David's Phase Linear 700B Thread

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

Quick Update......

I think I came up with a temporary solution to the current draw issue. Something I realized the following day after we were troubleshooting a few things on one of the amps here; is I didn't think to consider the main power feed. Most certainly a stack of 700B's; and another stack of equipment, drawing amperage from one single circuit.....along with what other various wall plugs that were daisy chained with it; would cause a huge current draw on initial power up. The breaker is undersized for the application. I tested the theory by using an extension cord, plugged into another room, to power up two of the B's. When all four were turned on at same time; I no longer got the surge and the amps didn't flash on-off-on again. Soooo I am beefing up the breaker. Or I could just stick a penny in there? Cheaper right?

I still have the issue with the one amps LED's and meter swing....but again.....that's getting white-oaked first so a non-issue.

 

[laatsch55]

I have a 60 amp duplex 240 volt breaker feeding some 8/4 SO cord runnbing to the rack , then split with each 120 feeding a twin duplex box , resulting in 8 plugins for the rack gear...and sometimes I wonder if it's enough...

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

Okay just threw the 200 amp main and no fire. So the temporary 30 Amp breaker is holding. No blinking of the power feed to the amps now. I will not go above this as to exceed the tolerances of the current awg wire in the walls.

I say temporary because I will be running new wire in the walls at some point. Of course THAT is a new task in and of itself and one I am not inclined to embark on at this time. This old house has all the exterior wall wiring as original Aluminum. So that's bad already. We already however, gutted all the interior walls and ran copper. But of course; there's no interior walls in the lower level.

Since I'm having a liscensed electrician install all new main and breakers; I will be having him re-run new wire also. Easily at that time, he can up the breaker size and wire awg. I shall dedicate that circuit. But thats a no-no at the moment.

If I EVER wish to see a WOPL 1000; my money needs to be there first. As this seems to have solved the current dilemma. (see what I did there? "current".

 

[laatsch55]

Yeah, we got that....

 

[gadget73]

30 amp breaker needs 10 AWG wire you know. If you've got 12 in the walls, thats 20 amp max to be legal. If you're feeding that through aluminum, 10 awg AL is 20 amps max.

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

PL700B System Facelift

I finally got a chance to do something at least cosmetic with my system after a year and a half of rough times.....

A PL700B face-plate upgrade was first on my list. I had a years worth of multiple eye surgeries that kept me away from the white-oaking project I wanted to do. Money for obvious reasons has been very tight. Before I was diagnosed with a detached retina; I was already in the process of gathering and paying for new face-plates for the cosmetic aspect of this project. When my issue happened everything went on hold.

Well I had to barter off to my father two of my amps to pay the medical bills. I only just NOW got them back. And am trying to pick up where I left off. I have added a new album to show my weekend warrior project. Finally upgrading the face-plates.

I have to thank Lee for supplying the new bezels. As I did not want to sacrifice the existing ones since they were in factory painted mint condition. Should I want to return to silver, I'd like to have the original bezels. Tony (TMZ) has since stopped making face-platesand is no longer on this site, but he made these four specifically for me. I mentioned some changes PL made to the wording, but I failed to mention all the changes. Owell, I guess we call it a hybrid. LOL!

I decided to use the original PL Lab Standard inserts because Joe's bright white lights have a way of slightly bleeding through the new fabricated ones.

I DO have an amp that has extra sensitive meters now, and another that the needle sticks. Perhaps the new bezels are squeezing the meters too snugly? They WERE very tight fitting. I didn't bother to try to pry them apart a bit with channel locks or anything. I didn't want to mar the paint. I should have test fit it first. I guess I will fix that another day.

Here are some of the pics. I liked the silver parts on black look. This is my best go at it. I was a little leery of how the walnut case would look with a black amp. Some people might be "ugh" and I thought that would be ME. But it actually looks ok? See below. What do YOU guys think?

 

[laatsch55]

Knowing how hard it is for LED pics to turn out nice, that must be awesome in person. Good job on aligning the LED's......

