Phase Linear (Magazine Reviews, Articles, Etc.)
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Phase Linear X20 Review/Hands-On Report (Modern Recording November 1980)
Phase Linear X20 review/hands-on report which appeared in Modern Recording magazine November 1980. Starts on page 80.
Compliments of:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Modern-Recording/80s/Modern-Recording-1980-11.pdf
Phase Linear X20 review/hands-on report which appeared in Modern Recording magazine November 1980. Starts on page 80.
Compliments of:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Modern-Recording/80s/Modern-Recording-1980-11.pdf
Last edited:
Phase Linear 700 Review (Audio Magazine June 1971)
I believe this was the first audio magazine review ever performed on a Phase Linear amplifier. Audio magazine June 1971. The review starts on page 57.
(NOTE: I sure would like to know more about the history of PL-283 output transistors mentioned in this article. I believe these pre-dated the use of the GM Delco (DTS-411) PL-909/XPL-909's.)
Compliments of http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Audio/70s/Audio-1971-06.pdf
Here is a link to an index of scanned Audio magazines: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Audio-Magazine.htm
NOTE: I always loved their annual equipment directories which appeared every year in the September/October time frame. As well as the Lirpa (April fools) equipment reviews.
Ed
I believe this was the first audio magazine review ever performed on a Phase Linear amplifier. Audio magazine June 1971. The review starts on page 57.
(NOTE: I sure would like to know more about the history of PL-283 output transistors mentioned in this article. I believe these pre-dated the use of the GM Delco (DTS-411) PL-909/XPL-909's.)
Compliments of http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Audio/70s/Audio-1971-06.pdf
Here is a link to an index of scanned Audio magazines: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Audio-Magazine.htm
NOTE: I always loved their annual equipment directories which appeared every year in the September/October time frame. As well as the Lirpa (April fools) equipment reviews.
Ed
Bob Carver: The Inventor. The Man. The Story.
I just discovered this posting on http://web.archive.org/web/20160809063550/http://www.laocas.com/founder.html
I was raised in Beverly Hills, California, from the age of nine up.
I graduated from Beverly Vista middle school (junior high back then). I studied science and took wood shop.
I graduated from Beverly Hills High School, and University High School, both in Los Angeles. I studied chemistry, physics, math, and was enrolled in electric shop.
I did my undergraduate work at the University of Washington, and after receiving my undergraduate degree, I went to the University of British Columbia where I earned my Ph.D. in Physics.
As an undergraduate, I worked my way through college repairing television receivers, first for Almvig's TV shop, then a stint at Seattle Radio Supply fixing and setting up brand new color televisions.
By-and-by I started my own TV shop called University Television, and, working out of my fraternity, I made a living and graduated (as an undergraduate) debt-free. At the time, the UW discouraged graduating students from enrolling into graduate school at the same school they graduated from, that is, the UW. So with a wonderful recommendation from my physics professor, Dr. Clark, I made my way to the UBC in British Columbia, where I received my Ph.D. My thesis was "thin-films," an almost monomolecular film of really thin stuff.
Along the way, with a cooperation agreement between the UW and UBC, I built the largest High Fidelity system (monophonic) with the biggest subwoofer in the world, for you see, the physics department had a contract with the Boeing Airplane Company here in Seattle to develop a system for simulating jet aircraft taking off at 100 meters. I received a call from one of my physics professors, and he told me that nobody there knew enough about gigantic amplifiers, or big hi-fi systems for that matter, and were struggling with how to do it. But he knew I did. With the guys in the physics department, we designed a hydraulically operated woofer. It had about 3000 pounds of pressure and was huge, about the size of a garage door in area. I used a multiplicity of Electro-Voice midrange horns, and more than twenty T-350 tweeters. Because Boeing and the government were paying for the project, price was no object. And what a hi-fi set it was!
After I said goodbye to graduate school, I needed a real job and found one as a physics instructor at Cal State in Long Beach, California. I taught Physics for nursing students and had the time of my life. When I walked down the hall to my first class of the morning, I could smell the perfume from all the beautiful women long before I entered the room. It was a required course for nursing students, with only one male in the whole class. For a while, I thought I might become a physics professor and live a life in academia. But it was not to be.
I had been building tube amplifiers of about 30 watts RMS per channel almost continuously while in school, selling them by word of mouth. One fine day, my friend and roommate David Ladely asked me to build him an amp. I spent two straight weeks that winter building his tube amp, which was so large it was on three chassis. This amp was more than triple the power of those on the market, and I was able, for the first time, to hear music produced realistically. After taking this enormous tube amplifier to the the McIntosh Clinic at Seattle Stereo in 1967, I was inspired to build a solid state version, since those were taking over the market from tube amplifiers. I came up with the name Phase Linear, and began building Phase Linear 700 amplifiers. In January, 1970, I took one of my Phase Linear 700 amplifiers to the McIntosh Clinic. This amplifier tested over its rated 350 watts rms per channel and did not clip until 450 watts per channel. Later, I sent one of my Phase Linear 700 amplifiers to Hirsch-Houke Laboratories, where Julian Hirsch tested it. In his review for Stereo Review magazine, Julian said the performance was such that he admitted he had to revise completely his former assumption that reproducing Horowitz at the piano with a realistic sound required significantly more power than the 150 watts/stereo of high powered amplifiers, which until then were considered by the audiophile community (and Julian) as "more than enough power" even for "dead" rooms.
