Score....

[louped garouv]

http://denver.craigslist.org/ele/82790740.html

got these yesterday.... one owner pair, everything in tact (except foam for the grilles)

hooked them up to a Crown D-75 last night, impressive little boxes :)

what are the differences b/t the L100, century, etc? Nevermind, I'll do a search first....


Anyone want a pair of Wharfedale Airedale,s? :D I paid $100 and had to rent a truck to get them....


My WAF is diminishing as the collection grows.....:banghead:

Wife leaves for business next week -- will post all of my promised pics then...

[louped garouv]

pic 1

[louped garouv]

they sound even better on the phase linear 200 series II that followed me home....


what is it with kids and domes though? :)

both are almost identical down to the pushed in tweeters and moderate scuffing on the short sides of the cabinets.... BTW the tweeters really don't look as red as they seem to show on my screen... in other words sorry for the crappy pics.....

If anyone is interested in purchasing a set of JBL L-100s and Phase linear 200 Series 2 amp (with excellent operation and cosmetics I might add -- sorry I don't have pics of it, and my wife has the camera :banghead: ); please pm me......

I bought a pair of 802Gs a little bit ago, can't have full A7,s; Model 19,s; AND JBL L100s at the same time.... feels like being greedy!

[jtgyn]

G'Day,
Just my experience... the PL200's have a tendency to be unstable and wack 50VDC across your woffers when you are not watching... (the smell is very expensive and not quickly forgotten!)

My advice is never... I mean never!!! ... leave a PL200 alone with a good set of JBL's!!

Regards Scott

[louped garouv]

G'Day,
Just my experience... the PL200's have a tendency to be unstable and wack 50VDC across your woffers when you are not watching... (the smell is very expensive and not quickly forgotten!)

My advice is never... I mean never!!! ... leave a PL200 alone with a good set of JBL's!!

Regards Scott

thanks for the word of advise

-- so are there issues is with all PL amps? I had heard of the flame issuue with the larger PL from this era, but didn't see anything negative about the 200/2......

[jtgyn]

G'Day,
I have only had 200's and 400's.
The 400 is by far the worst amp I have ever owned... but the 200 is a very close 2nd.

Just my 2.2c worth.

Regards Scott

P.S. Yep.. I was a little slow to learn...

[louped garouv]

have you had any experience with the later Bob Carver designs.....

I have only had it a few days.....

[jtgyn]

G'Day,
No.. after the 200's and 400's .. I gave up.
I have no experience with the PL200 phase II... but I would not trust one without DC speaker protection and some fire fighting gear handy.

Again.. YMMV..

Regards Scott

[pelly3s]

I personally would avoid all phase linear stuff too. I had a bad time with a 400 once while servicing it. i didnt even have it open yet i just turned it on to give it a listen and next thing i know it lived up to its name as the Flame Linear. Now the Dynaco ST-400 is one of my favorite amps in history.

[Ian Mackenzie]

I owned a Clair Bros 700 series 11 for 5 years (formerly used by LRB on Bass) and an 400 vintage for 9 years and never a problem with either. I sold both to associates who can contact me and they swear by them.

I forget but Jands had over 200 in service in the 80's.

Might be the shit you've been feeding them with.

[louped garouv]

I can't really say either way -- seem at least OK to me..... but I've only had it for 1 week..... :dont-know:

["Duke" Spinner]

the PL amps got that reputation.. Undeserved

1) they were abused in pro sound apps

2) the protection circuts were never tested, no matter you are talkin' a 30 y/o amp here

they are a very musical amp, esp. the 400

give it some maintenance \\

it's critical ALL the output devices be MATCHED

[louped garouv]

just got it from a guy who has an electronics shop here in denver -- he had his tech do a thorough ???? test and upgrade, guy just got the new carver sunfire amp. All seems well from what I can gather, but I got no fancy test equipment.... I listened to the L100s all last weekend and this past week, no problems....


fed variety of source (LP/CD/MP3/DVD) through my vintage UREI 1620 preamp

[Mr. Widget]

I personally would avoid all phase linear stuff too.



