Gates Sta-Level

[Eng.Mike]

Manley Labs has made a Vari-Mu compressor for years that bears a passing resemblance to the beloved Sta-Level. In the late 1990's though, they quit using 6386 tubes in favor of the more- common 5670, which is also a remote cut-off, dual triode using the same pin-out. That tube did not produce the same sonic results as the 6386. Their solution was to take a 12BA6 pentode, run it as a triode, and use two. They claim it offers the same gain curve as a 6386 triode. They made a kit with (2) sockets to retro-fit the older units. Here's the whole story: http://www.manleylabs.com/techpage/TBAR.html.
-D

I was just thinking how the Sta-Level schematic looks like the Manley Variable Mu mastering limiter's schematic! I owned a Vari-mu some years ago and was lucky enough to get the schematic for it when I needed to fix it's power supply. Now I see where they got their idea from...the Sta-Level. But Manley did a much better go of it by adding more controls, solid state rectification, film caps and of course making it stereo. I loved using the Vari Mu and terribly regret selling it. It was one of the first ones they made and the face plate was machined from a solid plate of nickel (not like the new ones). You could get 9 db of gain reduction before your ears could began to hear it working. I've never heard any another limiter as transparent.