At about the same time, Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound wrote a wonderful story about my amp in the first issue of his newly-formed magazine.
Shortly after those rather remarkable reviews, sales of my Phase Linear 700 amplifier increased quite dramatically, all but insuring the success of my new Phase Linear Corporation. And I never looked back!
But my board of directors did; I had borrowed $50,000 dollars to get started, and the bank had a requirement, a condition for that loan, and it was that I appoint a board of directors for my new company. That board of directors eventually decided that I was holding the company back, plus they wanted more money for their efforts, as well as wishing to sell Phase Linear to auto-supply stores here in Seattle and elsewhere. They did not understand that the marketplace would not allow distribution to be everywhere, in much the same way that Rolex watches are not sold in drugstores, but only in jewelry stores. I objected vigorously to that idea; they did not like it one whit, so they voted me out of office. In other words, they fired me. It turned out they could take my job away, they could take the Phase Linear building away, but they could not touch my wealth.
Carver Corporation was born and Phase Linear went down in flames. They went down because the board began selling Phase Linear amplifiers literally everywhere, and when the Phase Linear dealers rebelled at that state of affairs, I was on their doorstep with my new amplifier, the "Carver Cube." By then the dealers were mad at Phase Linear Corporation, and they opened their arms to me and my new amp. Fortunately they were not mad at me!
Still, I did not learn my lesson. It happened (deja-vu all over again) with Carver Corporation; the Carver board of directors kicked me out for almost identical reasons and in the same way. By-and-by Carver also went down in flames for the EXACT reasons that Phase did. And guess what? It was time to start Sunfire.
I knew I needed something new and better to make a come-back, and when my wife Diana said NO to multiple big woofers in the living room for surround sound, I knew I had to invent a small but super powerful subwoofer. I finally figured out how to do it, and the high-box pressure, high back emf subwoofer was born. Sunfire took off, had a sweet, steady growth rate, and one nice day I got a "cold call" from a Wall Street firm and they made me a financial offer I could not refuse. They kept me on for the next several years, during which time I enjoyed working with my "other woman," my laboratory bench. I developed amps, processors, a small high-pressure speaker I named the Cinema Ribbon, and a brand new amplifier design using a technology I called I-mag. 550 watts per channel, 12 lbs. Unfortunately, Wall Street fell on hard times, the amp never saw the light of day, and I was out of work once again.
I thought of REALLY retiring this time, but I had been working on a new line-source speaker that I believed was going to be something very special indeed. I wanted to see it come alive, come to market, and to be a powerful force for good. So here I am, with my retirement plans on indefinite hold, and with my new plans to keep on inventing and truckin' until I drop.
I just discovered this posting on http://web.archive.org/web/20160809063550/http://www.laocas.com/founder.html
Bob Carver: The Inventor. The Man. The Story.
I was born in Detroit Jan 30, long, long ago. My Grandfather was a Texan, and wanted me to be a Texan too, so he had a shoebox full of Texas soil carried to the hospital so my little feet could touch Texas dirt before anything else.
I was raised in Beverly Hills, California, from the age of nine up.
I graduated from Beverly Vista middle school (junior high back then). I studied science and took wood shop.
I graduated from Beverly Hills High School, and University High School, both in Los Angeles. I studied chemistry, physics, math, and was enrolled in electric shop.
I did my undergraduate work at the University of Washington, and after receiving my undergraduate degree, I went to the University of British Columbia where I earned my Ph.D. in Physics.
As an undergraduate, I worked my way through college repairing television receivers, first for Almvig's TV shop, then a stint at Seattle Radio Supply fixing and setting up brand new color televisions.
By-and-by I started my own TV shop called University Television, and, working out of my fraternity, I made a living and graduated (as an undergraduate) debt-free. At the time, the UW discouraged graduating students from enrolling into graduate school at the same school they graduated from, that is, the UW. So with a wonderful recommendation from my physics professor, Dr. Clark, I made my way to the UBC in British Columbia, where I received my Ph.D. My thesis was "thin-films," an almost monomolecular film of really thin stuff.
Along the way, with a cooperation agreement between the UW and UBC, I built the largest High Fidelity system (monophonic) with the biggest subwoofer in the world, for you see, the physics department had a contract with the Boeing Airplane Company here in Seattle to develop a system for simulating jet aircraft taking off at 100 meters. I received a call from one of my physics professors, and he told me that nobody there knew enough about gigantic amplifiers, or big hi-fi systems for that matter, and were struggling with how to do it. But he knew I did. With the guys in the physics department, we designed a hydraulically operated woofer. It had about 3000 pounds of pressure and was huge, about the size of a garage door in area. I used a multiplicity of Electro-Voice midrange horns, and more than twenty T-350 tweeters. Because Boeing and the government were paying for the project, price was no object. And what a hi-fi set it was!