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

Knowing how hard it is for LED pics to turn out nice, that must be awesome in person. Good job on aligning the LED's......

Believe it or not; I took photos both with my iphone and a 12 megapixel cannon. The HDR setting on the iphone turned out THESE pics and the cannon blew chunks. How's that? I dunno but cell phone photo's are taking better pics than my camera. The album for these in my profile has a few more pics that came out great too. And even the audio from the cell phone video (as you recall Lee) wasn't too shabby when I played it back on the computer. Amazing what cell phone can do in this day and age......

 

[laatsch55]

Agreed on that.....

 

[jbeckva]

Believe it or not; I took photos both with my iphone and a 12 megapixel cannon. The HDR setting on the iphone turned out THESE pics and the cannon blew chunks. How's that? I dunno but cell phone photo's are taking better pics than my camera. The album for these in my profile has a few more pics that came out great too. And even the audio from the cell phone video (as you recall Lee) wasn't too shabby when I played it back on the computer. Amazing what cell phone can do in this day and age......

Man, they sure are! I have a T5 Canon that I'm tempted to sell off, but I figured I would someday still get a decent telescope to mate it with. Just had my work cell replaced with a Samsung S7... and that camera in those phones is just off the charts. Really kicks..

 

[laatsch55]

I think my S4 camera is good....

 

[jbeckva]

I think my S4 camera is good....

That's what I upgraded from hehe.. Man the low light sensitivity is just amazing.

 

[laatsch55]

Amazing what they can do now.....

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

That's what I upgraded from hehe.. Man the low light sensitivity is just amazing.

I bought a little compact cannon a few years back that would do good in low light. Cannon seemed to always be tops on the low light thing. Wanted a fit in my pocket kinda thing but good quality. It's listed as an HS system. Full 1080P. More than I really needed. (photo of camera box below). Either I can't work it because the camera is smarter than I am (fully possible) or the iphone is just that good now. It is newer tech after all.

As Lee said...getting shots of the amp with LED's is very hard. Even distribution or proper angle is everything. I guess I got it just right by accident. Almost looks like a cover shot of a new amp though? Brochure worthy perhaps? Amazing how fast technology has advanced JUST in the last 50 years. Hell....the last ten even......

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

Whoa! First post on the new revamped forum. Either things changed or I'm trippin on some wild stuff right now.........

I obviously have not kept up on my conversion project. Good thing for it too because soooo much has changed since I last tried. At this point we now have at our disposal backplane elements and heck even total chassis replacements. Twas not the case in my last venture.

More or less I am asking this for my brother; but me as well. I have NOT HEARD a WOPL1000. And I mean the fully complimentary build with all the trimmings. My brother only runs two 700B's and one konked out on him. He borrowed a Carver M500t in the mean time and now is debating whether or not to get the thing fixed. My father says the 700B's are too harsh compared to the Carver. But what compared to a WOPL1000? I told him I would ask for feedback from the masters here. Of course Joe and Lee and Jerry of whom I have always had my dealings with and then anyone else who has been here since the formulation of the WOPL1000. I now have FIVE perfect condition original 700B's but none of them are converted. My brother owns two of the same.

I told him it's an investment to convert one and he just doesn't want to plunk down the money if it's not going to sound any better than the Carver M500t's. Rather than him joining, posting ONCE and dissapearing for freebie advice; I'd rather I ask for him. And in reality I am also asking for ME and my father. Neither one of those guys seem to be able to make up their minds on this. Always flopping the idea back and forth. I KNOW what it is. It's those BIG OL' VU Meters that keep them sucked in under a spell; and I can't say I blame them. I just need to make sure they know that the beauty is not just skin deep on these conversions.

I suppose it's a sight unseen (hearing unheard) if you will..........THING.

