Phase Linear gear

Phase Linear was once a revered brand amongst audiophiles. Paul remembers them and their founder, Bob Carver.
Have you gotten your copy of Paul's new book, The Audiophile's Guide? www.amazon.com/Audiophiles-Gu...

[@donalddeorio2237]

I loved Bob's story about building his first amplifier he was trying to get certified in a coffee can because he couldn't afford a chassis. The guy at the McIntosh clinic looked at him skeptically, at first he didn't want to test it, when they asked him the output he said 350 watts/channel. When they tested it, it actually exceeded his specs and the rest is history. He's got great stories, he is a genius and a marketing wizzard

[@michaeltamburello]

Phase Linear was truly the "bomb" in its days. Nearly every disco in Denver I DJ'd back in the seventies employed them (other than one that used a Crown), and boy, could they deliver. Also didn't know that Bob Carver founded the company. Great video and walk down memory lane! Thanks, Paul!

[@jctedsap]

A youth Disco in Yakima Washington used a pair of the 700’s driving Klipsch Horns. Great but very loud.

[@randykinsley5721]

Sold Phase Linear gear in the mid seventies. Along with Mac, Luxman, Nakamichi, B&O, Marantz and an array of high end speakers/turntables and the like. I was in heaven. Had a GREAT record collection to demo everything we got to shop for ourselves for the sonic quality.

[@elgringoec]

Did you ever see Keith Monks gear?

[@theonl1128]

Me to at that same period...but then in the Netherlands. Man, what a great time that was! 😍

[@steveearnshaw2216]

When I was 19, I drove from Monterey, California to Edmonds Washington to tour Phase Linear. They occupied the basement of a Safeway grocery store. This was 1972. I loved my Phase Linear 400.

[@janinapalmer8368]

ME Amplifiers in Australia are or were made in a huge barn like building out in the country !

[@stimpy1226]

A moment in Audio history! Bob Carver working out of the basement of a Safeway supermarket. Hard to picture but I’m sure it’s true

[@phomchick]

I think Paul is mixing up Parts Express (in Ohio), and Parts ConneXion (in Canada). But both are great resources for the technical audiophile.

[@hugobloemers4425]

I was thinking Dayton Canada?

[@elgringoec]

He's aging... in the anecdotal relating stage of life. We're done with hardcore stuff and want to pass on memories before we're gone.

[@ryanschipp8513]

Yes, he is having another senior moment.

[@phomchick]

@@ryanschipp8513 We all have moments of forgetfulness. And if you don't you will. I'm glad that Paul communicates good advice and information on vendors. I was only pointing out that if you are shopping for Mundorf capacitors, you'll do better at finding what you are looking for at Parts ConneXion than Parts Express.

[@ryanschipp8513]

@@phomchick yes we do. But if you have a KZbin channel it is your duty to be on point. It seems like every other video he has a blunder. He should take it as constructive criticism

[@jimclark5617]

Bob is a wonderful man! Absolutely brilliant.. The Phase Linear board of directors voted to sell Phase Linear to Pioneer Corp.. Bob left and started Carver Corp..

[@SJR_Media_Group]

Back in the 70's in College, I had a friend with both Phase Linear 700 Amp and Pre-Amp. He had some high end speakers as well. Sound was incredible. He would crank it up and literally shake the floor in our concrete tower dorms. He was asked to keep it below 9.0 on Richter Scale.

[@leekumiega9268]

The transistors that Bob used for his Phase linear amplifiers were the new high-power transistors designed for the high voltages of auto electronic ignitions. Also the "flame linear" issue was partially but not totally solved early on with a modification . A company called White Oak Audio makes a new control board that totally solves the problem.

[@usaturnuranus]

Damn, forgot about the "flame linear" thing, thanks for that set of memories!

[@jamesholley5505]

Nice touch on bypassing caps. Makes a huge difference. Nice to know you do it on your equipment stock.

[@mcraigb1]

what kind of difference if I may ask?

[@threadtapwhisperer5136]

