Manley SLAM! Mastering Version is the SLAM prepared for mastering work: no microphone preamplifiers, stepped controls instead of potentiometers, and a genuine hardwire bypass of the whole path.
Settings in one decibel steps
In mastering a half decibel decision has to be repeatable, and a continuous knob cannot deliver that. This version has no potentiometers: every control is detented, mostly in 1 dB steps, with 0.5 dB and 2 dB steps where they make sense. They are built with 1% metal film resistors on sealed gold contact Grayhill switches, so both channels stay matched, and a setting is a position number you write down and return to a month later.
The preamp removed, a bypass added
Dropping the microphone section is not a feature taken away, it is the condition for two others. First, it makes a true hardwire bypass of the entire unit possible, which cannot be done with preamps in the path. Second, the valve stages are paralleled, which lowers noise and distortion compared with the standard version. Extended metering options come on top of that, while the limiters themselves, the optical ELOP and the FET, are unchanged.
KEY FEATURES
- Mastering version without microphone preamplifiers
- Detented controls instead of potentiometers
- 1 dB steps, with 0.5 dB and 2 dB steps where appropriate
- 1% metal film resistors on Grayhill switches
- Genuine hardwire bypass of the whole unit
- Paralleled valve stages for lower noise
- Extended metering options
- ELOP optical limiter with a musical character
- FET brick wall limiter
- Sidechain inserts on a mini patchbay
- Exact channel matching when recalling settings
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
- Channels: 2
- Maximum limiter gain: 20 dB
- Frequency response: 5 Hz to 60 kHz
- THD+N: below 0.05% at 1 kHz
- Dynamic range: 115 dB
- Maximum output: +32 dBm
- Line inputs and outputs: transformer coupled balanced XLR
- Input valves: 2 x 12AT7A selected for low noise
- Output valves: 2 x 12BH7 or 6414W
- Dimensions: 19 x 12 x 3.5 inches, 2U
- Weight: 25 lbs; power consumption 57.6 W
