Manley Labs Oasis Phono Stage Review

Posted on 24th May, 2024
Manley Labs Oasis Phono Stage Review

Chris Frankland auditions an excellent tube phono preamp from an iconic brand…

Manley Laboratories

Oasis Phono Stage

GBP £4249 | AUD $7995 | USD $3999

Manley Labs Oasis Review

US-based Manley Labs has a strong track record in manufacturing high-quality valve-based products for studio professionals and domestic users. Its outspoken CEO, EveAnna Manley, has a background steeped in valve amplification, thanks in no small part to her father, Albert Dauray, who owns the bass and guitar amplifier company Ampeg.

She has always been a firm advocate of tubes and cut her teeth at Vacuum Tube Logic, where she met and married David Manley. Manley Labs split from VTL in 1993, and David left the company in 1996, leaving EveAnna at the helm. The company prides itself on making all its products in-house, including the transformers.

Manley Labs Oasis Review

The Oasis replaces the previous Chinook model and sits below its flagship Steelhead phono stage at £11,599. Given the company's distinctly fish-focused product naming regime, I was surprised that Chinook's successor was called Oasis. Chinook, by the way, in case you were thinking helicopter or wind, is a species of Pacific salmon. The Oasis breaks with that tradition and is named after one of Manley's mastering studio partners, for which David Manley built their first mastering facility in the mid-nineties.

UP CLOSE

The main differences between the Oasis and Chinook include a deeper and more solid steel top with radiused edges and a redesigned faceplate with an inlaid 'racetrack' surrounding the logo. This solid metal front panel is available in black, grey, or blue. The review sample had a blue faceplate, which I thought looked rather attractive. A welcome change is the relocation of the gain switches from inside the case to the rear panel, alongside the DIP switches, which allows the user to select the most appropriate capacitative and resistive input loading for the cartridge being used.

Manley Labs Oasis Review

On the front panel, you simply get an on/off switch, as all the action is on the rear panel. Here, you will find, as well as the aforementioned DIP and gain switches, a ground terminal and one set of RCA sockets each for input and output. The gain can be set to suit moving magnet or moving coil cartridges and offers options of 45dB, 50dB, 60dB or 65dB. For moving magnets, 45dB or 50dB should do the trick, with 60dB and 65dB being more suitable for moving coils. My Audio Note Io1 has a very low output voltage of just 0.04mV, so I opted for the highest (65dB) gain setting. A Hana Umami Blue has an output of 0.4mV; for most Ortofons, it's 0.5mV, so these would suit a lower gain setting.

Sticking with moving coils, you can also adjust the input resistance. This does make a difference and is worth experimenting with. The Oasis allows values ranging from 26 to 47k ohms to be set. Moving coils tend to like a lowish load impedance of between 5 and 100 ohms, but check the spec sheet for your cartridge or consult the manufacturer. I used the lowest setting (26 ohms) for the Io1 as it likes to see a very low impedance. At the higher end, 47k ohms is where you would typically set it for moving magnets.

Manley Labs Oasis Review

Capacitance can also be adjusted between 0pF and 350pF in 50pF steps; again, consult your manual. Low capacitance is usually best for moving coils, and 100pF worked well for me, and the sound was better balanced than with 200pF. Moving magnets tend to like a load capacitance between 100pF and 500pF, so again, check your spec sheet. Manley also advises users to subtract the cable's capacitance and suggests maybe allowing 60 to 90pF for this. It also indicates that if the recommended cartridge load and cable capacitance are unknown, 150pF is a good default value.

If you are using a moving coil with a step-up transformer, which you may want to do if it is a high-end model, this would typically be used with the lowest gain setting and input impedance set to 47k ohms, which is the default impedance for most preamps.

Doing the heavy lifting inside the Oasis are four 6922 triode valves, two for the gain stage (one for each channel) and two for the output stage, assisted by low-noise FET receiving the signal below each cathode. The audio signal is directly coupled from the gain stages to another 6922 dual triode serving as an output driver in White Follower configuration, which Manley says gives super-low output impedance and 'beefy current-driving capabilities'.

