Hello From Belgium

udo

udo

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#1
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Jan 2, 2023
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13
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Belgium
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audio freak RF engineer
#1
Hello All,
I have bought my first Phase Linear Amp about 35 years ago. It was a PL400 back then. My own system now has two 700B's driving subs and two 400 series II driving Low/mid-High of my custom designed speaker system . Its all driven by a BSS BLU800 processor. I'm an audio freak that worked for a big US speaker manufacturer in the past . I designed and tuned quite a lot of systems over the years for studio monitoring over the globe for them.
Funny thing is, I only just discovered the White Oak stuff and this forum. What is bizarre. I fully refurbished the amps years ago. I'm enjoying them every day as they sound sweet and accurate. Super tight and no noise or hiss. But I'm driving the amps balanced input from the BSS. And the 700B's are rebuild as MONO blocks.
The last 10 years I'm running my own business doing mostly RF engineering for broadcasters. But still I'm asked for studio monitoring tuning by some.
Nice to find this forum .
Best 2023 for all.
Udo.
Ir. Udo Vanmechelen
 

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e30m3mon

e30m3mon

Chief Journeyman
#4
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Feb 9, 2013
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872
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Hudson Valley NY
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#4
Very interesting set of equipment in that rack, Udo. Aside from the PL boxes (which we are kinda familiar with here !), can you describe the other parts of your system? I'm not as familiar with the shelves above the PL boxes. oh - did you do anything particular to the PL boxes when upgrading?

Welcome - you have found the greatest collection of audio minds (not mine....the other guys!).
 
Bob Boyer

Bob Boyer

Veteran and General Yakker
#8
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Apr 24, 2013
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2,588
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Chattanooga, TN
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#8
Welcome from one of the weirdos without a PL in his system! This is a great place to hang, Phase Linear or not.
 
udo

udo

New Around These Parts
#13
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Jan 2, 2023
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13
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Belgium
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audio freak RF engineer
#13
Hello All, and thanks for that warm welcome.
Just to answer a few questions:
"Very interesting set of equipment in that rack, Udo. Aside from the PL boxes (which we are kinda familiar with here !), can you describe the other parts of your system? I'm not as familiar with the shelves above the PL boxes. oh - did you do anything particular to the PL boxes when upgrading?

Welcome - you have found the greatest collection of audio minds (not mine....the other guys!)."
Well on the left hand side of the rack is just a Onkyo CD player that is modified to output AES3 . actually it is seldom used. The little silver box on top of it is a Yellowtec broadcast PUC2 line convertor that can play 192/24 from a USB into AES3 https://shop.yellowtec.com/collections/puc2/products/puc2-line . It's a great sounding convertor that can play my HiRez files.
The top shelf is a DENON DCD-2000AE DSD/CD player that is direct digital connected to my BSS BLU800 processor.

On the Right hand you find first the BSS BLU800 processor that does all the number crunching to not only drive the speaker components thru FIR DSP but also carries all the inputs from the components and does the RIAA/DECCA etc. correction for the vinyl deck.
Above that , you find the self designed second stage of the flat vinyl preamp. This part is the actual selector for the inputs . Its fully balanced throughout. You can select here the "outboard" MM and MC stages. The actual Balanced in , balanced out flat preamp stages are direct under the record player.

Just above that "selector preamp box" there sits a old heavily modified stereo field processor of Behringer . This unit is now out of the system. It was only used with lower end MM carts where the stereo separation was not that good.
Above that sits a network switch to accommodate for POE for the BSS BLU 6 controller that is network connected to the BSS BLU800 to set curves/levels etc.

On top shelf is a Technics SL1200 MKII with outboard PSU and drive electronics. So again heavily modified . It runs super smooth and clean. And with the balanced connection of cartridge to flat preamp , absolute quiet.

And yes the amps are all full complementary build. I designed the boards myself about 15 years ago. They have output relays for power up/down and soft start PTC.
They do not have the dropper resistors with zeners anymore. I had them build with HV switch regulators followed by linear reg. and filtering.
I actually was looking for the schematics of them but is seems I placed them very secure... I cannot find it ,hmm. I'm getting old.

On speaker side : Long story. Again own design except for the components in the top cabinet.
So Top cabinet has a JBL D2 driver coupled with the Spatial horn of the M2 see link: https://jblpro.com/en/products/m2
And a modified JBl 2235 in it . The cabinet is a closed transmission line. This controls the resonances of the 15" low.
The bottom cabinet is a open transmission line design with a own design 15" long excursion carbon fibre cone that I had build by Faital in Italy as prototypes. It has a LOW cutoff of 9Hz ( not a typo) -3dB and a high cutoff ( by processing ) of 70Hz . It has a linear excursion of 72mmPtP.
Its 4Ohm and 800W AES rated , hence the parallel current mono config of the 700B's . lowest impedance is about 3,1 Ohms @ 12Hz .

