2 new to me PL-700b

[Bretthammy]

Hi there, new to the forum and to Phase Linear, but I’ve been browsing and exploring a bit, this forum is an amazing wealth of knowledge, so thank you all for contributing.

TLDR: I got a great deal on 2 PL700b and now I need to figure out what to do!

So a couple days ago, an auction house I occasionally buy from, sent me an email about an estate auction from 3 different estates. I usually just browse and move on sonce there is rarely much of interest to me usually some cheap tools and such show up.

Well I get to the bottom of the first 40 items or so, and I see Speaker Lab 7s, hmm that’s an unusual item. So hopefully I click to the next page of items…holy mother of God, this is some nice vintage audio gear. I immediately see a good handful of PL gear, a maranta model 18, Sansui 8080DB, a Kenwood Kr-9400, 4 sets of speaker labs and some sort GIANT homemade folded horn set up, with a few other cheaper options mixed in.

At this point I assume it will all go for good money since they are relatively well known items…I was wrong. I managed to grab 2xPL-700b, the Sansui 8080, and the Kr-9400, for a steal.

Now the downside is I’ve only seen pictures and don’t know if the items do more than power on. At the price I paid, I think I could make my money back even if I part them out, so I’m not too worried if they have some issues. I pick them up today.

So, other than sharing my story (I’m excited, I never find good deals like this) I had a few questions about WOPL parts. First off, if I resell one of the amps, how much should I upgrade it? Should I just repair any damaged items/old caps or add some WO parts before resale? Which WO parts are needed to prevent the whole Flame Linear situation?

I plan to do the work myself (possibly with a more experienced friend’s help). I’m hoping I can make enough off one 700b amp and the other two receivers and be able to justify keeping the other 700b for future upgrading. What’s a rough estimate for how much a full WOPL cost if I don’t have to pay labor? Sounds like it’s at least $1k in parts or am I way off on that?

Well that’s what I have for now, thanks to anyone who can help me out!

 

[mr_rye89]

Yeah I'm deep into a WOPL conversion on a 700B, I think I have about 1k in it but I did buy a new chassis/DC protect/triac switch. Also have a variac, dim bulb tester, and good soldering irons ready. I'm using 3 irons, a Rat Shack 40 watt, a Weller 60 watt, and a Weller Expert 100/140

 

[wattsabundant]

You can see the write up for the relay board on EBAY. 700B output relay. If the power switch is a smallish Arrow Hart type, I have a solidstate (triac) with PCB that uses the existing power switch to control the triac. The triac does the heavy lifting. The Arrow Hart switch is nearly impossible to find.

 

[Bretthammy]

Awesome, good to know, would there be any soldiering iron that would work well enough that I could get away with one iron? I saw that some of the connections required high wattage to heat properly. I haven’t bought a decent iron yet, just been practicing with a crappy one and old PCB. Variac and ‘scope are also on my to buy list, which will be used for future restoration work, so I’m not counting that in my price estimate!

Well 1k over a year or two should be easily doable if I keep one, not like I will ever need a more powerful amp once its a WOPL!

 

[Bretthammy]

You can see the write up for the relay board on EBAY. 700B output relay. If the power switch is a smallish Arrow Hart type, I have a solidstate (triac) with PCB that uses the existing power switch to control the triac. The triac does the heavy lifting. The Arrow Hart switch is nearly impossible to find.

Ok I will keep that in mind! Yeah I’m not very well versed on electronics at this point, but I can follow directions like solder here, remove this. It sounds like all the WO parts have very clear directions.

 

[Bretthammy]

Oh, I hadn’t looked at the WA stuff yet, thanks for the link!

 

[wattsabundant]

The relay board uses AC voltage taken at the bridge rectifier. #22 wire is soldered on to the rectifier. There are large wires at that point you have to connect to. If you upgrade to the White Oak rectifier, the relay board AC wires have solder locations on the W/O rectifier board. Download the install procedure below.

 

[mlucitt]

You have already started down the slippery slope.

 

[Sunnbobb]

Awesome, good to know, would there be any soldiering iron that would work well enough that I could get away with one iron? I saw that some of the connections required high wattage to heat properly. I haven’t bought a decent iron yet, just been practicing with a crappy one and old PCB. Variac and ‘scope are also on my to buy list, which will be used for future restoration work, so I’m not counting that in my price estimate!

Well 1k over a year or two should be easily doable if I keep one, not like I will ever need a more powerful amp once its a WOPL!

I found a TS100 soldering iron does everything I need. I swap out a pointed and flat tip depending on the job. Takes about 10 seconds. I also use Kester 44 .031 solder, and Kester 959 soldering flux. It takes less than 10' of solder to complete a wopl. A 3oz bottle of flux may last a lifetime, lol. Lastly, a board holder is a must.

 

[wattsabundant]

Changing tips is not always convenient. Using the right tip for the job avoids damaging parts and PCB's from too much or too little heat. I keep a bottle of liquid flux and a jar of paste flux handy. A little goes a long way. I bought the Hakko desoldering gun last year. It's not cheap but sure makes life easier. I also upgraded to the Pace 8007 soldering station last year. I can't imagine not having it now.

 

[Bretthammy]

You have already started down the slippery slope.

Haha…yeah. I find myself in this situation often with hobbies, at least I got an affordable start. I got both PL700b’s for $380, it’s no $25 goodwill find but it still seems surreal that I scored 4 high end vintage items for an awesome price!

