James Burkes Phase Linear 400 Ser I

[mlucitt]

With a half hour to spare. You are amazing.

 

[laatsch55]

Scary huh??

 

[laatsch55]

Time to test. had to work today, thus the MIA status.

 

[laatsch55]

Kinda scary bringing it up on the DBT. Had 65 volts DC o the left output. Small solder bridge on the bacside tying R4, R9 together. Got rid of that,. 8mv offset right channel, 6mv on the left. Bias dialed right in at 385. Time to put it on the AP.

 

[Gepetto]

We will just call you Shelley from here on out...

 

[Gepetto]

Or Shel-Lee

 

[Gibsonian]

I am sure Shelley was good, maybe really good with the soldering gun but unless they paid Shelley incentive I'm betting Lee is faster. Plus he owns the company. Shelley, well she was hourly, and PL was not an employee owned company.

 

[laatsch55]

But i hear there were som fringeees for workin there. Now Bob did most of the hiring and like any red blooded American Conservative Male, he preferred to hire Hotties. I imagine the assembly floor took on a "liquid' atmosphere as the pheromones circulated from 8 am to god knows what time at night. Greatly improved bass response, not what I was hoping for distortion improvement wise.

I was not happy with the cap used in the zoebel network, subbed out with the Big Brown Ones.

And as long as he was getting a free White Oak board, just as well get some RCA-410 drivers and some MJ15024 outputs.
Boy is he gonna be surprised.

 

[laatsch55]

Freq Response....Before, after

 

[laatsch55]

As the Customer ( the aforementioned "James" ) will be here sometime this afternoon to regain possession of his 400 "gone rogue"amp, a week torture can no be. So it will be more intense, and shorter.

 

[mlucitt]

I can almost hear the sound coming out of those .jpg images.

Nice.

 

[Gepetto]

Nice symmetry on the frequency response Lee. Down 0.14dB at 10 Hz and likewise down 0.14dB at 20KHz.

 

[laatsch55]

Way better than when it shoed up. He and his daughter showed up about 3:30, Jani collected 200.00 sheckels and they boogied. It sounded good too. Did the improved grounding , bypassed the Br, the little things.

 

[Gepetto]

Did he get an audition of its new performance?

 

[laatsch55]

No, I was 70 miles south when he came through. We'll hear from him in a couple days. He checks the Portland Craig's List every morning, oh my.....

 

[laatsch55]

James' impressions----

Lee,


I plugged the amp in this morning and I have been listening to it non-stop all day. I am in shock. For testing purposes, I use music with a lot of space in it so I can hear each part clearly. I used "Heaven and Hell" by The Black Heart Procession. I immediately noticed the boom of the bass drum and the snap of the snare. Next up I spun a Stanley Clarke record (jazz), followed by Ozric Tentacles (also jazz) and finally by Rush's new record, "Clockwork Angels." I love bass guitar and percussion - both of which were clear and sharp on the amp. I can hear the buzz of the guitar strings now, something I couldn't hear before.


I am really surprised at how much better the amp sounds. The music is much clearer, sharper, and I love the bass the amp produces. I have been smiling all day long.


Thank you for your generosity and hard work on the amp.


Feel free to post my impressions on the Phoenix site.


Be well,


James

 

[laatsch55]

A post of his on AK--=-

Today, 01:04 AM
onelink
AK Member Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Vancouver, WA
Posts: 11

Quote:
Originally Posted by laatsch55
And White Oaks board is state of the art in materials and layout. Joe is VERY good at what he does. I have converted over 20- 400's and 11-700's , needlesas to say, no one has asked me to convert them back.
I have a couple converted 700's pushing some K-Horns that would take 8K to replace, with Don's DC protect, and Joe's driver boards and new outputs, I routinelt put over 300 watts to them. And do not lose sleep over whether or not they will be toast.

The most recently converted 400 is mine. The White Oak upgrades are worth the cost. I am extremely pleased. In fact, this is my first day with the upgraded amp and I haven't shut it off all day long. I am experiencing shock at how much better it sounds.

As for those 8k K-Horns, my hearing will never be quite what it was before spending an hour with those horns. Loud is an understatement.


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[mlucitt]

"understatement" as it should be.

 

[laatsch55]

Yep . I think Nando said it best--- when you get an unsuspecting listener sitting in the sweetspot, and just before you rip the knob clockwise, a little smile comes over your face, knowing what is about to hit him.

 

[Gepetto]

Great to hear that James is a convert. One at a time. Nice work Lee.