I'm interested as well. I took on stewardship of a phase linear 400 old school deal plus a Peavey M-2600 Mark V and Mitsubishi DA-P20. Trying to freshen them up. Had them since my uncle married for the second time, didn't want to keep hauling the heavy gear around. Right now, I have the absolute baddest to the bone garage car mechanic/hot fodder stereo. Literally cant barely turn the Mitsu up without completely crushing any other neighbors weekend party "system." I'd love to add some 12Ax7 tubes in the preamp and maybe some 6l6's on the phase linear but I am absolutely wishing to keep the equipment with me until I find a suitable person appreciative of the history and the awesome power/sheer dominance of the overkill garage stereo. I also have what I hypothesize might be original Phase Linear speakers. 15" bass/8" by 3" rectangle horn midrange I guess amd a 2.5" or so tweeter. Speakers look like they got a rebuilt cabinet but 3'x2'wide by maybe 18" deep I don't think there is enough proper volume to really let the speakers articulate and get fully spread out. Bass always slams the mids right down to maybe a hint of 8500hz but only faint. Tweeters though strong as he'll at 300watt peak really aren't crystalline enough unless the 15" sub/loudspeaker/ driver is pulled way back. Generally I'll pull the bass out of the preamp but that feeds the signal to the amps which I think is sub optimal. The quieter and much crispier sounding interior home audio/stereo multimedia floorstanding Speakers are Mission 702E ported solid base, maybe 60% upper cabinet is handling the port. Aside from literally spending dream amounts of money for my personal goal of proper studio monitor/playback through multi channel and mixing board stereo out to the power section I dont know whats the perfect bang for dollar improvement to clear up the sound. My gut says invest in reconfiguring the speakers(genuine Phase Linear ala late 1979) era with a better crossover and perhaps making the cabinets more tuned ported on the bass and blended yet fully crisp and clean mids/highs.. I dont think the Misubushi DA-P20 isnt really all that clean as far as signal routing goes. I hear lots of introduced aural artifacts whenever the tone knobs for bass/treble are moved off the center marking. Could be old and dirty potentiometers in there, might be okd electrical components or more likely that I haven't had the time to track down somw deeper understanding of the whole setup. It absslutley brings the noise in Florida middle of summer, absolute Yeti sweat outside. Due to that I have reasonable faith in the overall circuits being properly wired still.. Any advice or mockery or whatever y'all have, lay it on me. I love the killer sounding headroom but would love to clear up the harsh highs and maybe drop to a 12" driver to accommodate a low mid representative speaker. Just enough old school quality to absolutely shut the backyard neighbors Aiwa stereo down on work week nights, 100% capable of coping with the moisture and heat just fine. Seems like I'll either need a trick piece of gear costing tears of pure joy and contentment from a young, each year gilded by the finest goldsmiths of humankind just to jam out to my phones bluetooth/ 1/8"/3.5mm AUX/headphone jack. There has to be some black magic wizard living among the forest Capacitor natives of .01%THD + / - .0006% of digital clipping region beyond the hills of improperly tuned car sub amp x-overs. Lol. I think I'm not searching the right terminology. All help is appreciated, all window licking will be tipped, criticism will be ignored. Well, unless the criticism is actually true, then I may find ive just not been paying the audio shamans the correct audiological sacrifices. Everything works from the Mitsu preamp RCA to aux headphone adapter out to the peavey driving the phase linear. Unless its already 9:30am, then I dont trouble the peavey and head straight to the phase linear, finding a nice unity point volume-wise to control the volume off my phones headphone jack output. Really id be totally fine with a EQ or perhaps a phase linear wired to the 15" drivers in their own ported sub box while using some sort of active EQ on the mid/highs. Eventually I need to just kick the actual project together by going through the equipment verifying clear potentiometer adjustments. Cleaning up rh

[@williamdenton5716]

Every Carver component that I have had has been terrific. Just bought a vintage Phase Linear 9500. I'm heading home shortly to check it out. Vintage Gear, ya never really KNOW.... Could have fabulous sound and be an unbelievable bargain. Equally as likely is that it looks nice on the outside, but has some technical problem that Requires attention beyond what I can fix with pressurized air and deoxit. It's all part of the Vintage Hi-Fi experience that I love so much. I'm currently running a full boat of Pioneer. SA-5800 Integrated, TX-6800 Tuner, CT-F950 Cassette Recorder, Another CT-F950 Cassette Recorder, And a Sony Direct Drive PS-T3 Full Auto, with the AT-VM95 SH cartridge. Pushing into the Dahlquist Dq-8s, which I LOVE. My 2nd system is the Yamaha CR-620 fully refurbished. Paired with the Technics M7 Cassette Deck, capped off with a Garrard Z2000B. That system pumps into a pair of RtR SeriesIV Model E. With 11 drivers per box those really compliment the Natural Sound and the British Garrard. Lol, I'm still in the audio phase of buying every piece of vintage Hi-Fi gear that I see. Bring it home, hook it up to a bunch of other gear, and keep the best sounding 2 or 3 systems that I have. The leftovers I give to High School and College aged kids who trade their suitcase players into me. That's my way of preserving the Vinyl Record experience. Get some good sound into the young folks' ears before they lose interest.

[@MaunderMaximum]

In 1973 I had the privilege to see Pink Floyd on their Dark Side of the Moon tour (I know, that dates me), and being a gear freak I had to check out their amazing quad sound system rig. Sure enough, they had a stack of Phase Linear 700's running the mains. I also got to spend a few minutes talking with the crew at the mixing board after the show. It was an incredible night... best concert I ever saw.

[@FOH3663]

Very very cool! You may have met Alan Parsons, as the band had him mix live. Remembering ... there was only Crown, Phase Linear, and maybe BGW. Pink Floyd's road crew had to mod the big Phase Linears as structurally they were insufficient for the rigors of the road. I believe they beefed up the support structure for the big iron PS transformer. Big time concert sound was in it's infancy. Very cool ... any other memories?

