Manley Massive Passive Stereo EQ

With simple passive components that allow twice as much EQ with half the coloration.

The Manley Massive Passive is a two-channel, four-band equalizer with additional high-pass and low-pass filters. “Passive” refers to the tone-shaping part of this clever EQ design, which doesn’t use any active circuitry. Only metal film resistors, film capacitors and hand-wound inductors sculpt the sound—kinda like a Pultec EQ on hyper-steroids. Super-beefy, hugely-high-headroom Manley all-tube make-up gain amplifiers deliver your tunes into the next realm.

Creating natural, organic, acoustic tone can only be done with an equalizer that treats the signal with natural methods. The Manley Massive Passive uses simple passive components and exploits their natural qualities rather than forcing a complex circuit to meet an arbitrary clinical or scientific goal. Manley knows that recording and mastering equalizers are used by artists for artistic goals and they balanced this design with a little more art than science. The Massive Passive Equalizer is intended both for the most radical EQ sometimes needed for tracking as well as the most subtle shadings for vocals and mastering. It is designed to be a fundamentally different EQ but incorporates the best strengths of Pultecs, choice console EQs, parametrics and graphics. The difference is that the Manley Massive allows twice as much EQ with half the coloration. It allows huge HF boosts without sibilance problems and unbelievable fatness without mud. This is unique. Being different also gives it some quirks and idiosyncrasies that will spark your creativity and sense of audio adventure.

The Filters — 5 frequencies Hi Pass and bypass, PLUS 5 frequencies Lo Pass with bypass. Manley made them extra steep. 36dB/oct! Why? When you need to remove the garbage, this does the trick and allows more of the real music to be untouched. The other reason is that it sounds killer when combined with the regular bands. Towards the mids this degree of steepness may be tamed somewhat. Thinking drums and guitar stacks, and other tough jobs. These filters are passive too.