So the whole setup is tuned by DSP in FIR filtering and phase flat within 20° ( tuned with the Phase linear amps in line)

So I hope it clarified a few questions.
Thanks,
Udo.
 
udo

udo

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#14
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Jan 2, 2023
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13
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Belgium
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audio freak RF engineer
#14
wattsabundant said:
I don't know what's up with Belgium, but it must be pretty cool. My reference point is sales of the 400 & 700 relay boards. I'd guess 40% of international sales have gone to Belgium.
Click to expand...
Hello ,
Short story here...i hope...
About 30 years ago I did a setup for the Belgian studio in a "cave" in Aarschot, Belgium ( yes the thing was in the shape of a cave)
I brought my first PL 400 to it to have a comparison to the HH amps if I recall correct. The owner was so impressed by it , that he started buying Phase Linear amps by the dozen on E-Bay. I think he had over 20 of them ( PL400' alone) in the end. Most were 115V.
The studio was in business for a mere decade or so. They had the nicest gear available , all vintage stuff. Fantastic collection of Neumann/schoeps tube mics. Even a hand build 80 Channel desk . A French copy/hybrid of a SSL 4000 and a Neve 88. I think there were only two of these in existence. I worked on both in the period.
Anyway the stuff was sold off and I recall mostly bought by a rich architect that collected that vintage stuff. He contacted me a few years ago about these amps. He was to set them up for his own collection and sold a few to his friends. He has a guy who works on electronics ( his stuff)
I would not be surprised that this is "your big buyer" in Belgium.
Cheers,
Udo.
 
e30m3mon

e30m3mon

Chief Journeyman
#19
Joined
Feb 9, 2013
Messages
872
Location
Hudson Valley NY
Tagline
---
#19
udo said:
Hello All, and thanks for that warm welcome.
Just to answer a few questions:
"Very interesting set of equipment in that rack, Udo. Aside from the PL boxes (which we are kinda familiar with here !), can you describe the other parts of your system? I'm not as familiar with the shelves above the PL boxes. oh - did you do anything particular to the PL boxes when upgrading?

Welcome - you have found the greatest collection of audio minds (not mine....the other guys!)."
Well on the left hand side of the rack is just a Onkyo CD player that is modified to output AES3 . actually it is seldom used. The little silver box on top of it is a Yellowtec broadcast PUC2 line convertor that can play 192/24 from a USB into AES3 https://shop.yellowtec.com/collections/puc2/products/puc2-line . It's a great sounding convertor that can play my HiRez files.
The top shelf is a DENON DCD-2000AE DSD/CD player that is direct digital connected to my BSS BLU800 processor.

On the Right hand you find first the BSS BLU800 processor that does all the number crunching to not only drive the speaker components thru FIR DSP but also carries all the inputs from the components and does the RIAA/DECCA etc. correction for the vinyl deck.
Above that , you find the self designed second stage of the flat vinyl preamp. This part is the actual selector for the inputs . Its fully balanced throughout. You can select here the "outboard" MM and MC stages. The actual Balanced in , balanced out flat preamp stages are direct under the record player.

Just above that "selector preamp box" there sits a old heavily modified stereo field processor of Behringer . This unit is now out of the system. It was only used with lower end MM carts where the stereo separation was not that good.
Above that sits a network switch to accommodate for POE for the BSS BLU 6 controller that is network connected to the BSS BLU800 to set curves/levels etc.

On top shelf is a Technics SL1200 MKII with outboard PSU and drive electronics. So again heavily modified . It runs super smooth and clean. And with the balanced connection of cartridge to flat preamp , absolute quiet.

And yes the amps are all full complementary build. I designed the boards myself about 15 years ago. They have output relays for power up/down and soft start PTC.
They do not have the dropper resistors with zeners anymore. I had them build with HV switch regulators followed by linear reg. and filtering.
I actually was looking for the schematics of them but is seems I placed them very secure... I cannot find it ,hmm. I'm getting old.

On speaker side : Long story. Again own design except for the components in the top cabinet.
So Top cabinet has a JBL D2 driver coupled with the Spatial horn of the M2 see link: https://jblpro.com/en/products/m2
And a modified JBl 2235 in it . The cabinet is a closed transmission line. This controls the resonances of the 15" low.
The bottom cabinet is a open transmission line design with a own design 15" long excursion carbon fibre cone that I had build by Faital in Italy as prototypes. It has a LOW cutoff of 9Hz ( not a typo) -3dB and a high cutoff ( by processing ) of 70Hz . It has a linear excursion of 72mmPtP.
Its 4Ohm and 800W AES rated , hence the parallel current mono config of the 700B's . lowest impedance is about 3,1 Ohms @ 12Hz .

So the whole setup is tuned by DSP in FIR filtering and phase flat within 20° ( tuned with the Phase linear amps in line)

So I hope it clarified a few questions.
Thanks,
Udo.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I appreciate that info.
 
udo

udo

New Around These Parts
#20
Joined
Jan 2, 2023
Messages
13
Location
Belgium
Tagline
audio freak RF engineer
#20
J!m said:
I see some e-drums there... you play too?
Click to expand...
Hello ,
No ,but my wife does play drums/percussion and some bass guitar. Sometimes the room is stuffed with a drumkit... so wife acceptance in this case was not real an issue as she also uses the equipment to play bass guitar and sing ... Mostly when I'm not at home. haha.
Cheers,
Udo.
 
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