[Yikes]

OK - It's a slightly misleading title because I haven't actually had the opportunity to audition the Manley 300B Preamplifier. I have however had the pleasure of auditioning the Woo Audio WA5LE. The WA5LE impressed me to such an extent that I had decided to purchase one for use as my dynamic reference amplifier.

Then Todd brought along a Manley 300B Preamplifier to CanJam (now I regret not going). I had forgotten that the Manley even existed. Now it has me thinking, because I need a good preamplifier. The problem is that demo Manley 300B preamps are far and few between.

So here are the pros and cons as I see them.
Woo Audio WA-5LE Pros
1) Tremendous sound quality. (I know that I'll love it for headphone use)
2) Fantastic visual and build quality (It's beautiful)
3) Less expensive (about $3500 vs $5250)
Woo Audio WA-5LE Cons
1) It's only a headphone amp. (I don't need a low power amp)

Manley 300B Preamplifier Pros
1) Preamp and Headphone amplifier in the same chassis. (I need both)
2) Suppose to be exceptional in either role.
3) Soon there will be a retrofit-able remote control (Volume - necessary for a preamp)
4) You get a great preamp for only $1750 more than the WA5-LE.
Manley 300B Preamplifier Cons
1) kind of utilitarian appearance (maybe an acquired taste?)
2) (the big one) Unknown performance (I haven't heard it).

So does anyone else have opinions concerning this comparison? I'd love to hear anything from people who have actually heard both of them.

Thanks
Yikes

 

[Yikes]

No-one has heard both? I'd say that it wouldn't even have to be side by side comparisons for someone to form an opinion.

The truth is that I am leaning toward the Manley. The fact is that I want the Woo Audio WA-5LE (A 300B Headphone amplifier), but I NEED a preamp. Since the Manley would be both a very good preamp and a 300B headphone amplifier it could fulfill both my Want and my Need.

Both companies wind their own output transformers. It at least appears that Manley has more experience doing so.

The Woo Audio WA-5LE uses Point-Point wiring. When done properly (and Woo Audio does it properly) P-P can be a big sonic plus. Woo Audio would also use my wire if asked (As they did with my GES).

Manley uses a quality Mil-Spec circuit board, although they do use a high quality Silver wire when needed (outputs and switching etc.). I haven't checked to see if Manley would be willing to use my wire in place of their Silver wire.

For Headphone only use I think that I'd prefer the WA-5LE, but I keep coming back to the fact that I also need a good preamp.

 

[WooAudio]

PM sent.

 

[Voltron]

Although I only heard a couple songs on the Manley and I have had extensive time with the WA5, I think that the Woo is definitely the better headphone amp. That said, the Manley sounded really good and was quite impressive in Todd's demo rig. More time with the Manley would allow me to have a better feel for it, but purely on headphone SQ I doubt it could top the WA5 (especially with WE 300Bs

). The Manley does provide your need for a preamp and I am sure it would be great in that role, so it is a hard choice nonetheless. P

Jack was talking about your Super Siltech GES and I would love to hear that baby someday. I have his GES prototype on loan and already realize I may have to spring for one over the 007t. It is a very nice amp and not even up to the current model's SQ (setting aside the upgrades Jack can do to it...).

Good luck with your choice. I wonder what Jack's PM was all about!

 

[jude]

I didn't get to spend any time with the Manley preamp at all, but I think it's one of the coolest looking pieces of gear--its utilitarian appearance is gorgeous to these eyes. I'm sorry I can't comment on its sound, but I just had to comment on its appearance. (For what little its worth, one of the finest sounding show rigs I've ever heard was a Manley / Joseph setup back in 2002.)

As for the Woo WA-5LE, I did get to spend some Can Jam '08 time listening to it, and it's a beautiful-sounding headphone amp. An interesting bit: When I asked Jack if they could do something with 2A3's, he said that they could do a custom 2A3 amp on special order. If they can do that--and given that they were good with using your Siltech wire--might Woo Audio be able to custom-up your WA-5LE to additionally provide the preamp functionality you're looking for?

 

[Yikes]

I'm going to wait until this fall/winter to make a decision.

The Manley is attractive, but the Woo is beautiful.

Jack’s PM was addressing product specific issues. He didn’t want to risk breaking the rules concerning shilling.

Jack basically confirmed that Woo Audio is able to customize in many ways, remote ect. And since any headphone amp does fairly well as a preamp the WA5 would do the job well.

 

[n_maher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jude /img/forum/go_quote.gif I didn't get to spend any time with the Manley preamp at all, but I think it's one of the coolest looking pieces of gear--its utilitarian appearance is gorgeous to these eyes.

I'm with Jude, the Manley is gorgeous in it's own right although in a completely different way from the Woo.

That said, the price differential between the two is not insignificant and considering that Woo is willing to customize the 5 to your liking Ethan I think it's an easy choice. The only question that I would have for Woo would be whether or not the 5 would in fact make a good preamp. Even though it's billed as a headphone amp the Manley does seem to have better preamp specs (specifically S/N), but then again it seems that the Woo is the better headphone amp of the two. Difficult decision to be sure.

Oh, and one other thing to consider - the tube compliment. The Manley is going to be a lot more expensive to populate with good NOS tubes. The 5AR4 rectifiers that they use are pretty insanely expensive, often fetching north of $200 a pair whereas the Woo uses much more readily available 5U4's.

Bottom line, now that I think about it some more I'm sure it's going to be a tough choice.

 

[thunder 99]

What are the chances that somebody else would have come across a similar issue in the past, and lo and behold I came across this post.
I am trying to compare the WA5LE vs the Manley as a 300B tube preamp. Sounds like you were tossing up between this at least at a point before in time. Just wondering what you ended up doing?
Which one do you feel sounds better as the preamp that I am looking to use with the DAVE? And whether we can make A/B comparisons given we would be comparing between the WA5LE as an amp and Manley as a preamp.

I currently have a WA5LE and was wondering whether it was a better idea to convert that into a preamp (because Ive spent a bit of money on tubes for the WA5LE) rather than double up / buy new tubes for the Manley, though people rave on about that quite a bit too.