After I said goodbye to graduate school, I needed a real job and found one as a physics instructor at Cal State in Long Beach, California. I taught Physics for nursing students and had the time of my life. When I walked down the hall to my first class of the morning, I could smell the perfume from all the beautiful women long before I entered the room. It was a required course for nursing students, with only one male in the whole class. For a while, I thought I might become a physics professor and live a life in academia. But it was not to be.
I had been building tube amplifiers of about 30 watts RMS per channel almost continuously while in school, selling them by word of mouth. One fine day, my friend and roommate David Ladely asked me to build him an amp. I spent two straight weeks that winter building his tube amp, which was so large it was on three chassis. This amp was more than triple the power of those on the market, and I was able, for the first time, to hear music produced realistically. After taking this enormous tube amplifier to the the McIntosh Clinic at Seattle Stereo in 1967, I was inspired to build a solid state version, since those were taking over the market from tube amplifiers. I came up with the name Phase Linear, and began building Phase Linear 700 amplifiers. In January, 1970, I took one of my Phase Linear 700 amplifiers to the McIntosh Clinic. This amplifier tested over its rated 350 watts rms per channel and did not clip until 450 watts per channel. Later, I sent one of my Phase Linear 700 amplifiers to Hirsch-Houke Laboratories, where Julian Hirsch tested it. In his review for Stereo Review magazine, Julian said the performance was such that he admitted he had to revise completely his former assumption that reproducing Horowitz at the piano with a realistic sound required significantly more power than the 150 watts/stereo of high powered amplifiers, which until then were considered by the audiophile community (and Julian) as "more than enough power" even for "dead" rooms.
At about the same time, Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound wrote a wonderful story about my amp in the first issue of his newly-formed magazine.
Shortly after those rather remarkable reviews, sales of my Phase Linear 700 amplifier increased quite dramatically, all but insuring the success of my new Phase Linear Corporation. And I never looked back!
But my board of directors did; I had borrowed $50,000 dollars to get started, and the bank had a requirement, a condition for that loan, and it was that I appoint a board of directors for my new company. That board of directors eventually decided that I was holding the company back, plus they wanted more money for their efforts, as well as wishing to sell Phase Linear to auto-supply stores here in Seattle and elsewhere. They did not understand that the marketplace would not allow distribution to be everywhere, in much the same way that Rolex watches are not sold in drugstores, but only in jewelry stores. I objected vigorously to that idea; they did not like it one whit, so they voted me out of office. In other words, they fired me. It turned out they could take my job away, they could take the Phase Linear building away, but they could not touch my wealth.
Carver Corporation was born and Phase Linear went down in flames. They went down because the board began selling Phase Linear amplifiers literally everywhere, and when the Phase Linear dealers rebelled at that state of affairs, I was on their doorstep with my new amplifier, the "Carver Cube." By then the dealers were mad at Phase Linear Corporation, and they opened their arms to me and my new amp. Fortunately they were not mad at me!
Still, I did not learn my lesson. It happened (deja-vu all over again) with Carver Corporation; the Carver board of directors kicked me out for almost identical reasons and in the same way. By-and-by Carver also went down in flames for the EXACT reasons that Phase did. And guess what? It was time to start Sunfire.
I knew I needed something new and better to make a come-back, and when my wife Diana said NO to multiple big woofers in the living room for surround sound, I knew I had to invent a small but super powerful subwoofer. I finally figured out how to do it, and the high-box pressure, high back emf subwoofer was born. Sunfire took off, had a sweet, steady growth rate, and one nice day I got a "cold call" from a Wall Street firm and they made me a financial offer I could not refuse. They kept me on for the next several years, during which time I enjoyed working with my "other woman," my laboratory bench. I developed amps, processors, a small high-pressure speaker I named the Cinema Ribbon, and a brand new amplifier design using a technology I called I-mag. 550 watts per channel, 12 lbs. Unfortunately, Wall Street fell on hard times, the amp never saw the light of day, and I was out of work once again.
I thought of REALLY retiring this time, but I had been working on a new line-source speaker that I believed was going to be something very special indeed. I wanted to see it come alive, come to market, and to be a powerful force for good. So here I am, with my retirement plans on indefinite hold, and with my new plans to keep on inventing and truckin' until I drop.
Last edited:
- Joined
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- Joined
- Jan 14, 2011
- Messages
- 75,052
- Location
- Gillette, Wyo.
- Tagline
- Halfbiass...Electron Herder and Backass Woof
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2011
- Messages
- 75,052
- Location
- Gillette, Wyo.
- Tagline
- Halfbiass...Electron Herder and Backass Woof
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2011
- Messages
- 75,052
- Location
- Gillette, Wyo.
- Tagline
- Halfbiass...Electron Herder and Backass Woof