2)... no matter you are talkin' a 30 y/o amp here

they are a very musical amp, esp. the 400

give it some maintenance

At the risk of keeping this thread off topic, my experience with Phase Linear would go in the negative column as well. I bought a mint 400 from the "original" owner. This must have been about 5 years ago so the amp was certainly well aged... in any event it worked fine, no fires or other excitement, but it sounded like a large transistor radio. It had that honky edgy metallic quality I do not look for in an amp.

To be sure this was with a sample lot of one... but I have heard the same sort of sound from similar vintage SAE amps... maybe they sounded better when new, maybe they didn't, but they don't sound as good as plenty of other newer amps. Possibly a trip to the tweak shop would fix them... lots of questions... and plenty of other amps so I'll let others explore those questions.

Widget

["Duke" Spinner]

needed coupling caps ....

["Duke" Spinner]

[QUOTE="Duke" Spinner]the PL amps got that reputation.. Undeserved



give it some maintenance \\

[LE15-Thumper]

I have been an audio tech for 25 years. I would not turn my back on a "Flame Linear " either. :bomb:
Sorry for the PL bashing, but my experience has also been very negative,
About 60 VDC negative !!!!

[louped garouv]

I have been an audio tech for 25 years. I would not turn my back on a "Flame Linear " either. :bomb:
Sorry for the PL bashing, but my experience has also been very negative,
About 60 VDC negative !!!!

thanks for the info re the PL everyone....

just for information purposes, the sale of the L100,s is pending.... I have notified all others who have PM'd me that information and let them know where in the list they are if the deal hits any unexpected snags......

[Ian Mackenzie]

They were a bread of the day, and like the Dynaco 400 and others, they all sounded similar due to similar topology. Then came the Haflers, Adcoms, Yamaha's etc. Even the current crop of hi end gear is better than previously, such as the Threshold Stasis compared to the X Series from Passlabs.

The newer amps are much smoother, you might want to demo the QSC stuff than risk a pair of vintage JBLs. Any of the stuff released in the past 5 years is as a rule better than that of the previous decade with some exceptions.

Unfortunately, the vintage of the power semiconductors used in the Phase Linears age relatively quickly in these amps and they do suffer secondary breakdown in a dramatic way.

Ian

[jtgyn]

the PL amps got that reputation.. Undeserved

1) they were abused in pro sound apps

2) the protection circuts were never tested, no matter you are talkin' a 30 y/o amp here

they are a very musical amp, esp. the 400

give it some maintenance \\

it's critical ALL the output devices be MATCHED

Yes, I agree that a good going over by and experienced service tech may solve the problems.

Regards Scott

[Mike Caldwell]

Hello
Way way back in the day I had a PL 700B and it always worked and sounded fine however it made me wonder if it would ever melt down my speakers! I always heard that the SAE power amps were by far the worst for fires and melt down. Most amps of the 70's did not have any or very limited at best output protection for the load. I'm sure about the PL400 amps but the 700's had a selector switch for direct coupled or AC coupled inputs if it was in the direct coupled position and you had any equipment prior to the amp that was putting out any DC voltage it would get amplifed to several volts and could toast you speakers. The DC in the Crown DC300 model name ment just that "direct coupled", I have read were people would feed a DC300 with a 9 volt battery and use it a variable power supply.
The Phase Linear 700's that Clair Brothers used by the hundreds in the 70's and early 80's were all highly modifed to hold up better and for balanced inputs instead of the RCA connectors. The Phase Linears were a Bob Carver product and Clair went from the PL's to the Carver PM and PT series of amps, customized for their use. They stuck with Bob's designs for quite some time. The Carvers were the first ground breaking amp of light weight and high power. The PT1250 was 600 a channel and only weighted 11 pounds, watts to weight that's still hard to beat today. The PT1250 were very good sounding amps, I used them for mid range for a years till going to the new QSCPL2 series more power and a newer generation of amps.


Mike Caldwell