[@MaunderMaximum]

@@FOH3663 Certainly! Here you go- The show I saw was at Park Center in Charlotte NC, March 23. 1973. I've often wondered if one of the guys I talked to might have been Alan Parsons, but I don't remember their faces well enough to ever be sure. The PL 700's indeed had reinforced front panels in very beefy racks. There were gaps between each amp, they weren't right on top of each other. And they had BIG fans running behind the racks. There were two racks with 8 or 10 amps total. There may have been more racks, but I only saw two. I think the mixing desk was a Trident, but I'm not sure. There were four Revox tape machines for sound effects playback. How they synchronized everything I don't know, but they did it perfectly! The main speakers were huge folded horn bass bins and sectoral horns on top with Vitavox drivers. There were two FOH stacks, two more at either side halfway down the arena, and one at the very back facing the stage. One last thing- when my friends and I were leaving the arena afterwards, a limo stopped at the light on the corner where we were standing. These were the days before blackout windows, and there sat none other than Roger Waters. We waved and he waved back!

[@frankporfidio9813]

@@FOH3663 That was Brittania Row or Britt Row Sound , Both Clair Brothers and Britt Row used the 700s and supported the rear of the amp . Clair went one step further and (as the big , heavy power transformer was on one side of the amp ) Clair flipped the face plates on every OTHER amp so the rack would be even weight wise on BOTH sides of the rack . You also needed a double fan panel on each amp . Everybody wanted the 700 because it had more power but I seem to remember Bob saying the 400 was supposed to be the touring or pro amp NOT the 700 .

[@FOH3663]

@@frankporfidio9813 Great stuff, I dig these details!

[@jayrektorik1047]

Awesome! From a 40 plus year owner of a 700B.

[@Audiogeek-kf2ez]

No matter what subject, it is always a joy to hear you life stories. Why , simple it's real partying, a little weed, a lot of late night building products to see if ideas panned out . It's a real life with arnie , bob, and how many other names from the 60s to 80s who framed out minds on quality audio products. No, thank you for all the ramblings. We enjoy them with a beer and a smile

[@spectrelayer]

Phase linear - that was some impressive stuff. I got my 1st amp in 1985 and it was a Carver M400. A 8" cube that weighed 12 lbs & could drive speakers to 200 WPC effortlessly. No cooling fan - the thing acted as if aliens had built it. If you got 2 you could make each a 400 watt mono block amp in about 60 seconds. Glad you identified Bob as a PHYSICIST because electrical engineering is a SUBSET of physics and physics is what Bob brought to the table - hence his amazing designs.

[@marksmith7930]

I wish Bob had a youtube chann .

[@Geerladenlad]

Bob Carver is quite a character and also an audio genius.

[@randallsmith7124]

fun trip down memory lane... I was an audiophile wannabe at that age too... and that was in the mid 80s, when Carver Corp. was still in existence. After an MCS 3222 Receiver (late 70s, JCPenney), and a Technics receiver, I bought a Carver C-1 preamp and M-500t power amp... both of which I still have. I developed a fondness for Infinity speakers at the time as well, starting with a pair of RS-9b's- to which I added a home-built subwoofer. Late 90s, I bought a pair of Carver Amazing Platinum Mk IV speakers, and added another M-500t power amp to the system. Still have that system... in addition to a pair of M-4.0t's, and pair of M-1.0t's, a pair of M-1.5t's, and a C-4000t preamp. Currently, I have 2 pairs of the Carver Amazings, a pair of Infinity Quantum QLS-1's, a pair of Infinity Kappa 600s, a full set of Infinity Intermezzos, a pair of Polk RTi-12s, a full set of Elac in the bedroom (B6/B4/C5 & sub), a pair of Elac UB5. I also have Yamaha M-45 & M65 power amps (pair of each), and a few Emotiva & NAD pieces. Am currently looking into a pair of Infinity RS-IIb's. Enjoy the ride, just don't be a hoarder like me!

[@ronthebo5296]

Great info. Both about Bob's fashion piece and "bypassing". Had heard about this years ago, but completely forgot the particulars (about the amps). Thank you, have learned so much form your little talks.

[@LuxAudio389]

Every one of Paul's episodes are 99% True. Love the stories and learning! 😀👍

[@johnnytoobad7785]

I believe the Phase 400 DC was +-75 V so you'll need .1uf 200vdc caps across each main filter cap.

[@arichison]

Good stuff! I wanted Phase Linear in the 80's but could not afford. I ended up with Hafler, Nakamichi and ADS, still very satisfied and happy! Paul knows his stuff.

[@paullazarro4295]

That's a very good tip about using bypass caps.

[@wramrobertodecamargoaccors4679]

Very good tip! And even small value, good brand caps do add their flavor to the final sound. There's no need to bypass making use of large value caps (these are costly).

[@H-77]

They also have absolutely no protection circuits in them, so they're kind of famous for blowing up and taking woofers with them. A DC protection circuit is a very worthy upgrade IMO. Be aware that with +/- 90V rails (if I remember correctly) you're going to need a very beastly relay to break that connection in the event of an output stage failure.

[@tonytfuntek3262]

I'm still utilizing my Phase Linear 400 amplifier on my 7.1 system to power my front Klipsch Cornwalls.

