Manley OASIS Phono Stage

At last, Manley's favorite phono stage has been updated to operate with MANLEY POWER®, which provides an even quieter, blacker black background, yielding quicker sonic extremes over Manley's older linear PSU designs. President EveAnna Manley recalls the moment she first made the comparison, "I brought a regular CHINOOK with its linear power supply, a stock unit, to Los Angeles to listen to it against a second CHINOOK that had been modified to work with our new MANLEY POWER® switch mode power supply. My buddy Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Mastering spun up some vinyl records that he had cut the masters for on his lathe. Using his mastering studio environment, we were able to conduct a very precise comparative listening test between the two units. And even though we could not see which unit we were listening to, the sonic differences were unmistakable, and we both heard the same superiority in the new power supply design. I still can't believe what a stunning technical and sonic accomplishment MANLEY POWER represents, and delivers as we adopt more of our designs to take advantage of our proprietary system."

The OASIS Phono Stage offers an improvement in convenience over the older CHINOOK as the GAIN selections have been brought out from inside the chassis to the rear panel for easier access residing next to the resistive and capacitive loading DIP switches. There are tons of loading options to mate with any Moving Coil or Moving Magnet cartridge. Once you have set your GAIN and Loading for your cartridge, you're done! Set it and forget it!

The OASIS sports an upgraded, more luxurious chassis design while its efficient internal build keeps the price affordable. And like all Manley products, each OASIS Phono Stage is loyally handcrafted in the U.S.A. by American men and women at our Southern Californian factory located just 35 miles east of Los Angeles.

The logical successor to the legacy Chinook, Manley's new OASIS Phono Stage deploys their modern dedicated power supply and construction to usher a new series of Manley preamplifier designs to your home. Named after one of their dearest Mastering Studio partners, the OASIS carries forth the clean and precise audio circuits of the prior Steelhead and Chinook audio paths into a new age of high-fidelity preampfification offerings from Manley Labs.

Like the Steelhead, each channel employs the two triode sections of a 6922 for amplifying duties assisted by low noise FETs receiving the signal below each cathode. Highly accurate passive RIAA equalization networks perform the decoding task to restore the originally intended frequency response to the audio signal. In the Oasis, the signal passes through no Integrated Circuits. There are ICs deployed in a servo configuration to apply a precise biasing voltage to the Gate of each FET, and you might notice some other chips that are performing some LOGIC functions to direct the turn on and shut down sequences invoking the MUTE relays to prevent unwanted bumps or noises when the unit is power cycling. Importantly, the signal is directly coupled from the gain stages to another 6922 dual triode serving as the output driver in a White Follower configuration. This output stage circuit is Manley's favorite because of its super-low output impedance and beefy current-driving capabilities. It can drive long cable lengths and difficult loads, tube or solid-state. Bring it on. No wimpy cathode followers here!

The chassis is a new powder-coated-over-zinc passivated steel design, which will be shared amongst three other upcoming new Manley preamplifiers. Through this efficiency, Manley has splurged a bit and created a more luxurious housing with its large-radiused substantial top cover sporting smooth rounded side edges. Rounding out the casework, the frontal face is adorned by a 3/8"-thick CNC milled facia with an intricately inlaid contrasting "racetrack" insert for visual interest. The OASIS moniker is laser-engraved into the oblong island on the façade.

Setting up the Oasis is easy and requires no entry into the interior of the unit. On the rear panel, you will find all the switches that you need to optimize your cartridge interface to the Oasis. Depending on the nominal output level of your cartridge, GAIN can be set to 45dB, 50dB, 60dB or 65dB of amplification. These GAIN choices will accommodate all Moving Magnet and Moving Coil cartridges. The back panel also contains DIP switches for adjusting the input resistive and capacitance loading values. 31 possible options between 26 and 800 Ohms plus 47k Ohms and 7 capacitive loading choices between 50 pF and 350 pF provide flexibility to match any cartridge and fine tune the tone. Set it and forget it! Audiophile-grade and time-proven componentry is used throughout, embodying Manley's dedication to seductive sonics, combined with the reliability that professionals around the world depend on. At just about a quarter of the price of their revered Steelhead preamplifier, the Oasis maintains focus on elegance of design, careful execution, efficient construction, and appreciable quality.

Designed and built in California, the Oasis exemplifies Manley's commitment to their local community and to a simple, clean, and quiet signal path. The Oasis demonstrates the supreme linearity of vacuum tubes while providing the flexibility needed to embrace any turntable setup. Everything from the most exotic 180-gram audiophile pressing to 25-cent thrift-store classics will be reproduced accurately and musically.

The Oasis is based on the classic Chinook phono preamp, with a more upmarket chassis, external gain switches, and a significant upgrade to the power supply.

I put on a record I've had since high school: Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees. Did this take me back? Right back to a sock hop on the gymnasium floor! Sonics were spacious, rhythmic, and propulsive and I wanted to boogie out of my chair when the track Georgia came up