Manley Labs Oasis Review

Manley says no integrated circuits are used in the signal path. The only ICs employed are in a servo configuration to apply a precise biasing voltage to the gate of each FET, while some are used to perform certain logic functions to mute the output when turning it on or shutting it down. Additionally, the company says that highly accurate passive RIAA networks are used to restore the originally intended frequency response, with only hand-selected and/or 1% tolerance components throughout.

Last but not least, the Oasis now uses the Manley Power switch-mode power supply, which is said to have been trialled to great success in the company's Pro Audio products. This provides 300 volt DC rails to run the valves, 6V lines to power them up and other rails for the phantom power and solid-state control voltages. They say it is not only quieter but that its high voltage equates to high headroom and better sound quality.

Manley Labs Oasis Review

To see what the Oasis could do, I hooked it up to my Audio Note TT3/Arm Two/Io1 turntable front end, with either an AN-S9 transformer feeding the Manley on the low-gain MM setting or the cartridge signal fed directly into the Oasis on high gain. The amplifier used was Audio Note's Meishu Tonmeister with Russell K Red120Se speakers. I began my listening using the AN-S9 transformer.

THE LISTENING

This is a dynamic, detailed, musical phono stage with an evident love of music. With the modern remaster of the 1963 Joao Gilberto and Stan Getz recording of The Girl from Ipanema, the Oasis captured the quirky vocal style of Joao Gilberto beautifully. The wonderful double bass that underpins the track was well-controlled, tuneful and fluid. When Astrud joined in, her voice was open, explicit and sensual and sent a tingle down my spine in the way I knew it should. And when Stan Getz joined the party on sax, I revelled in how the Oasis conveyed its raunchy presence and his understated yet powerful technique.

Manley Labs Oasis Review

Human Nature from Miles Davis's album You're Under Arrest was a masterclass in musicality. On this lovely cover of the Michael Jackson original, the Oasis let me hear into the various musical elements of keyboards, percussion and bass while conveying the subtle nuances of the trumpet, and how Davis shaped each note, pushed it or held it back. With its complex layers and lilting, staccato rhythms, this is a challenge for any hi-fi, but the Oasis nailed it, reminding me why Davis is rightly considered to be a master of his instrument.

An equally quirky track but one that catches a lot of hi-fi out is the half-speed mastered version of guitarist John Martyn's Solid Air album. His voice can be challenging to follow, and that weighty double bass is hard to control. The Oasis, however, took a firm grip on that upright and expertly conveyed its ebb and flow. Martyn's distinctive vocals were detailed and intelligible. His guitar was sharply defined and easy to follow throughout, and when the vibes kicked in, they were open and well-controlled.

Manley Labs Oasis Review

Guitarist Larry Carlton's A Place for Skipper from his Discovery album is an excellent test for leading-edge accuracy and detail, and the Oasis was not found lacking. The guitar was articulately presented with great insight into note shape and power. The percussion was delicately painted and detailed, while any notions you might have had about valve equipment giving woolly bass performance go out the window here. The bass guitar line was tight, deep and melodic, and when the kick drum joined it, it was tight and snappy.

To test the highest gain setting on the Oasis, I ditched the transformer and fed the Io1 directly, and I have to say, the results were excellent. It handled the very low output voltage of the Io1 well, with no noise or hiss evident. It was easily better than using a low- to medium-priced transformer. It makes the Manley even better value for money as you can safely feed your moving coil straight in and get excellent results. If you want to splash out on a high-end transformer at some future date, that is always an option.

THE VERDICT

The Manley Labs Oasis is a great-sounding and versatile valve phono stage with load and gain settings that should get the most out of almost any moving magnet or moving coil cartridge. It is beautifully made, works well, and is quiet and unobtrusive in operation. It also more than holds its own against similarly priced and well-respected competitors that I have heard. So, whatever cartridge you use, this should prove a sound investment in more than ways than one.

Visit Manley Labs for more information

Chris Frankland's avatar
Chris Frankland

One of StereoNET’s most experienced reviewers, Chris has written for a multitude of hi-fi magazines, from Hi-Fi Answers and Hi-Fi Sound, to The Flat Response and Hi-Fi Review. A regular concert-goer, his quest continues to find hi-fi that gets as close as possible to conveying the raw emotion of live music.

Posted in: Amplifiers | Phono Preamplifiers | Applause Awards | 2024 | Hi-Fi

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