[@SteveDave29]

Paul, I'm young than you but older than our 19-year-old friend. I live just north of the suburb where Bob Carver is headquartered. I have the trivial distinction of setting up his new office around 2000 with business phone lines from the phone company. After your stories I got to go visit him before he is no longer with us. I need to shake his hand while I still can. Thank you for your wisdom and your stories and I look forward to many videos going forward as a new subscriber

[@graxjpg]

I was 19 when I got into these videos. I’m 22 now, and Paul has helped me learn immensely!!!

[@HareDeLune]

Seriously? Welcome (belatedly) to tha Club, lil' brother! Never realized you were at such a tender age. : )

[@elgringoec]

"... 22 now and I won't be for long. Time hurries on..." 🎶

[@graxjpg]

@@HareDeLune I’m just a wee lad!

[@HareDeLune]

@@graxjpg Lol! I didn't mean it that way. When you get past 50, your perspective changes a little. : )

[@graxjpg]

@@HareDeLune but I am! Haha part of me can’t wait to have more life experience, but that feeling just makes me want to pay more attention to what I’m doing while I’m young.

[@andershammer9307]

I went to the Bob Carver Carverfest a couple of times and got to spend some time with him. I built his tube amp kit there. There is a pic out on the web of me helping Bob troubleshoot one of those tube amps. Would love to spend more time with him. I used to repair and sell his amps. If you have a Carver made amp you may want to consider re-capping it as well as adding those film caps. Those old caps are going bad. Paul is right about bypassing the power supply caps. I used to do that when modifying amps for people.

[@JackT_Music_on_Vinyl]

Great video, thanks Paul. I remember a buddy had a Phase 400 and a pair of Larger Advents. What a sound! And of course, those meters!

[@basspig]

On my Phase Linear dual 500 I put 2.2 microfarad film capacitors across the main power supply caps. I did that because I discovered that one killer Hertz test signals were showing up across the power supply capacitors. It made quite a difference in the amplifiers stability at high frequencies and with clipping. Another thing about Phase Linear amplifiers is that all the wiring was bundled together and it looked nice and neat visually speaking but it was a nightmare because it would cross couple noise from the power line and cross couple output from the speaker terminals and couple it to the inputs. So if you had lights on a dimmer you would hear a buzz particularly in the Left Channel. The solution to that was to separate all the wiring and redress everything so that it was isolated from each other. The driver board also needed a strip of copper clad PCB placed over a 4 inch Trace that was unshielded which connected to the left Channel input. With these modifications is solved a lot of issues made the amp stable and quiet and it sounded like they're completely different amplifier after that.

[@bwoutrage21]

Actually Paul, they were called in the trade, after a while, "Blaze" Linear. A lot of them went up in smoke. I had a 700 burn up running it into a pair of the big Walsh Ohm speakers. I think the 400 was a bit more stable.

[@phomchick]

There is also an Infinity story tied to Phase Linear. Infinity denied a warranty claim on one of their very early and expensive speakers, claiming that by using a Phase Linear amp the customer was abusing the speakers and was responsible for their demise. The customer took Infinity to court, and Infinity lost, with the court pointing out that the warranty didn’t mention anything about amplifier power. Then fuses started appearing on Infinity speakers.

[@Paulmcgowanpsaudio]

That is a story I never heard. Thanks. Where did it come from?

[@phomchick]

@@Paulmcgowanpsaudio I don’t remember, but I’ll look and if I find it, I’ll send you a note.

[@Paulmcgowanpsaudio]

@@phomchick Thanks. Just curious because it's a great story.

[@AllboroLCD]

I was OCD METICULOUS in choosing replacement caps for my vintage active speakers, I checked manufacturer sites, cross ref sheets, data sheets, everything I could find! I made sure I used the same brand and either matched or exceeded the ripple current.

[@lio1234234]

No way! I'm also 19 years old. Nearly all my stuff is DIY though since it's cheaper for what you are actually getting. I use linear phase filters when EQing my system, unlike normal EQ it actually sounds good (I use the MMM method within a wide listening area). There are some of us youngens about Paul!!! 😊

[@lio1234234]

Oh, haha. Didn't realise phaselinear was a brand. I thought we were on about the technique used 😂. I should have listened the whole way through first, sorr Paul!

[@HareDeLune]

DIY can be a great way to go, especially if you're on a budget, or if you want to explore some kinds of things you can't buy from the big brands. Try building some H-frame, open baffle subs sometime. I hear they're some of the best things going. : )

[@lio1234234]

@@HareDeLune Thanks, I'll be sure to have a look, however I tend to design my own speakers, it's most fun and rewarding that way.

[@elgringoec]

@@lio1234234 Yeah, diy is a great way to go, if you have a brain. Which it seems you do, but it's very rare, so be warned to expect some scoffing from mediocre minds. 😯👍💪

[@H-77]

DIY is also a whole lot more fun, and you can do things that no manufacturer would ever do. I just built a transformer-coupled preamp using my own discrete op-amp design for the gain stage and instrumentation amplifier input. I'm not aware of too many companies that would do that, and certainly not for the price I was able to design my own for.