 

[Bretthammy]

I found a TS100 soldering iron does everything I need. I swap out a pointed and flat tip depending on the job. Takes about 10 seconds. I also use Kester 44 .031 solder, and Kester 959 soldering flux. It takes less than 10' of solder to complete a wopl. A 3oz bottle of flux may last a lifetime, lol. Lastly, a board holder is a must.

Ok that’s awesome to know, it’ll let me get started preventing latching up on the unit I plan to sell! Eventually I’m sure I’ll end up with a few different irons, but my harbor freight special isn't going to cut it for electronics work lol.

 

[Bretthammy]

Changing tips is not always convenient. Using the right tip for the job avoids damaging parts and PCB's from too much or too little heat. I keep a bottle of liquid flux and a jar of paste flux handy. A little goes a long way. I bought the Hakko desoldering gun last year. It's not cheap but sure makes life easier. I also upgraded to the Pace 8007 soldering station last year. I can't imagine not having it now.

I’ll probably start off working very slowly so I think I can get away with a good single soldiering iron for now, if I have to take time changing tips that’s alright. If I ever start doing routine repair or restoration I will definitely end up with a couple!

Those desoldering guns look amazing! Do they do a good job of getting all the solder or do you still have to go back with braid like with the cheap solder suckers?

 

[Bretthammy]

I’m looking at the fx-888dx for a do everything soldering station, should I look at anything else in that price range? And will the 65w iron have enough power for all the WOPL work, or at least the output relay work?

Thanks to all of you so far, so awesome having a site dedicated to these amps!

edit: realized the output relay directions say 60w is sufficient, so that answers that part!

 

[J!m]

I believe soldering down the PEM nuts on the new WO board is where you need the horsepower...

 

[Sunnbobb]

Hi there, new to the forum and to Phase Linear, but I’ve been browsing and exploring a bit, this forum is an amazing wealth of knowledge, so thank you all for contributing.

TLDR: I got a great deal on 2 PL700b and now I need to figure out what to do!

So a couple days ago, an auction house I occasionally buy from, sent me an email about an estate auction from 3 different estates. I usually just browse and move on sonce there is rarely much of interest to me usually some cheap tools and such show up.

Well I get to the bottom of the first 40 items or so, and I see Speaker Lab 7s, hmm that’s an unusual item. So hopefully I click to the next page of items…holy mother of God, this is some nice vintage audio gear. I immediately see a good handful of PL gear, a maranta model 18, Sansui 8080DB, a Kenwood Kr-9400, 4 sets of speaker labs and some sort GIANT homemade folded horn set up, with a few other cheaper options mixed in.

At this point I assume it will all go for good money since they are relatively well known items…I was wrong. I managed to grab 2xPL-700b, the Sansui 8080, and the Kr-9400, for a steal.

Now the downside is I’ve only seen pictures and don’t know if the items do more than power on. At the price I paid, I think I could make my money back even if I part them out, so I’m not too worried if they have some issues. I pick them up today.

So, other than sharing my story (I’m excited, I never find good deals like this) I had a few questions about WOPL parts. First off, if I resell one of the amps, how much should I upgrade it? Should I just repair any damaged items/old caps or add some WO parts before resale? Which WO parts are needed to prevent the whole Flame Linear situation?

I plan to do the work myself (possibly with a more experienced friend’s help). I’m hoping I can make enough off one 700b amp and the other two receivers and be able to justify keeping the other 700b for future upgrading. What’s a rough estimate for how much a full WOPL cost if I don’t have to pay labor? Sounds like it’s at least $1k in parts or am I way off on that?

Well that’s what I have for now, thanks to anyone who can help me out!

Ah! Now I know who outbid me on the Port Orchard auction! LOL

 

[Bretthammy]

Ah! Now I know who outbid me on the Port Orchard auction! LOL

Bwahahaha! Did you get the other 2. I thought I had the turntables as well but I guess I got outbid at the last seconds. When I found that gear I didn’t tell a soul, I was convinced it was going to go for a lot more.

 

[Sunnbobb]

Bwahahaha! Did you get the other 2. I thought I had the turntables as well but I guess I got outbid at the last seconds. When I found that gear I didn’t tell a soul, I was convinced it was going to go for a lot more.

Nah, I set my upper limit and was aced on everything.. grrrr. Oh well, It was an amazing bunch of stuff, and with the dust and dirt on the gear, it was difficult to tell exactly what condition the stuff was in.

 

[Bretthammy]

Nah, I set my upper limit and was aced on everything.. grrrr. Oh well, It was an amazing bunch of stuff, and with the dust and dirt on the gear, it was difficult to tell exactly what condition the stuff was in.

Yeah, I’m pretty busy the next couple weeks so I won’t get to start messing with it yet…step one is definitely disassembly and deeeeep cleaning for all the pieces I won. I know I probably won’t make any quick money on these but hopefully they will be a good start in trouble shooting and repair if they are nonfunctional. For the price I paid I know I should be able to get my money back at a minimum. (My limit for the 700Bs was 400 for two so I almost got out bid as well).

 

[RunsOnElectrons]

Just checking-in here, I picked up the other two 700Bs at the same auction for WOPL conversions. Nice to see the University S7’s and other two 700Bs are staying local I wonder who picked up the 700B faceplate and PL4000?