David's Phase Linear 700B Thread

Joined
May 26, 2013
Messages
713
Location
St. Louis, MO.
Tagline
Born and Raised In The 700 Watt Club.
God help me to have Four! :-o I'll end up like my dad. Only mine wont be 400's.

Lee we got a brand new engraver yesterday. It's different than the old one, so I don't know how to work it yet. PLUS, I just moved to day shift after a year. So I can't sneak those by the way I used to. The long-timers and big wigs float around during days. Damn.........it never occured to me to do some for the 400's? So cherish those. LOL! It'll be a bit before I can make you some. I DO have one from your stash as a reference. If you want to make any changes to what I provided you, let me know before the next batch. Lead time may be a few weeks. ;-)
 
Joined
May 26, 2013
Messages
713
Location
St. Louis, MO.
Tagline
Born and Raised In The 700 Watt Club.
My woman is glad too. It has definitely helped the ol' relationship. Gotta earn your way up in the work force. I was the only one who lasted. Through two rounds/groups of swing (2nd's/night) shifters; only I survived. I may be on days, but I still have to go in at 4 a.m. We are on very long hours and mandatory Saturdays. They have me running around with the electrical engineer trying to wire panels that were due out "yesterday". I am mentally and physically exhausted. But hey, it comes with the job. Tis the price we pay to do what we like?

Apparently we are diving into a NEW field of tech. We are having portable trailer generators delivered on site, to have electrical and mechanical panels integrated into them. I know little about this, but we are engineering, designing, and fabricating the guts of these little guys. And they are to be used in the oil fields. Supposedly, 300 Amps IN, 1,500 OUT. That sound right?? God, I'm gonna get zapped and DIE! :-o

:thin:
 

laatsch55

Administrator,
Staff member
Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
74,827
Location
Gillette, Wyo.
Tagline
Halfbiass...Electron Herder and Backass Woof
Never heard of booster generators...heard of generators, got lots of those on drilling rigs and temporary power for pumping units...
 
Joined
May 26, 2013
Messages
713
Location
St. Louis, MO.
Tagline
Born and Raised In The 700 Watt Club.
Never heard of booster generators...heard of generators, got lots of those on drilling rigs and temporary power for pumping units...
It may just BE a plain regular on site generator. It's why I said I know little about this. Those were the two numbers that got said together in the same sentence by the project engineer. So that much I am certain. But as to how they were used in that sentence; I am uncertain. Yet we also DO have a trailer parked outside. So that is pretty clear. I just need to find out more details for sure! Could be interesting. Stay tuned..................................................
 
Joined
May 26, 2013
Messages
713
Location
St. Louis, MO.
Tagline
Born and Raised In The 700 Watt Club.
Phase Linear System done.

I have finished the main project of re-working my new PL system to incorporate new components and a new location for them, in part as a future upgrade. Part of my manly duties of re-arranging the furniture I guess? I have uploaded a new album in my profile. You can see all the pics there. I did not take pics off all the work on installing the light boards on all the amps as I figured most here probably consider it pretty mundane. However; I DID take slow progress pics. I had trouble deciding whether or not to go all PL or run just the amps PL. I didn't like the look of half vintage/ half new era sitting on the same shelf. So I moved the two components to the top. Even so..........the lady preferred the tops to be clear. As I already had a Rotel pre and digital tuner. So I will use the 5000 in combo with the 2000 along with a PL 200 in the garage with some bookshelf speakers. What do YOU gents think?

The speakers are comprised of four twelve inch subs at the bottom; two 6 inch mids at the top right and left side; and eight two inch tweets in a line array down the center.

For right now; I have two of the four speakers I built on site. It's simply a matter of driving to my brothers with the pick-up, and hauling the other two back to my house. The system is all set up for it. In the mean time.................do I need a dummy load on the amps I am not using?

Also; I see on power down, the LED's on the light boards slowly fade away with exception to ONE amp which the LED's dissipate light immediatly. One wonders if the main caps are not holding charge?? Could this be? That same amp also has a wild meter swing on power up intermittently. It is one of the amps with no load at the moment too. Also related?? :confused3:

Aquiring the gear put a good monetary strain on White oaking anything fully this year. I had 30 grand in home improvements that kinda sunk that ship. But I'm hoping for next year. Here's a quick glimpse.

IMG_0004.jpg IMG_0026.jpg IMG_0025.jpg IMG_0027.jpg
 

laatsch55

Administrator,
Staff member
Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
74,827
Location
Gillette, Wyo.
Tagline
Halfbiass...Electron Herder and Backass Woof
Does the one that loses light immediately have old PS caps?? No need to load the amp, doesn't hurt a thing.

Impressive set up Dave. Looked at your album....nice racks...
 

gadget73

Journeyman
Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Messages
465
Tagline
---
i'd guess dying caps or maybe some odd internal oscillation problem that is drawing them down rapidly. dead zoebel network parts might be either causal or symptomatic.
 
Joined
May 26, 2013
Messages
713
Location
St. Louis, MO.
Tagline
Born and Raised In The 700 Watt Club.
Does the one that loses light immediately have old PS caps?? No need to load the amp, doesn't hurt a thing.

Impressive set up Dave. Looked at your album....nice racks...
Thank you very much Lee. I appreciate that. There's nothing like having a "nice rack". But it's only half way there. Even MORE impressive will be when I can get all four of those amps White-Oaked. Start sending you one at a time. ;-)

But for now; yes. Every cap in these things is original PL. And not that I'm sure this has anything to do with the issue; but I noticed while I was in the amps putting the light boards in; only ONE of them did NOT have snubber caps on the bridge rectifier. The rectifier looked original and un-altered, but the others had them. Now this could be meaningless but what do the snubber caps do? I have some from mouser I ordered all that while ago when I was attempting to replace a rectifier during my original driver board conversion in this thread. Along with new bulk caps. So they are here handy if I need to do something with them? I ALSO have the four new bulk caps I ordered in the last group buy. And an additional rectifier to accommodate. If I NEED to do something with the old caps.......it's possible I can.