[@cb2000a]

I had one of those at one time many years ago (Phase Linear 400). Awesome amp and very well designed.

[@user-sq9gr8qu4l]

I have a great respect for you sir,so i am not trying to offend you with this comment but oh man,you got a real talent when it comes for bubbling!

[@dell177]

I modified a Haffler d220 (had the vFETs in it) I stole off ebay a few years back and started to rebuild it. I bought new driver cards for it and with those boards came some film bypass caps for the big can caps, I replaced the old 10,000uf uf cans with 22,000uf 100v units. It cost more to modify it than I paid for it but was well worth the cost.

[@FireTriode]

@dell177 Agreed. Those old Hafler amps are amazing, and not just "for the money." With a few new, well chosen parts and a tune-up, they'll hang with modern amps *several* times their price.

[@leekumiega9268]

@@FireTriode There also were some Hafler models that tended to blow up if stressed too much.

[@FireTriode]

@@leekumiega9268 Yep, I think that @dell177 should add a NTC thermistor to limit inrush current with those 22k uF caps, and perhaps bias down a bit. Those did run hot in the first place. I modded a DH220 for a friend several years ago, still running strong.

[@spencer476]

When I was 19 I worked for Geoff Poor (now with Balanced Audio Technology) at Glenn Poor’s Audio Video in Champaign, IL. Between Geoff and his GM Garrett Oostdyk (former guitarist for the Finchley Boys) I learned more about how to listen to music (and gear) than I have at any point in my life since, until I discovered Paul here with PSAudio. My first real gear was a Rotel RA 840BX2 integrated, a Kyocera CD player and B&W DM110’s. I was in heaven. Thanks for all your knowledge Paul.

[@MCMTL]

Speaking of which, why don't Paul McGowan, Nelson Pass and Bob Carver get together for a chat and decide on a joint project? The Pass Amp Camp Amp is simply an amazing DIY kit. PS Audio could easily extend the Sprout family to include a small mono blocks and/or preamp. And Bob's new tube products seem cutting edge. Simply put, such a collaboration could literally change the course of hifi forever. Please, make it happen, for the love of hifi gods!

[@LuckyLambikins]

Agree x1000

[@HareDeLune]

Also agree. Hey Paul! You reading this? I think such a get-together should happen (probably after The Plague) whether there's a collaboration or not. C'mon, man! Life's too short! How often is something like that ever gonna happen? Anyway, if you do it, please at least share the highlights with us, if not the whole 'dang thang'. : )

[@Chris-bd8nj]

I have phase linear p-560s and they sound amazing..perfect sound!! I recently paid 55 bucks for the pair in great shape!! I've had all the other hi end brands..and the phase linear top them all in my opinion!!

[@roypatterson9910]

I dated a girl back in high school in 1988, her father worked for Jensen Audio and they sold Advent audio. There were Advent speakers throughout the whole house, both daughters had a pair, there was a set in the living room and family room, the ones in the living room didn't start clipping until 1000 watts each speaker, he used to vibrate pictures off the wall. Lol. He also worked for Blaupunkt Audio after he worked for Jensen. Unfortunately he passed away back in 2018 from cancer.

[@ramsaybolton9099]

Thanks for the bypass tip. In Canada it’s parts connexion, not express?

[@andydelle4509]

Phase Linear gets an unjustified bad rap in many modern audiophile circles. You need to keep in mind that in 1974, transistor technology was no where near where it is today. Parts that could function at those power levels and still be purchased at a consumer price point were not common at all. Bob Carver did the best he could with what he had to work with. Same can be said for Dan Meyer and SWTP "Tiger" amps. Yes they blew up easily too but from the same pitfalls of early high power transistor technology. Innocent user abuse also played a part. Pull the input RCA plug with the amp on and it will likely break into oscillation and blow up - within microseconds. Many of these units that were in fixed stable systems did have a long life.

[@subhumanaudio]

So I’m sure you know Bob Heil! What a nice guy. I have one of his old Heil sound pro 200b amps that he and Mr. Bob C designed.

[@charlesnr]

They used a bank of 700's for the ELP tour. The PA company from England remounted them and used fans to cool them, as the heat sinks were too small for continuous power.

[@elgringoec]

Now we have real pro equipment!

[@leekumiega9268]

Some others were known to use dry ice to keep them cool.

[@leekumiega9268]

@@elgringoec In it's day it was both pro and audiophile equipment and the most powerful .

[@elgringoec]

@@leekumiega9268 Do you mean it was USED in some applications of sound reinforcement, or DESIGNED to? I remember them from the HiFi world which I was well into, but I wasn't into the pro sound world yet. Were you there and involved yourself, or are you relating the anecdotes of others?

[@brandonburr4900]

I ha e always heard Bob was a character. Now ya have us wanting to hear more stories ! I bet their are many from his days with carver and sunfire as well. Be interesting to know how many companies he ran or had a part in over the years. He certainly has some interesting products. Thanks paul!

[@pauluzz1991]

I'm still using my 400 series two on a set of Quadral vulkan MKV's. It still massages the eardrums :D

[@frankporfidio9813]

How does bypassing a filter cap improve the sonics of the amp ? I remember bypassing final stage caps in pre amps if the final cap was bigger than 1 uF .......but filter caps ?

