HISTORY

jump to: THE MANLEY FACTORY ABOUT EVEANNA MANLEY

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The MANLEY brand has been around since the late 1980's.

Manley's first commercially available products were upper echelon high-fidelity vacuum tube amplifiers and preamplifiers constructed at the old Vacuum Tube Logic of America factory.

On January 30, 1989, a 20 year old EveAnna on sabbatical from her studies at Columbia University met the crew and was hired on to the production team. She quickly learned to solder and assemble vacuum tube amplifiers, and after training a new team of assemblers, EveAnna worked her way into the Quality Control department.

It was at this time that the first Manley professional products were developed, starting with the original 1u Reference 60dB Microphone Preamplifier and soon followed by the Manley Enhanced Pultec and Mid Frequency Equalizers. These products, along with the Manley Reference Cardioid and Reference Gold microphones, all made their debut at the 1990 Los Angeles AES Show.

In 1993, Manley Laboratories, Inc. became a separate entity apart from VTL.

The new Manley Labs factory at 13880 Magnolia Ave. in beautiful and bovine Chino, California was outfitted to house the Manley Hi-Fi and Pro Studio manufacturing as well as the Langevin production lines, our newly acquired machine shop, and printed circuit board facilities. The following year, the factory's capabilities were augmented by the addition of a computer-controlled mechanical engraving machine and, very importantly, a transformer winding department.

These custom transformers rapidly become a hallmark of the Manley sound, and remain so to this day.

After only three years with Manley Laboratories, co-founder David Manley abruptly left the company and the country in 1996. With EveAnna Manley now at the helm, the modern form of Manley Labs began to take shape.

During the late 1990s, several legendary products were introduced. These are our industry's modern classics.

1994: Manley Stereo Variable Mu^® Limiter-Compressor
1997: Manley VOXBOX^® Reference Channel Strip
1997: Manley Stingray^® Stereo Integrated Amplifier
1998: Manley Massive Passive^® Stereo EQ

From the early 2000s to today, Manley has focused on streamlining production processes, becoming more efficient while maintaining the principles of high-end audio quality and integrity in American manufacturing that have always guided the brand.

Beginning with the CORE^® Reference Channel Strip in 2014 and continuing with the FORCE^®, NU MU^® and ELOP^®+, the newly designed power supplies in Manley’s latest gear provide the ultra-low noise floor, true high voltage brawn, and superior headroom required for serious analog sound.

Manley Laboratories continues to produce recording, mixing, mastering, and playback equipment of the very highest caliber, proudly maintaining the great analog traditions upon which the company was built - and always looking forward to the future of the industry. TUBES RULE.

THE MANLEY FACTORY

FACTORY TOURS

‘Welcome to Manley Labs’

Warren Huart (Produce Like A Pro)

Michael Fremer (AnalogPlanet)

Upscale Audio

CRAS (Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences)

Part Time Audiophile

San Francisco Audiophile Society

FACTORY PHOTOS

Who is EveAnna Manley?

EveAnna has been referred to by some as “The Manley Tube Queen”, and even “America’s Goddess of Thermionic Emissions” - although she more humbly prefers the title of “Tube Chick”.

EveAnna was actually born in Las Vegas, but stumbled out of vacuum tube lineage as her father, Albert J. Dauray, owned the famous guitar amplifier company, Ampeg, in the late 1960's. EveAnna grew up in Atlanta listening to vacuum tubes and tales of the tube. She and her sister Stacey graduated from the prestigious Westminster Schools. EveAnna was very active in both the music and art programs in high school and then wound up as a music major at Columbia University with a mid-fi system driving her parents’ leftover AR-2ax speakers. While she did have a blast stealing roadsigns with the Columbia University Marching Band, and getting into even more trouble as President of her co-ed fraternity, Iota Epsilon Pi, the combination of yucky depressing winters in New York City and all those sunny and cheerful tunes and flicks coming out of Southern California beckoned her westward in her VW bug for a semester's sabbatical in 1989 to sort out exactly what she wanted to do in the music industry.

EveAnna got a lead from one of her father's ol' Ampeg employees about "two crazy South Africans running a small tube amp company out in Chino". Although this did not seem too appealing to her at first, she went to meet David and Luke Manley at VTL.

EveAnna started on the bottom-most rung at VTL and soon worked her way through absolutely every phase and detail of construction, testing, prototyping, engineering, purchasing, sales, service, and production management in the company. She has worn many hats - and still does!

In 1993 Luke took over VTL while David and EveAnna founded Manley Laboratories, Inc. as a separate entity in their new 11,000 sq. ft. building. EveAnna donned a sales hat and got Manley Labs going. Things got rolling…

However, in 1996, David Manley took off and moved to France leaving EveAnna in de-facto charge of Manley Labs. She and a few others took over the pressing R&D duties. This is when some of the most important products at Manley were created, and some of the most important "fix-ups" of the older products took place. The ads took a new direction under EveAnna's eye-catching yet sometime quirky direction – but hey, they worked! Company sales doubled between 1996 and 1999.