My Father's Continuing Saga........

[Northwinds]

Awesome Jer! I can't wait because the lady's will look SICK when they are together. The 700B is a beautiful amp but the 400s are just plain addicting. love the in your face, the buck stops here look

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

Yeah he notices every subtle auditory change, every little nuance BECAUSE he never changes the tone controls. Ever. So he is better at hearing the swap out differences than me. He has heard it so I will shoot it back at ya Jerr some time next week. Once I can get off work and get time to pack and ship. Thanks for letting me borrow it. Mighty nice of you sir!

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

Update: Jerry your amp is packed and boxed and in the back trunk of my car. It will ship out tomorrow. Just letting you know it's on it's way. Tracking # will be provided forth-coming.

-PLP

 

[jbeckva]

Update: Jerry your amp is packed and boxed and in the back trunk of my car. It will ship out tomorrow. Just letting you know it's on it's way. Tracking # will be provided forth-coming.

-PLP

Thanks Dave!

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

Phase Linear 400 Meter Lens

So apparently, the phase linear 400 meter lens' varied WIDELY and inconsistently throughout Phase's manufacturing process over the years. Anything from Dixon, Jewel or Honeywell, and within those three; several different variations of meter lenses! Smoked, semi-smoked, square corners, rounded off corners, white bulb reflector inserts, NOT..............etc. My father has his four, but in one of those four, the meter lenses are Waaaaaayy more dark than the others. And the others are already smoked. It seems in the very early honeywells; they used clear meter plastic. After that, in the jewels and dixon's........smoked. And several shades of smoked at that. I have been searching forever to find a semi-smoked lens. And there is simply no way of knowing if what I find will match what he has untill I have it. So far I have found the clear honeywell lenses to be interchangeable with the jewel smoked lenses. Dixon's not at all. Which WORKS. But with all the amps off, is STILL too clear than his others. Yet without it, the originals are TOO smoked. And yes they are all clean and from non-cigarette smoke environments.

Below you see a super smoked jewel lens, and a totally clear honeywell lens. Apparently there is a jewel semi-smoked lens that fits somewhere in between these drastic two. I just have not been able to find one yet! Gah! It's gnawing at me for half a year now. Aside from buying a whole different amp for hundreds of dollars, there's GOT to be somebody out there with spare parts from broken 400's out there? I know they are easier to come by parts wise than the 700B parts. Anybody think I am being too nit picky or is there a sane solution here?

1. All the amps off. Notice the bottom one smoked lens darker than all others.
2. All amps on. Notice the bottom one still stands out when on.
3. Found a clear lens from an old honeywell and put it in one side. Notice the drastic difference.
4. Power on and you can see the difference.

Yet still the clear lens when put next to the other 3 that are not an issue, still is TOO clear when amps off. And it sticks out. This is what I mean.
I am TRYING my best, but these Phase inconsistancies are leaving me scratching my head! if anyone has any suggestions; I'm all ears!

 

[laatsch55]

Expecting perfection in anything is an exercise in futility, and in things Phase Linear is a sure ticket to insanity.......enjoy the trip.......LOL....

 

[laatsch55]

You are dealing with something 40 years old AND PLASTIC.....my god man.....havung the sunlight on one meter lens and not the other will cause different illumination characteristics if set in the same place long enough....and I've not seen anything documented to that extent from Phase so far so it's all a guess anyway.....YES I AGREE there are dimensional differences that can be measured, but the degree of "smoke" or transperency in the lenses....good luck with documenting THAT!!

And I'm not being a prick Dave, I just sound like one....

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

Thanks Einstein. (and I mean that jokingly, but yet literally at the same time). Must be the German in me. I do my best to control it.

I guess if you bought multiple amps at the same time NEW, you were good. But it's like buying a 1985 and 1987 vehicle. They look the same in body style; but in the later year, they redesigned the headlamps. You are buying old vintage cars that have the same chassis; but subtle inconsistencies due to a small design change. It's hard to find an exact match to the one you have. No biggie really? They preform the same. It's just a preference or "nicety" when you have several of the same thing. Yeah I'm nuts. But aren't we all a little "Phanatic" about our amps? Hah hah!

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

You are dealing with something 40 years old AND PLASTIC.....my god man.....havung the sunlight on one meter lens and not the other will cause different illumination characteristics if set in the same place long enough....and I've not seen anything documented to that extent from Phase so far so it's all a guess anyway.....YES I AGREE there are dimensional differences that can be measured, but the degree of "smoke" or transperency in the lenses....good luck with documenting THAT!!

