Manley SHRIMP - Manual (Page 5)

GETTING STARTED
PREPARATION FOR INSTALLATION
Budget a suitable space in which to place the preamplifier and associated interconnect and mains power cables.
This space should be free of strong external magnetic and RF fields, and reasonably removed from strong
loudspeaker-generated acoustical fields. This space should also be free of excessive heat or dust and large enough
to permit easy flow of cool air to the top, bottom and sides of the preamp. Do not connect the SHRIMP to the AC
mains until the other interconnections and items outlined below have been completed.
Keep other associated equipment some distance away from the preamp. This will help keep airflow unrestricted,
and cut down interference from radiated magnetic hum fields that can eminate from certain power supplies.
Before plugging in your interconnects, take a quick visual inspection of the tubes. Sometimes either through
shipping or unpacking things get jostled. Make sure all tubes are firmly in their sockets and not sagging or leaning.
You might also verify that none have turned white inside. That indicates that air has leaked inside the tube (or the
vacuum leaked out!). Though it is rare, a tube is sometimes cracked or broken in shipping. It would need to be
replaced before powering up the Shrimp.
Once in place, connect the input and output cabling to the signal sources and loads as desired.
Plug in your interconnects, one at a time, from each source, ie CD, Tuner, AUX, then connect each input to the
appropriate RCA jack on the Shrimp. All RCA jacks are clearly labled as to a typical function. Each input is for all
intents functionally and electronically the same - only the labels are different.
CD - Plug in your audio outputs from your CD player or "D to A Converter" here. Kind of obvious. A good spot
for the main L & R signals from a DVD deck. Do not patch lines marked "digital output, SPDIF or AC-3 here
though. These are un-decoded digital signals and not audio (yet).
VIDEO - Audio actually, from a VCR or Laser Disc player's audio outputs. Again, watch out for AC-3, video
output and S-video. Don't plug those things into your Shrimp.
TUNER INPUT - Connect your FM/AM tuner outputs here. Another good input for a second VCR too.
AUX - Plux your Aux in here. What is an Aux? It stands for Auxilliary and basically means "extra", so this is just
an extra input for any other source that we didn't label or you have two of. Most people use it for tape deck
playback and some use it for computer audio.
If you need to connect a turntable (vinyl!) you will need a separate phono preamp to raise the level from and
perform RIAA equalization to the tiny signal from the phono cartridge to bring him up regular line levels like what
the Shrimp wants to deal with. The Manley Steelhead can do this for you...
REC OUT - This is an unbuffered Record Output. The signal present at these RCA jacks is the same as whatever
is selected right as it enters the Shrimp. It does not pass through any circuitry other than the selector switch. It is
not affected by the volume control. You can use this output to record from. Plug this into your tape deck recording
inputs, CD Recorder audio inputs, or computer audio inputs if you want to record or dub whatever you are listening
to. Note: some sneaky recording devices can play funny tricks on unbuffered Record Outs which could adversely
affect your audiophile listening experience. Some devices have low-ish imput impedances which can "load down"
the selected input as they are directly seeing each other. Other bastards, if they happen to have certain IC circuitry,
and they happen to be turned off, can present a most undesireable loading condition on also what is your main input
to this Shrimp. To avoid all these surprises, it is recommended to only plug in recording devices to the REC OUT
jacks when you are actually going to record something.
MAIN OUTS - This is what you plug into your power amplifiers. We gave you two sets of paralleled Main
Outputs so you don't have to use an external "Y" cable if you are driving two sets of amplifiers in a Bi-Amp
situation or if you are driving satellites and a subwoofer. We try to be thoughful as we can.
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