[@PooNinja]

I’ll never sell my 1972 phase 400 oooh the glowing beauty of gigantic VU meters , yea it’s been in the shop a few times but my subs love it!

[@PooNinja]

My parts express cart always starts growing out of control 🤣

[@SudburyMan]

Second! I have saved a long time and bought Martin Logans and am now looking into tube preamp. Music, Soundstage, the physical feeling of moving waves... Heals me emotionally and mentally.

[@HareDeLune]

Martin Logans are great! I got to hear them powered by some Krell equipment once. That was my 'Audio Epiphany'. Things have never been the same after that.

[@leekumiega9268]

You need to power them with one of Bob's new tube amps with a near 50 life on the KT120's

[@willielangoor4369]

ln the 70 l was running a 700 B with Pre amp and JBL Studio Monitors , Cost mw a year of saving and more . i was only in 20 years old

[@LuckyLambikins]

I about fell out of my chair when I saw you had a video on PL! I’ve been collecting their stuff (mostly because I have power-hungry Magnepans and can’t afford new amps with enough power to drive them). The local electronic repair guy hates to see me walk in. I guess the old Phase Linear parts/specs are difficult to find. They sound great when you can find them in well preserved condition though!

[@leekumiega9268]

Contact White Oak audio (on line ) they have all the parts and upgrades to make them sound even better. You might also want to look for Bob's Sunfire signature amplifiers . they made 300 and 600 watt versions that could double the power when you half the impedance down to 2 ohms ,that's 2400 watts on a time limited basis ,and could even drive speakers that dropped below 1 ohm like Infinity Kappa 9's and Apogee speakers.

[@LuckyLambikins]

Lee Kumiega Thanks! I saw your comment about White Oak Audio and already started looking into their stuff. They look like just the people I’ve been needing to find.

[@andershammer9307]

All Phase Linear and the older Carver amps need to be recapped. Just ask Bob. He told me so.

[@andershammer9307]

@@leekumiega9268 The Carver 1.5T amp does NOT like the Kappa 9's! I heard it dropping out.

[@leekumiega9268]

@@andershammer9307 If you read my entire post you would see that I said that his Sunfire (brand) Signature amps could easily drive the Kappa 9's ,I never claimed that the Carver branded ones could even though they are able to drive somewhat hard to drive speakers like Magnepans.

[@SuperMcgenius]

Paul, you are right about the preamps, I had a 400 power amp when I was 16, after two years it blew up taking my IMF DRIVERS with it. A good amp in it’s time.

[@owenathanael]

I'm 19 years old too!

[@HareDeLune]

Welcome! : D

[@Projacked1]

Bypass capacitors, interesting.... I'm still confused in how to solder them.

[@FireTriode]

Bypassing large value electrolytic caps does make a *big* difference. The power supply ones matter the most. If yours have screw connections, such as in a lot of vintage gear, the best way is to get terminals and crimp the >1 uF bypass caps and just install them under the screws. If they're soldered connections, just make sure that you have a good mechanical connection with the leads/ wires/ terminals first and heat the metal first when you solder to make sure that you have a solid joint. Of course, be sure to unplug the unit for a couple of days or discharge the caps before working on the unit.

[@Mikexception]

I'd observed that phase linear amplifier has sense when it drives phase linear load . Full range speakers can work it out. Multirange crossover types turn phase linear amplifier into phase no linear.

[@StevenCarinci]

Is it running class A? Is it a good investment today to refurbish? Are the transistors still obtainable?

[@firmani99]

Paul, Does the bypassing the caps apply to Carver amps? Or did Bob start bypassing them by then?

[@BoudewijnvanHouten]

Why only 0.1uF filmcaps across the main filters and not 100uF? At DIYAudio PassLabs the main characters find that 0.1 uF does nothing and Nelson Pass stated that it may even make the amp instable...

[@grabir01]

Phase Linear is still one of the best amps you can get your hands on. Very stiff amp. VERY!. High Current. I do have a question about putting another cap across the PS Caps as a bypass function. Was wondering why you want to by pass higher frequencies riding on your DC on to the driver boards? Just asking. Thx.

[@sydbarrett1146]

When I sold them in the seventies we called them “Blaze Linear” for the occasion fire events

[@JayRCela]

Haa Ha / yeah I was an audio salesman back then and we called them Flames Linear / ya did not want to pair up one of their amps to 4ohm speakers / burn the darn house down :_)

[@milesdufourny4813]

We called them "Flame Linear". Bose 901 owners loved them, everyone else ...ehhh.

[@stimpy1226]

I had a phase linear 400 and Carver’s preamp with all the bells and whistle‘s driving my Dalquist DQ -10’s.

[@stimpy1226]

That was a great story. Do you think Bob is going to send you hate mail... he’s too busy grinning in his advertising pictures.

[@leekumiega9268]

Actually he's building the best powerful tube amplifiers for the money these days ,with an expected life of nearly 50 YEARS on the KT120 power tubes.