Can I get some factual feedback from everyone on their reasons behind doing a build and taking the time to do one? And what if any opinions are there out there on the Carvers M500t sound to a WOPL if anyone has heard the Carvers? Adding to that; for my brother to have one done....who here does them with repeated sucess. I have been away for too long to know these things. My life has been extremly busy and is the major factor in my own failure to get around to doing one of these full conversions. Please leave your comments so I may pass them along to my Phase Linear Phanatical Phamily! Much appreciated

 

[laatsch55]

I have put a WOPL 1000 up against the following amps....in a sound quality listen, not just specs...sound quality. Not onl;y did the WOPL sound better, it sounded better by a bunch.

Spec 4
Spec 2
Bryston 4B
POA 2800
SAE 2500
Carver PT 2400
Mac 2105
Ands others i can't remember right now...

 

[WOPL Sniffer]

YUP, a WOPL'd 700B/II is by far the best sounding amp I HAVE ENCOUNTERED.

Don't sit on 40 year old amps.... Give yourself a treat and upgrade to a full Blow WOPL.... you won't look back. I have 5 of them sitting here in the "To be WOPLD" line. Hope to have them converted in the next 3 months.

 

[Gibsonian]

I'm not remembering everything about this thread but believe your Dad seems to favor the sound of the Carver amps over about anything. And if it's meters that you guys are favoring there is an entire line of Onkyo's that have even bigger meters that might interest you. They sound worse than the Carver does, but are built very very well.

Am I right and you didn't Whiteoak any of your PL amps, all still stock boards?

Maybe best to stick with the unmodded PL's and Carver amps that you have now. If they continue to sound good , and you never hear one of the WO'd units, you'll never know what you missed and all will be copacetic. It will definitely save you some dough.

 

[BigSkyCory]

I have a 700 series 1 that Laatsch55 tuned up for me. Didn't do the WOPL because to save some money and the amp is in museum like condition. I really like it, but now want a 700B with the WOPL mod. I got to listen to Laatsch55's K horns and I think he had a WOPL amp hooked up to them. Never heard anything so good. Pretty amazing to say the least.

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

I'm not remembering everything about this thread but believe your Dad seems to favor the sound of the Carver amps over about anything. And if it's meters that you guys are favoring there is an entire line of Onkyo's that have even bigger meters that might interest you. They sound worse than the Carver does, but are built very very well.

Am I right and you didn't Whiteoak any of your PL amps, all still stock boards?

Maybe best to stick with the unmodded PL's and Carver amps that you have now. If they continue to sound good , and you never hear one of the WO'd units, you'll never know what you missed and all will be copacetic. It will definitely save you some dough.

You are very correct. A sound, logical answer. MY situation as of current is I own 5 of the PL700B’s amps all show room quality originals and un-modded. I do not have the money or time to do a conversion myself to test the sound of one for myself. And I am not on the fence about it. However, it is my father and my brother who keep flip flopping on the idea of it.

My father has 4 PL400’s 6-fin, and 2 Carver M500t’s. He runs the t’s in a bi-amp config on a set of Bozak Concert Grands, and the Four PL400’s (bi-amped also, 2 sets each) on two more pairs of Concert Grands. So he knows the sound differences between the PL’s and the Carvers. Which is why he says the Carvers don’t sound as harsh. Yet his curiosity of what a PL White Oaked sounds like, still makes him ponder.

My brother is in the same boat as me as he prefers the 700B amp over any other amp. But he has stressed the interest in having his overhauled regardless of hearing one first since there isn’t really any way for him to do so AND his is dead anyway. To that end; I have told him that he’s probably looking at three to five months of having it gone. I of course have recommended going full tilt. Watts Abundant relay board, Meter light board, new backplanes, fully comp, premo go big or go home with pic components. No Phoenix connectors on the boards and direct solder mil-spec wiring. “The Works”.

Send me a PM for whoever has room in the que. Not sure if it’s Perry or Lee who could. It’s been a while since I was involved in mods here. (This Thread). That was pre-full mod era. At THAT time, backplane boards weren’t around yet. For that matter, neither were chassis’ and faceplates last time I started to attempt one. So if my brother is willing to fork it over to go big or go home, and that results in my father or me being bowled over, then well.........5 amps....I will have a big project on my hands. Not like that’s a bad thing? But I’ll have to shift priorities.