The Manley Oasis uses a 6922 gain stage and 6922 output stage, supported by a high-tech SMPS.
"It's tubes, but fast tubes."
Last week, we talked about the clean, solid-state Sutherland Dos Locos phonostage that features in our main system at today's Revolution 909 in-store event. Our second system uses a very different phono preamplifier, the Manley Labs Oasis. Paired with a VPI Super Prime Scout 26, this is a naturally aspirated, all-American V8 front end that unabashedly uses high mass and vacuum tubes, but as a surprise modern touch, adds a switching power supply.
The Oasis is the worthy replacement for the all-time legend, the Manley Chinook, a tube phonostage that just flowed through our warehouses like smolts running downstream. Updating it was a terrifying task, but EveAnna Manley recognized that it was time to give the great Chinook circuit a high-bandwidth, high-speed power supply, one that would have been prohibitively expensive if done the traditional way.
She went to someone she considers to be the world's greatest audio engineer, Bruno Putzeys. Bruno started at Philips working on class-D power stages, then later worked for Grimm Audio and Hypex (the maker of the class-D modules in NAD amps), and eventually co-founded Purifi Audio, a company that sets the world standard for high-end class-D amplification.
Using an ultra-high-end class-D amplifier designer to create a switching power supply was a genius move, and let the Oasis combine tube magic with the super-low noise needed in phonostages.
The Oasis sports a luxurious chassis design while its efficient internal build keeps the price affordable.
The Manley Tube Sound
Like the Steelhead, the Oasis uses a 6922 tube and low-noise FETs in each channel to amplify the signal. A precise passive RIAA circuit restores the correct tonal balance, and the signal then feeds another 6922 tube in Manley’s favorite output circuit, which offers low output impedance and plenty of current. No integrated circuits are used in the audio signal path.
"It's tubes, but fast tubes," says Kevin Deal about the Oasis. "People just love that."
One of those people is our sales manager Ken Davis, who uses an Oasis in his home system. Despite his setup needing the maximum gain of 65 dB, Ken can't hear any noise at all, unless he's right up against the tweeter. He loves that he gets clean sound without losing that "nice tube quality of a lush midrange."
"Some tube gear can get overly smooshy," says Ken, "but not Manley."
Every Oasis is made down the road from us "in Chino, not China," as EveAnna, now retired, liked to say. As with the Chinook, we sell an Upscale Audio edition of the Oasis with factory-upgraded tubes. Manley takes out the stock Electro-Harmonix 6922 tubes and replaces them with Upscale Audio-graded and tested Gold Lion 6922. The Gold Lions garnered great feedback from Chinook owners, so we knew this upgrade would be a lovely tradition to carry on with the Oasis.