D-A-B-C-D… forever or until
your thumb gives out. It is possible to get ahead of all the blinking after a series of quick changes but the
next change will blink the correct number of times.

There is a menu setting described below that allows you to control which of the ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’
buttons are included in the Pickle rotation cycle. Thus, Skipjack can skip jacks of the input variety. A-B­A-B or A-C-A-C or A-B-D-A-B-D or whatever.

6