The Manley Lab Series Delta Sigma DAC was built from 1994 to 1999. At a retail price of only $1150 it was targeted to someone who wanted a small upgrade from their internal CD player's converter.

This unit was simple but nice looking with its anodized "manley blue" sheet metal chassis. Concealing all the boring circuitry was a perforated aluminum top cover (not shown). Polished black acrylic side panels were also a nice cosmetic touch. The delta-sigma converter board was designed by our pal Fred Forssell of Forssell Technologies and was based on a 18 Bit Crystal converter chipset. There was only one SPDIF digital input provided. Yes there was a simple Ei 12AU7 vacuum tube line stage and individual left and right volume controls in this little DAC making for a simple system being a DAC-Preamplifier combo, well, sorta-- no line inputs were provided. It had a Mercury Magnetics power transformer. We rarely ever get these in for repair. Time has proven these to be nicely reliable little DACs.

Also in the Lab Series was a Lab Line preamplifier at $1150 and a Lab RIAA MM Phono Stage for $950. We'll try to find some photos of these for ya...

Rest In Peace: Lab Series!