Vernon,
Clearly you are a fan of the Series II Phase Linear. So this is all your fault -
When Bob Carver left Phase Linear in 1977, it signaled the end of the power amplifier company. The Phase Linear Series II was introduced in 1978, just before Pioneer acquired Phase Linear in 1979, by the new Chief Design Engineer and Engineering Manager, A. P. Van Meter, who joined Phase Linear in 1974, from McIntosh and University Sound. In 1980, the Pioneer engineers modified the original design to incorporate full complementary operation, reducing Total Harmonic Distortion and lowering InterModulation Distortion to only 0.009%. Of course this raised the price of the PL400 to $700.00. In 1981, the price of a PL400 increased again to over $800.00. This was too much of a cost (for an amplifier with a bad reputation of "Blaze Linear" and "Flame Linear") and market share dropped.
In 1982, Phase Linear was sold to Jensen Electronics. The DRS (Dynamic Range Series) were introduced at the Consumer Electronics show in January 1982, and reflected the complete break with Phase Linear's past designs.
In 1996, Jensen was acquired by Recoton Corp. (Lake Mary, FL) for $55M. Manufacturing assets from the purchase of Phase Linear (and others) were integrated into a separate company called Recoton Audio, Inc.. Recoton expanded further later that year by taking over the bankrupt Heco loudspeaker manufacturer including their East German manufacturing plant and by introducing a new line of high end car audio products under the Phase Linear brand that had not been used for a few years under Jensen's ownership.
Recoton was forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2003 and into full bankruptcy proceedings just a few days later. The car and home audio side of the business was auctioned off to Audiovox (now VOXX Electronics)
https://www.voxxelectronics.com/history/ for 40 million USD including brand names such as Road Gear and Phase Linear. The manufacturing part of Recoton, i.e. the capacity inherited from Jensen and Acoustic Research was not purchased by anyone and was liquidated.
Welcome aboard.
I have started my journey into restoring my gear and this place is an awesome resource for PL info. Now that I have time and the space, the gear is getting dusted off for its return to service. Current gear list;
