Manley Labs INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER User Manual

MANLEY

LABORATORIES, INC.

OWNER'S MANUAL

THE "STINGRAY"

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

MANLEY LABORATORIES, INC.

13880 MAGNOLIA AVE.

CHINO, CA. 91710
TEL: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

email: [e-mail]

Web site: http://www.manleylabs.com

REV. 3-7-2001

CONTENTS

SECTION PAGE

INTRODUCTION 3

MAINS CONNECTIONS 4

OPERATIONAL NOTES 5

CONNECTING YOUR STINGRAY 6&7

SIMPLE TROUBLESHOOTING 8

FRONT PANEL, LAMP, BACK PANEL 9

TUBE LOCATIONS 10

SIDE PANELS 11

OPTIMIZING YOUR SOUND SYSTEM 12&13

REPLACING TUBES & SETTING BIAS 14&15

CREDITS 16

SPECIFICATIONS 17

WARRANTY 18

WARRANTY REGISTRATION 19

2

INTRODUCTION

THANK YOU!...

for choosing the Manley Laboratories the "STINGRAY" INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER, 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 the right choice.

The basis of the STINGRAY is the Manley 50 Watt Monoblocks combined with what is generally
referred to as a passive preamp. We have always felt that the 50 Watt Monoblocks are among our best
amplifiers for sweet highs and three dimensional staging and imaging. We went a step further and
refined all performance aspects of the output transformers. The advantages of a passive preamp are well
known - near absolute transparency, no added noise and extreme signal path simplicity.

This product shares the same philosophies and standards of component quality and build technique as
all of the recent Manley products. It uses the best available parts with the shortest, cleanest, signal path
possible. Visually, this product is unique, elegant and practical. Visual beauty may be a prime factor for
some but the size, shape and component locations were first chosen first for performance reasons.

Please take a few moments to read through this manual, there may be features and information about this
unit which you should familiarize yourself with.

Thank you again, and please enjoy!

GENERAL NOTES

LOCATION & VENTILATION

The STINGRAY should be installed on a stable location with ample ventilation to allow some cooling.
A table top or cabinet top is a good choice. A speaker top is not the best location because the vibration
can transfer to the Stingray and degrade the sound and possibly cause the tubes to become microphonic.
If your household has small children, we suggest that the STINGRAY be in a location where it may be
out of reach. Similar considerations should apply if you have pets. You do not want the cat or dog
jumping up on it or across it or possibly exposing them to hot tubes accidently. This unit is meant for
indoor use and should be kept clean and dry. You will probably need access to the sides and back so
locating this unit inside a 3 sided cabinet may be not practical. If the Stingray is placed on top of other
equipment, we suggest that rubber feet or pads be placed under the Stingray's 3 feet to prevent scratching
the surface of the other gear.

WATER & MOISTURE

As with any electrical equipment, this unit should not be used near water or moisture.

SERVICING

The user should not attempt to service the amplifier beyond that described in the owner's manual. Refer
all servicing other than tube or fuse replacement to Manley Laboratories.

3

MAINS CONNECTIONS

Your STINGRAY has been factory set to the correct mains voltage for your country. The
voltage setting is marked on the serial badge, located on the rear panel. Check that this com­plies with your local supply.

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/SWITCH ON THE MAINS SUPPLY UNTIL ALL OTHER CON­NECTIONS HAVE BEEN MADE.

4

OPERATIONAL NOTES

SWITCHING ON

The power switch is located on the back panel. You shouldn't need to turn the Stingray around
or get yourself behind it. You should be able to "feel" the rocker switch located next to the AC
power cord. Flip the switch away from the power cord to turn on the Stingray or towards the
power cord to turn off the unit.

RUNNING

It is not recommended that you leave your Stingray stay permanently switched on. This only
wastes electricity and tube life. The Stingray reaches peak operating condition in approximately
30 minutes.

TUBE LIFE

As with all tubes, their quality degrades with age. This is due to decreasing cathode emission, a
natural process found in all tubes. We recommend that you have your amplifier checked every
4-5 years, depending on usage. An excessive increase in noise level or very unstable output tube
bias can indicate the need to replace a tube.

REPLACING A TUBE, INDICATOR LAMP or FUSE. You should read page 14 and 15 for
more details if you need more specific info. You may need a small Phillips screwdriver and the
correct replacement fuse, tube or lamp. First be sure the unit is off and remove the IEC mains
cable. Let it sit for 20 minutes to be sure all power supply capacitors are discharged otherwise
one could still get a shock even though the unit is unplugged. Gently wiggle the tube around
while pulling it out of the socket. Avoid bending the printed circuit board. Before putting a new
tube in, look at it. Check to see that the pins are straight and that they line up to the socket. You
should be able to gently push the tube into the socket without excessive force. If it is the
indicator lamp that needs replacing, remove the bottom cover. Six screws near the sides hold it
in place - when these are removed, the cover should slide off. You will see what looks like a
fuse directly behind the black name panel. Gently pry the lamp out and replace it with another
lamp and not a fuse. Replace the cover before powering up the unit. The mains fuse is in the
IEC power connector sub-assembly. The fuse cover is a grey rectangle with a large slot and a
small slot. The small slot is to help remove the cover. A fingernail or small screwdriver in the
small slot is used to gently push or pry the tab towards the bulk of the grey cover. It should pop
open. The two B+ fuses are located under the bottom cover; see pg 8 under "ONE CHANNEL
DEAD" for details on replacing these. Refer to pg 17 for proper fuse types.

5

CONNECTING YOUR STINGRAY

Setting up this integrated amplifier is rather easy. Please refer to page 8 for a diagram of the
back of the Stingray.

1. You will be connecting power last and turning the system on after all other connec­tions are made to prevent ugly noises as wires are connected and to prevent possible
damage to the amps and speakers. In general, it is best to make any connections
with the power off or the volume control turned all the way down. With all tube
amps, you MUST have speakers (or a load box) properly connected to the speaker
terminals before power is turned on. Without a speaker, the voltage swings can be
large enough to possibly cause an electrical arc inside a tube, tube socket or trans­former and this may damage the amp. Solid state amps operate with no speaker
connected but generally don't tolerate a short circuit. Most tube amps will tolerate a
short, but we try to avoid this.

2. 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 standing straight up. 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 the amp.

3. On rectangular chassis it is easy to specify front, back, sides etc - but on the 6 sided
Stingray we should adopt a convention and call the sides that have the RCA inputs
and input switching as Left-Back and Right-Back. We provide 4 left inputs on the
Left-Back and 4 right inputs on the Right-Back. We realize splitting left and right
this way with individual input select switches may be a problem for some - sorry.
We did it this way because a good percentage of people rely on only one source
95% of the time and because it provides you with the maximum stereo separation at
the lowest cost. Yes, it could have been more convenient but it would have cost
more if more we had to use 10 "runs" of good shielded wire and it wouldn't have
sounded quite as good.

4. 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 Stingray. 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. You may have to
separate or split interconnects an extra 12 inches if they are the "paired" type or
slide the loop that holds the pair together. If you need to connect a turntable (vinyl!)
you will need a separate phono preamp to raise the level from the tiny signal from
the cartridge to regular line levels. Manley builds these, as do some other
manufacturers.

6