Two of them are dual-primary transformer versions, that can be wired for 240v and the others are not. Yet they are all configured for 120v. So the duals have the three prong plug gray cordset as opposed to the traditional two prong black we all know of and are used to seeing. Probably a standard for PL's production at the factory of the duals?...

I'll have to pull that rack back out and disconnect it to open it up again. More than likely that speaker. It's only 350lbs, and moves easier than that amp rack.

Right now, with no load on two; I have split the pre-amp signal (as you can probably see by the photos in my album), and taken the highs to two, and the lows to the other two. So all four see a signal and all eight of the meters bounce to the music as intended. Quite a neat sight to see. :)
So far I am quite pleased with how it turned out. As I have been working on this Idea since the summer. Thanks for the positive reinforcement!
 
Last edited:

laatsch55

Administrator,
Staff member
Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
74,827
Location
Gillette, Wyo.
Tagline
Halfbiass...Electron Herder and Backass Woof
It really does look good. My cave always seems to be in a state of flux. A tornado would probably neaten things up. I would glady White Oak your stuff but man.....why don't YOU do it. You seem more than capable....your wiring at work is impeccable (there's that word again Joe)....what do you think you can not do?
 

gadget73

Journeyman
Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Messages
465
Tagline
---
the snubber caps on the rectifier smooth out high frequency switching noise from the diodes turning on and off.
 

NavLinear

Veteran and General Yakker
Joined
Apr 12, 2012
Messages
6,056
Location
SoCal
Thank you very much Lee. I appreciate that. There's nothing like having a "nice rack". But it's only half way there. Even MORE impressive will be when I can get all four of those amps White-Oaked. Start sending you one at a time. ;-)

Two of them are dual-primary transformer versions, that can be wired for 240v and the others are not. Yet they are all configured for 120v. So the duals have the three prong plug gray cordset as opposed to the traditional two prong black we all know of and are used to seeing. Probably a standard for PL's production at the factory of the duals?...
My PL 400 that I purchased in Europe was wired for 240 that I switched to 120 when I returned state side. This unit came with the two pronged power plug. I used an adapter connector to get wall power while in Italy.
 
Joined
May 26, 2013
Messages
713
Location
St. Louis, MO.
Tagline
Born and Raised In The 700 Watt Club.
It really does look good. My cave always seems to be in a state of flux. A tornado would probably neaten things up. I would glady White Oak your stuff but man.....why don't YOU do it. You seem more than capable....your wiring at work is impeccable (there's that word again Joe)....what do you think you can not do?
LMAO!! A tornado to neaten things up! Well, that's probably ONE of the various reasons I may not attempt it. That kind of mess would get me killed with the misses! If I do it, I'm going down to the chassis! That means all new outputs; backplane boards; DCP; driver board; caps; rectifier; RCA jacks; buss bar, ground point rewire, the works! That my friend is time I lack. And to do it to FOUR at that? Man I wish! Also, I feel capable of replacing the rectifier, caps, driver board, and light board of myself; but the rest gets technical as I've read in your conversions. That's also under the pretense I have the pre-assembled boards. My component soldering skills i also do not trust. Too many tiny parts to put in the wrong place to blow something up! LOL! I also do not own any proper test equipment such as a sine wave generator, dim bulb tester, variac, etc. And IF I DID..........well, let's say my knowledge on component level understanding is rudimentary at best. Last time I used that stuff was back in '99. And after that I did a core dump of sorts. Never needed it until now. I am ruuuuuuuusTY! You'd have to do a LOT of hand holding! I'd hate to put you through that. LOL! Again.........it's WAY easier for ME to blow something up than you. And if I do..............I'm OUT. Where as YOU guarantee all your work and have vast experience in conversions so that would be minimal. I feel MY WAY would be slow and painful. :sad5:

I can work with it to a POINT; but I am limited in my resources is what I am getting at. Not that I wouldn't LOVE to do it though................

The 700's seem to have that same gray cord. It doesn't look like a consumer add on. As they match. My father also has a 400 with that same gray three prong cord. Not sure what it means but it's shown up too often to look non-factory. Unless PL was smoking the greenery that day again. And yeah I'd believe that.

Here's my father's system I set up for him that I used as a "go-by" for my set-up. I liked it so much that I had to copy......well....myself! LOL! Only........I may have over-killed it using 700B's..............NAH! :toothy5:

I just wanted the 700B's instead! God I love the look of them so much!

IMG_1042.jpg IMG_1040.jpg
 

laatsch55

Administrator,
Staff member
Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
74,827
Location
Gillette, Wyo.
Tagline
Halfbiass...Electron Herder and Backass Woof
And ya gotta understand.....I don't know how any of this shit works, I just solder it together...
 

gadget73

Journeyman
Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Messages
465
Tagline
---
Looks about like the power transformers I have at work too, and we have 4 of them I think. The main disconnect in the MCC cabinet looks about like that too. Our MCC is probably about 7 feet tall by 18 or so feet long and thats small in the industrial world. Electricity is no big deal, just shut it off, lock it out, and its no problem. I work with radiation too. Dangerous things are only dangerous if you don't use the right precautions. Done right, its safer than driving.
 
Top