Phase Linear

[Sigma]

just got a recapped Clair custom phase linear 400 series 2 == bejebus it's a BEAST!thumbsup too bad ya got to pay an arm and a leg for anything near as good made today..

[KBOY]

I absolutely miss mine.... Great amp!

[ktf]

Clair custom? Is it different than an off the shelf Phase Linear?

[Sigma]

Originally Posted by ktf

Clair custom? Is it different than an off the shelf Phase Linear?

don't know the specifics but my friend Dave Wilkerson who worked at Clair for a long time before going independent recapped it for me and told me the amps were modded by Clair. they [my friends] have a warehouse full of amps, gear racks etc. from when they started with Clair in the late 70's

I got a Clair headphone box too

2 headphone outs each with.. mono, stereo, left 1 or 2 ch, right 1 or 2 channel

nice box!

[dementedchord]

well i hope the mods did something for the reliability issues... we used to call the flame linear... sonicly they were cool but ya didn't want to take them out every night... IIRC that's bob carvers co.

[drBill]

Memories......I can't quite recall how many times I blew out my speakers with one of those amps. I finally gave up and put protection in all the speakers. That thing was brutal! Nice sounding amp though....

[Sigma]

the 700's were notorious for that still don't have much info on the 400's doing that..he said the mods addressed the issue but as they had 700's and 400's don't know what was done on what..but i fig a 2 amp fast blow on the wire to each of the the pushers will protect me

you can't get some parts for the dc 300 anymore and i never liked the sound of crowns although they were as reliable as all get out..

so PL and minimal cost did it for me.. i'll be driving re coned JBL 4410's and tannoy PBM 6.5 orginals on a switcher from em..the JBL's are so efficient i'll prob never get a heartbeat outta the PL's

yeah carver--hippie rats!

[Old Cane]

Flashback! I bought a PL and 4316s (?) when I was 16. Still have the JBLs. I miss the PL. I used it on mixing, stereo, monitors (live) and carried it in my rack for years. Now I have a (sigh) Adcom. Not too happy.

[Sigma]

Originally Posted by Old Cane

Flashback! I bought a PL and 4316s (?) when I was 16. Still have the JBLs. I miss the PL. I used it on mixing, stereo, monitors (live) and carried it in my rack for years. Now I have a (sigh) Adcom. Not too happy.

4311's ?

[ddageek]

Yes those PLs sounded great, but it was that fire thing, that DC thing, that blown fuse thing!
Some have said that the irony was that what made them sound so good was that as they got hotter they would staay in class A mode to higher and higher out puts untill the amp was no more!

[ktf]

Back in my early tech years I saw a PL700 that was completly burnt from the volume knobs to speaker outputs. Both sides. But I am currently useing bi-amped 700's on my monitors with good results for quite sometime now. Good amps and affordable....knock on wood. I do run some fans into the bass amp. I would like to know of the mods.

[Sigma]

Originally Posted by ktf

Back in my early tech years I saw a PL700 that was completly burnt from the volume knobs to speaker outputs. Both sides. But I am currently useing bi-amped 700's on my monitors with good results for quite sometime now. Good amps and affordable....knock on wood. I do run some fans into the bass amp. I would like to know of the mods.

i just emailed dave... he was out with Asia doing FOH and came back for a few weeks when he preped my amps ..i don't know his schedule..so i will pm you if it takes awhile for him to reply

[ktf]

Originally Posted by Sigma

i just emailed dave... he was out with Asia doing FOH and came back for a few weeks when he preped my amps ..i don't know his schedule..so i will pm you if it takes awhile for him to reply

Thanks man!

[Sigma]

FROM DAVE W>>


The mods that Clairs did to this amp were just putting in a bigger bridge rectifier in the power supply and a much beefier output snubber network. There are no capacitors in the signal path to upgrade.

I'd start with 2 amp fuses, and go larger if you pop them. The amp has 7 amp fuses on the DC rails but this is for both channels.

[ImJohn]

Originally Posted by Old Cane

Flashback! I bought a PL and 4316s (?) when I was 16. Still have the JBLs. I miss the PL. I used it on mixing, stereo, monitors (live) and carried it in my rack for years. Now I have a (sigh) Adcom. Not too happy.

What model(s) Adcom do you have???

[Mike Chafee]

My band purchased a pa from Bob Heil in 1971 which consisted of a Sunn Colleseum eight channel board with a single one octave graphic eq, four bass bins loaded with Cerwin Vega 15's, two of his 60 degree radial horns with JBL 2482's, and a purple faced Phase 700 run at 4 OHMS PER SIDE, mounted in a case with two boxer fans.

This was quite a pa for the time, and years later I found out why we never had a problem with the phase 700.

Bob Carver asked me to represent him and his new hi-fi company, selling the sonic hologram preamp, and the magnetic field amplifier.

He gratiously flew me to Seattle, welcomed me into his home, and blew me away with a three dimensional demo of Dark Side of the Moon.

During that time he told me that Bob Heil was responsible for helping him when he started up Phase Linear. Bob Called him out of nowhere, and told him he would prepay an order for 50 amps! BUT he requiredma purple faceplate, and slow as shit output devices!

Bob Carver"s design philosophy with this amp was to have an unregulated power supply with large reserves, and let it swing hard, and boy did it ever! Those slow devices were rugged, and and Bob Heil was a very smart man.

Mike Chafee