A stereo EQ with a level of clarity fit for mastering at its best.
The Langevin Mini Massive is the little brother to Manley's Massive Passive EQ. This rackmount EQ is based on the same passive EQ sections as the Massive Passive's Low Band and High Band and shares most of the same components and circuit layout. The Mini Massive is smaller at only 1U high and about half the price and includes some improved features, refinements and excellent clarity so it's fit for mastering at its best.
Manley revisited the 4 lowest shelf settings, and the 4 highest frequency shelf settings, plus added higher Q bell shapes for the 4 highest frequencies. This gives even more opportunities for Pultec-like fatness and beyond in the deep lows. The high frequency curves are designed for air, sweetness and sparkle. Compared to the Massive Passive, the toggle switch on the Langevin EQ that selects between Bell and Shelf, has become a 3 position switch, to introduce the new higher Q Bell curves on the 4 highest frequencies. These features give the Mini Massive even more power and flexibility to achieve that elusive big round tight bottom and silky atmospheric top.
The Langevin Mini Massive EQ uses 4 Manley Rapture® Amplifiers for gain. These came about in the long search for the cleanest and most musically involving gain stage we could get and were originally intended for a cost-no-object digital / analog converter. These are further augmented by both series and shunt power supply regulators, to provide a refined low noise power supply. Like the Massive Passive, huge headroom is available and the Mini will output +30 dBv balanced into 50 ohms. And rather than using unstable cross-coupled outputs to drive balanced or unbalanced loads, the Langevin Mini Massive can accommodate balanced, or unbalanced +4, or unbalanced –10 loads, and each one is always driven optimally. It plays well with others.
For those who would prefer the sound and ease of interface that transformer-coupled outputs provide, we have made the same transformers as used in the Manley Massive Passive a stock item here in the Langevin Mini Massive EQ. These can add a subtle degree of warmth and smoothness when used in the signal path. A 3-way toggle IRON switch on the back panel switches the transformers into the circuit or bypasses them or forces them into a more vintage-like flavor for even more fat and aggressive colors.
Of course, for those who want a Mono 4-band EQ only need to patch the output of Channel 1 into the input of Channel 2. The low band ends at 1K and the high band begins at 560. Shelf frequencies still go that far and still offer dramatic curves.
The Mini Massive is the EQ for those who consider the Massive Passive too big, too expensive, or too colored or maybe not the first choice for extreme lows or extreme highs. The Massive Passive was designed to be a tube EQ with character and with the creative potential of forgotten passive techniques. The Langevin Mini Massive Stereo EQ is a clean, lean machine, with the same EQ performance, and then some, where we wanted it most. And like the Massive Passive, it cannot be the one EQ appropriate for anything and everything (there is no such device), but it will be the first choice EQ for most things.
