On July 10, EveAnna Manley, co-founder and owner of Manley Labs of Chino, California, surprised her social media followers by announcing the sale of Manley Labs. The buyer is Dirk Ulrich, founder of Brainworx Audio and Plugin Alliance.
Describing the next phase of Manley Labs as the Manley 3.0 era, Manley wrote, "I look forward to some well-earned rest and relief from the responsibility of running a multimillion-dollar company. I plan to spend more time with my family and friends (and Riley and Bailey). I can't wait to get my head into a more creative space to be able to create my own art and continue to contribute to my local community and the world in a positive fashion. I have a belief that Art and Music might be able to save the planet. In any case, I want to be part of that effort."
Manley credited Ulrich with helping shape the modern professional audio landscape over the last two decades. "This acquisition marks Dirk's return to actually running a pro audio company, and signals a deep commitment to preserving Manley's legacy while supporting long-term growth and new product development. Manley has always stood for integrity, tube-driven sonic character, and dedication to reliability. After decades of building this brand with an amazing team, I'm grateful to see it seize its future with someone who truly respects the soul of Manley and has a proven track record of growing audio companies."
Manley Labs will continue designing and manufacturing with its same longstanding team and continue its exclusive collaboration with Universal Audio on UAD plug-ins. Manley products, including the VOXBOX, Reference Tube Microphones, Massive Passive EQ, and Variable Mu Compressor, will continue to be available and join new analog and digital products currently in development.
For his part, Ulrich wrote, "Manley gear is part of the foundation of so many top studios around the world, and the reputation EveAnna and her team have built over decades is truly remarkable. I was a fan and user long before this acquisition. We intend to protect the Manley heritage while evolving with the needs of the next generation of music creators and audio professionals."
Ulrich, who is also a Gold-Record-certified music producer, mastering engineer, and the original inventor of the TMT patent (most realistic digital emulation of analog devices with Tolerance Modeling Technology), wrote on Facebook, "I have been a FAN of Manley gear forever. . . . In ALL the best studios I have worked in, there was Manley gear used for the most critical parts of the job."
Although Ulrich remains a significant shareholder in Native Instruments Group, to whom he sold Brainworx and Plugin Alliance in 2021, he stepped down from his role on the NI Group's Advisory Board in 2024. This adds context to his recent post, "I was really (like really) looking for something new and MEANINGFUL to do, in the business space that I love more than anything else. And that is music & tech."
In a phone chat, EveAnna explained that she entered the music arena as a saxophone player and band geek who studied music at Columbia University. Bill Graham's son was in her class, and Graham himself visited the school to teach.
"I was just so excited that he was sitting right in front of me, telling the class how the music business worked. My plan was to drive to San Francisco and go talk myself into a job with Bill Graham Presents, but I ended up in L.A., and I got this job with David Manley."
That was 36 years ago, in 1989. A year after EveAnna began working with Manley's founder, David Manley, and his son Luke, she and David married. Then, in 1993, David split the company in two—EveAnna and David took over Manley's pro and audiophile manufacturing and Luke stuck with consumer audio as VTL (Vacuum Tube Logic). When David left the US for France in 1996—he and EveAnna divorced in 1999—EveAnna began running the company full-time.
"Running the company is not like having a bench job where you're creating little circuits and doing kind of creative stuff. Managing a multimillion-dollar company is not all the time creative. It's a lot of admin work and a lot of responsibility for other people's lives. It's become exhausting working eight to 17.5 hours every day, running the books, doing a thousand little things like us small-business entrepreneurs who wear a lot of hats.
"When I began, I had that fire in my belly more. I grabbed hold of the company with my own teeth and developed the Stingray amplifier. I was highly motivated to completely kick ass and prove to David and to the world that I am exceptional and I've got great talents and I've got really great ears and I've got a really good vision for how I want something to sound and look. It's that artistic expression that I miss the most about how I used to work in the olden days."
EveAnna is now 56, about the same age as David when he went to France. "I feel like I have been chained to a computer in computer jail for the last 25 years," she confessed. "I need to be moving. [As much as] I love the customers and the dealers, traveling and visiting our dealers around the world, and going to trade shows and stuff—I've got great coworkers and just thousands of wonderful friends in the industry—I want to sunset my audio career. Time's my most valuable currency."
EveAnna started pursuing sale of the company at least five years ago. During the COVID bump, when Manley Labs was posting its biggest profits, she received five serious offers, none of which panned out. Then one of her business lawyers, Heather Rafter, suggested Dirk, whom EveAnna already knew from trade shows.
"Dirk was getting itchy to get back in the game after the end of a three-year noncompete agreement with Native Instruments Group," she said. "We had a face-to-face meeting at the NAMM Show in January, right after my town [Altadena] burned down, and he announced his excitement and intent to pursue purchasing my company. We've been working on this formal acquisition ever since."
"Because he was so successful with his former companies, Dirk has the resources to be able to invest into Manley Labs. He can invest in the people, hire more engineers, get shit done, draw on his experience and specialized knowledge in the plug-in world ,and be able to produce proper Manley-branded plug-ins for the world that don't compete with our audiophile and pro audio gear. It's the opposite and complementary perspectives that we both have that help each other so much.
Dirk comes out of the pro-audio world—so what about Manley Labs' audiophile side? EveAnna assured Stereophile readers that under the new owner, the company’s commitment will remain strong. “Manley audiophile product have a well-established and vibrant worldwide dealer network. Those dealers, our distribution partners, and our engineering, manufacturing, and sales teams remain in place. With the accelerated new investment Dirk is making in Manley Labs, specifically engineering, consumer audiophile projects that were delayed due to the tariff war’s impact on cash flow, namely the new Manley Precision phono and line preamplifier, will be completed."
"Our dedication to taking care of the people involved is just great," EveAnna concluded. "This energy is amazing. I've broken out into tears at all the joy everybody is expressing for both of us because they know both of us and they know what a wonderful person Dirk is. The synergy of this particular pairing is beyond my wildest dreams."