And I'm not being a prick Dave, I just sound like one....

I realize that. I know you well enough. I like the on-point sarcastic obviousness, conveyed with an underlying overtone of silliness that is your responses. I can read through to that. So it's all good. I mean without that type of sense of humor, you might as well go over to one of the stuffy-audio forums right? LOL! Good insight.

 

[laatsch55]

Thanks Dave, well said......you know you're dealing with another German don't you???

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

No I didn't. But that's Phantastic! You may have guessed it with ME, knowing my last name. Both my father and mother are German. And so were both THEIR parents. And so on......back I don't know how far? Blonde hair blue eyes is me! And stubborn as a mule!

 

[laatsch55]

Grandma and Grandpa Laatsch came over on the boat. Grandma and grandma Pitts were died in the wool hillbilly's , Grandpa Pitts left Missouri at 14 and walked to Wyoming, until he happened upon a horse....there is some speculation whether that horse belonged to someone else at the time, and he won't talk about anything the happened before he left Missouri...

So, there's some insight on my replies....

 

[jbeckva]

Whoa...

UNCLE LEE IS THAT YOU????

(somewhere in my family's odd history was a horse... "procurement specialist"... )

 

[laatsch55]

Could be, the Pitts came over in the 1700's I guess and since then had hung around the Appalachias....

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

Now that he's got "the gear"; any suggestions on what type of wire he should install? like awg, brand, standard lamp cord wire etc? Eventually, he will be running the PL tower straight on over to the speaks, which have screw terminals. From what I "think" I remember; the speaks use what looks like 14awg internally. But I can't be sure. It's been a long time since I opened one. He just needs to run the four PL amps, and he's in business. But he's holding off on it due to $$ issue. He needs 500 feet of wire total. Suggestions appreciated!

-PLP

 

[Gepetto]

Now that he's got "the gear"; any suggestions on what type of wire he should install? like awg, brand, standard lamp cord wire etc? Eventually, he will be running the PL tower straight on over to the speaks, which have screw terminals. From what I "think" I remember; the speaks use what looks like 14awg internally. But I can't be sure. It's been a long time since I opened one. He just needs to run the four PL amps, and he's in business. But he's holding off on it due to $$ issue. He needs 500 feet of wire total. Suggestions appreciated!

-PLP

PLP, where have you been??

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

PLP, where have you been??

Not sure how to address that.

 

[Gepetto]

Not sure how to address that.

Haven't been on the forum much lately...

 

[Phase Linear Phanatic]

I know. 70+ hour work weeks at the panel shop.............. My woman taking up any waking hours I have left................... etc.... you know the story. My PL life has been taking a huge back seat.

Now on the question of speaker wire preference in regards to hooking up PL's; MY take on it is that I'm sure the topic has been addressed somewhere on the forum. I'd be lucky to stay logged in for five minutes to type this, much less browse though lots of archives to find my answer. (Which I prefer doing before asking a possibly repeat question. That's just me.)

Now I consider most, if not all Phoenix members to be wiser and have better audio history than me, so I like asking what people's preferred "ideal situation" for speaker runs is first, and then using some sort of consensus to make a suggestion to my father. I find it a smarter choice than just saying "well your internal wiring in the cabinet is 14 awg, so use 14awg lamp cord wire." People may suggest 12awg is better, or a brand like monster or quest or whatever is preferred. I'd like to get the best hook-up possible for him that's also sensible. He's looking to do his Quad PL 400 amplification tower hook-up when the weather gets cooler, but is mired in summer house projects and work. He runs his own company so he has about as much time as me lately.

Therefore, I have time to buy some decent wire, making a good Christmas present perhaps this year. This also gives me some good time to get some great opinions and do the browsing and purchasing.

So Phoenix members...............is there anything YOU like or look for in your speaker wire?

 

[premiumplus]

For speaker wire I look for a few simple things.
1.) Low resistance per foot.
2.) Needs to be fairly flexible.
3.) Capacitance and Inductance should also be low, but (and here is where opinions get wild) they are not of great significance at audio frequencies and at the typical lengths we use in our stereos.

Right now I am using some 12 gauge electrical extension cords that I got at a hardware store. Pure copper, nicely jacketed, and flexible for their size. I think that any good copper wire that is heavy enough will do a great job for speakers...and if you like I'll look up a white paper written by one of the principle designers at MacIntosh Laboratories that pretty much blows away the "boutique" wire industry.
If you've got good connectors and quality wire, you're good to go. The law of diminishing returns applies very well to this topic!