[@stimpy1226]

@@leekumiega9268 I’ve seen the advertising in absolute sound and other periodicals and they look really nice. I didn’t think that he guaranteed the tubes will give over 50 years of life though. I thought it was 10 years.

[@leekumiega9268]

@@stimpy1226 the Stereo 275 has a 5 year warranty ,the monoblock 350 has a 10 year warranty and the Silver Seven 900 monoblock has a LIFETIME warranty, the literature says the expected life is close to 50 years on the others. Most other brands give a 90 day warranty on tubes. Check out Bobcarvercorp.com. Click on the 350 at the bottom of the page it gives an estimated tube life of over 50 years.

[@stimpy1226]

@@leekumiega9268 Very cool! I love Bob Carver and I owned Phase Linear equipment

[@bluesky6361]

I met Bob Carver many years ago at his factory in Woodinville Washington. We were visiting my older brother in Puget Sound and I convinced him to drive us to Woodinville. We walked in and I asked the receptionist if a tour was possible. She said "Let me ask Bob". She did and Bob invited my brother and me into his office where he was meeting with his second in command. We talked for about 30 minutes and then his second took us on a tour. We saw everything except Bob's secret lab. Afterwards we went back to Bob's office and talked some more. It just so happened that I owned the original Sonic Holography preamp that Myer-Emco displayed at the old Washington DC Hi-Fi Show. I told Bob about some issues I noticed with the preamp. He said to ship it back to him and he would update it to the latest spec and ship it back. All at no cost! Of course, as soon as I got home to Virginia I sent it off. It returned sounding fantastic. In addition to the preamp, I owned a couple of Carver amps, including the Cube, and his FM tuner. I wish I still had them.

[@lynnlittle8671]

I had a 400 amp, till it died, still have the 4000 preamp.

[@alm5693]

A lot of 70's bar bands used Phase Linear 400s for PA amps. If you could afford it, you bought a Crown.

[@elgringoec]

Crown did figure out how to make an amp!

[@leekumiega9268]

Paul in another video mentions how much better Phase Linear sounded compared to Crown.

[@alm5693]

@@leekumiega9268 For PA use in the 70's, Crowns may have been preferred because they were a lot more stable than the Phase Linear amps. We had a lot of trouble with our 400 cutting out (although it never burst into flames), but we were also pushing it hard because we couldn't afford more of them. We were really excited about being able to buy the one Phase Linear that we had.

[@elgringoec]

Yes clearly Crown was designed for the use and abuse of PRO sound applications. And generic statements convey misunderstandings. Durability and robustness aside, his sound quality comparison would be highly dependent on which crown was used to compare. At the time of phase linear, I'd guess the DC 300 was probably the flagship Crown. I have one or two around, and no surprise to me that they wouldn't hang sonically with the phase linears of the same era. However, there's no vintage amp from the bygone days that would hang with a modern top grade crown.

[@leekumiega9268]

@@elgringoec In Paul's video he did not mention the model but did say it was out around the same time so you are most likely correct that it was probably the DC 300 . As far as hang with modern designs there are some people in this thread that still use Phase Linear and think that they sound as good modern amps.

[@howbouthat5479]

Bought my PL 400 in 1976. Still have it, still modding it, still CRANKS. Running old Magnepan MG IIa's.

[@user-ex9zm7bg3x]

Bob Carver was demoing his True Subwoofers at a Phoenix audio/video show in '98 or '99. He was a little bent out of shape because he'd misplaced his space shuttle-launch CD.

[@garykarlin1777]

Add bypass capacitors? What does this do? How does that work?

[@kc9scott]

If the only power supply capacitors are the big electrolytics, the supply voltage will be stable for middle and lower frequencies, but not so stable for the highest frequencies. The wiring within the big electolytics has some inductance that causes this; they effectively “go away” at those frequencies, to some extent. Adding a different type of capacitor in parallel, one that’s more suited to high frequencies, solves the problem. The two types of capacitors, combined, give you the large amount of capacitance of the electrolytics, but it now works at all frequencies.

[@HareDeLune]

@@kc9scott Thanks!

[@mrwhite9830]

I'd buy that book :D

[@StevePilgrim2013]

Bob Carver - sheer genius! Don't use that word often. Greatest up-sale opportunity with Phase Linear...fire extinguishers.

[@machrider2333]

polypropylene bypass capacitors

[@elgringoec]

Why does "bypassing the filter capacitor" (a .1μ parallel to a 10,000μ) "work", Paul? Care to explain?

[@JohnAudioTech]

The small value film capacitors have much lower ESR (equivalent series resistance) and inductance than the large electrolytic cans. I'd imagine that the circuit board already has film bypass caps on it making adding more redundant but I'm not familiar with those amplifiers.

[@elgringoec]

@@JohnAudioTech I wanted to see Paul explain it. He gave the advice without a technical reason for it. We're turning out instructions followers instead of thinkers.

[@anthonymartino9917]

Phase Linear 400 was a good amp.

[@PooNinja]

Mine still is 🤘🏽

[@digggerrjones7345]

Parts Express *is not* in Canada.

[@elgringoec]

Pfft details

[@markowen4326]

Boeing Surplus! Wish I'd gone more often.

[@litsaudio]

at that age, many of us are socio-political idealists quality audio is far better, if you got a fat pocket 😉

[@elgringoec]

Well yeah when we're enveloped in a soundstage picturing the details of guys playing instruments it's hard to be depressed about what the ingrates are doing to our once exemplary country.

[@gotham61]

Probably a good idea to suggest people wait a while for those big caps to discharge, before someone electrocutes themselves.

[@elgringoec]

😂 the worry warts...

[@graxjpg]

Wait? Why not just discharge them?

[@gotham61]

@@graxjpg It's not really a good idea to discharge a big cap by shorting it out, but my point remains, telling people to just slap in a bypass cap without at least giving a bit of a warning is asking for trouble.

[@elgringoec]

@@gotham61 You think they don't have a bleeder across each? That would be rare. Besides, they're gonna discharge quickly through the circuits when power is removed. The bleeders slowly drain the last bit of energy.

[@graxjpg]

@@gotham61 why not? If you’re trying to be educational you have to give us the whys and such

[@AffectionateMountainVolc-xd9jg]

He sounds jealous of old Bob😂 In a good way!! The man is a legend in the audio world 🌎 🙌

[@mattmiller2761]

I have two Phase Linear 700B's that still get used regularly. BTW the model 400's didn't have any VU meters.

[@rdmeenach]

Yes they did. The 200 didn’t

[@mattmiller2761]

@@rdmeenach You're right, my mistake.

[@stonefree1911]

99% true is a really good read. You can get the audiobook version that Paul narrates personally, it's quite entertaining.

[@ryanschipp8513]

I sense some jealousy from Paul. Whenever Paul brings up Bob Carver he has to make fun of him. He will make fun of him and then superficially give him credit. Pure jealousy. Carver knows his stuff

[@theonl1128]

I think you see this not correct, Paul is just telling funny stuff wich he remembers, nothing jalous about that...he loves Bob. At least that is what I make of it. 😇

[@laurentzduba1298]

Bypass capacitors are Paul's tip on making 1970s era Phase Linear amps sound like a Dynaco ST-70? Works up to a point, then use Rubycon Black Gate capacitors for more dramatic improvement.

[@elgringoec]

ST-70 is that the 2ch tube power amp?

[@andershammer9307]

Black Gates are gone but they were the best electrolytic out there. Need a new replacement.

[@Finn-McCool]

Q: is phase linear any good? A: let me tell you a story about a hair piece.... Ridiculous

[@williamsarver2491]

Yep - condescending story- Paul is always full of himself- such a salesman

[@bencrow6663]

Love your videos Paul. But Paul, whadda you listening to at the moment?! Ben, Lincoln, England.

[@Jakeman90210]

My only experience with phase linear, is people calling them “flame linear”. Apparently they would break and send DC to your speakers and smoke them

[@mostirreverent]

I believe that my Adcom GFA 555 does not have them, something, Nelson Pass designed

[@adamsonlinearrayspeakersha87]

Hello again

[@melockavich9596]

I use my phase 700 every day no flame

[@Runstowin]

I had a 700b power amp, I wish I had not sold it.

[@leekumiega9268]

Contact White Oak Audio on line as they buy ,recondition ,upgrade and sell old Phase Linear amps.

[@davidstevens7809]

ok. ok. you arent bypasing the cap.. the truth is..big electrolytics cant fix small ripple.. in reality you need 3 stages big middle and small value ..the big caps arent fast enough because they have inductance.. so you need to parallel smaller value film or mylar ....I suggest a 10uf and also a .1uf both need to be at least the same voltage as the big electrolytics... the middle value fixes small ripple and the small value fixes even smaller ripple.. so working all together they improve the amp. vastly..

[@donpayne1040]

ERM!!!!! IT DOES MATTER WHICH WAY YOU PUT 0.1UF BI-POLARIZED FILM CAPACITORS IN. THE SOUND CHANGES DRAMATICALLY. WONT BE NUDGED OR SWAYED ON THAT ONE.

[@tomhalbouty3653]

Don, I've tested this and measured distortion and noise. In my view, the polarity orientation of the shielding has a very minor impact on noise the circuit and no real impact on sound. It's so minor that most poly caps are not marked forcing you to test for polarity. I do agree that the bypass caps can help in some cases.

[@donpayne1040]

@@tomhalbouty3653 Thanks, so someone agrees.

[@davidfromamerica1871]

I’d rather hear from the young people how they are consuming audio and perception of audio gear instead of the old geezers like me @ 70 years old. I can have my Geritol and read their opinions.

[@elgringoec]

Listening to this guy reminds me of Dennis Prager!

[@johnsweda2999]

No you need use safety capacitors x2 or x1 like a ceramic 0.1 275v not just general film capacitors that would be dangerous.

[@bilguana11]

I had a PL 400 and it had poor sound even for the 70s. Carver is the great flim-flam of audio.

[@revokdaryl1]

Listen to a TFM-75 and you may change your mind about Carver.