DiscoStu

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $35.00 from yard sale/storage

Summary:
I had now idea. It just looked cool. It came with an Onkyo Preamp, Pioneer SR-750 parametric EQ, a Technics auto reverse cassette deck, and a tired turntable. It took time to "work" all the sliders and knobs to "get the dust out". I set it up with my Polk Audio speakers, they could not handel it. Then i connected them to my "other book shelf speakers" KLM which have a great high mid sound. No need for any more bass. The result was mesmerizing. It blew away my newer Yamaha amps sound. Now i connect it to my $40.00 MP3 player. Which of coarse, does not have the super true responce of my 80's vinyl. Which i will never abandon. Either way, the sound is a lesson in Audio and Visual education. Seperation in channels, clear distinction in instruments. I had no idea what i was missing out from my recordings on. I have only hit 75 watts because of the ungodly output. My neighbors are so ready to drop a sound bomb on me. Except i don't play my music past 8:00 P.M. plus the genre of music is so diverse they don't know what to hate. Yes it does WARM up. but if it is good enough for the WHO it's good enough for my gettoplex. Last amp i saw on sale on ebay got $336.00.
I would be an idiot to let it go for any price.Vintage rules.

Strengths:
Super true reproduction in sound,seperation, and high and mid.

Weaknesses:
2 channels, but that's all they had back then.

Similar Products Used:
Marantz 7725, Yamaha, Denon.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
The Phase Linear 400 Series II is one of the finest amps ever created. My dad purchased this amp for about $500 in 1975 and it has worked perfectly ever since. Until a few weeks ago, this amp was hooked up through a vintage mixer to a mid-end CD player and high quality JBL studio monitors. It sounded good, but I was sure that it could sound better. Recently, I acquired a flagship Sony CDP-705ES CD player with outboard transformer and variable audio output. This allowed me to hook the Phase Linear 400 directly to the CD player's variable audio output allowing for a simple set-up with an amp, cd player and speakers; a configuration rarely encountered in audio systems. The speakers I am using are KEF 103/4 Reference towers, also vintage, but incredible sounding. I am biwiring the speakers using two single sets of Audioquest Bedrock cable, and JPS labs interconnects. Unfortunately, the Phase doesn't accept aftermarket AC cords, or I might consider upgrading that too.
When I finally finished hooking this beauty up, I popped in a Verve copy of Ella and Louis. From the moment the first notes were sung, I was astounded- I had never heard this amp sound quite so sweet! The soundstage and imaging were unbelievable...they placed Ella pinpoint at the center of the room, the speakers practically disappeared. The smooth midrange of this amp was only accentuated by the KEF's UNi-Q drivers, at times I forgot that I was listening to solid state. I continued to play a variety of material on this amp, and it performed perfectly with all of it. Ranging from rock, classical, jazz, folk, and even some ukelele, this amp delivered effortless, encapsulating sound that I listened to for hours.When I brought my dad over to hear his "baby" sing in a set up as clean as this, he couldn't wipe the smile off his face. We listened to MFSL version of Dark Side of the Moon... I only wanted to play a few tracks but we ended up starting from the beginning and listening to it in its entirety. This thing just kept singing.
In the darkness of the living room, the sound seemed to eminate from some point in the center of the room, but all that we could do was sit back and watch the red wattage LEDs dance to the beat of the songs. Astonishingly, we never peaked over 10 watts of power consumption, although the amp is capable of 200 per channel into 8 ohms (and these are 4 ohm speakers)!
This amp could easily drive any speakers out there, and can usually be found at pretty good price. At about 20 lbs, the transformer on this thing is huge! I hope to keep it around for a while, as I don't think it can be beat at anywhere near the price. For the lucky man who gets one of these handed down to him: hold on to it, you will experience years of great listening from a legendary piece of equiptment.

Strengths:
Timeless brushed aluminum faceplate
LED wattage meters
"Tube-like" midrange and smoothness
Giant transformer
Power
Giant heat sinks

Weaknesses:
Small power cord
Accessibility to speaker binding posts when using large guage wire

Similar Products Used:
The current system consists of
Phase Linear 400 mkII
KEF 103/4 Reference Series
Sony CDP-705ES

Sounds comparable to
vintage Audio Research tube gear
The closest sound that I have recently heard to this unit is from the Pathos Acoustics Classic One mkii hybrid integrated amp.

Price Paid:  $50.00 from private seller

Summary:
I bought a 4000/400 combo in 1984 from a friend at work. He said it did not work so he let it go for $50.00! You read that right. The amp sounded ok but the prer-amp had a mid frequency noise and when two boards touched it drove the power amp into clipping and killed both tweters in my L-100/A JBL's. I bought some fiber-glass sheet and installed it between all boards and the amps did ok after that.

Sold it for $500.00 and bought a Crown SL-2, POWER-LINE 3 and Boston Accustic A-400's for $450.00.

In the end it was not a bad deal for me.

Strengths:
When compared to the Crown IC-150 pre-amp and DC-300 power amps of the era....none.

Weaknesses:
Let's start with the 400 power amp...decent sound quality....very poor quality of engineering. Allow me to elaborate:

1. Too little heat sink area.
2. Power supply not centrally located making moving and mounting extremely difficult.
3. When 'THE WHO' used them in 1972 or 1973 the anps actually burst into flames on stage! This earned them the name 'FLAME LINEAR'.

Now on to the 4000 pre-amp:

1. Too many gimmicks.
2. Too many circuit boards too close together and not secured on the top allowing them to touch, putting the amp into overdrive and killing your tweeters.

Similar Products Used:
Crown SL-2 pre-amp
Crown Power-Line 3 and Power Line 4 power amps
Crown DC 300A-SERIESII power amps

300ZX_twinturbo

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.17 of 5, 6.00 votes

Price Paid:  $450.00 from used

Summary:
Over the years I have heard a lot of negative reviews about many of the Phase Linear product, and definitely some for good reason.
I've also owned many, many other amps, mostly a lot more expensive that I won't name just so as not to cause any emotional injury, that didn't sound half as good.
I have also owned Carver amps, such as M1.0t, M4.0t, Silver t, as well as others and this 400 Series II blows all the Carvers away big time in the sound quality category.
I've always found the transfer function style far too rolled off and uninteresting sounding for my liking, as if B.C. went just a little to far trying to make it sound tube-like, whatever that might be...but that's another long story as I also own a complete tube system which is highly detailed and anything but bloated and dull as many refer "tube-like" as.
Anyway, so far I have found this unit to have bags of power, very detailed and deep soundstage, with just enough warmth so you could listen forever without ear drums drying out, cracking and bursting into flames, but lots of detail, deep soundstage, and great vocal presentation.
I bought this not long ago, and had a lot of hesitations, but dangit, I love the way it looks and always a sucker for the vintage stuff. Glad I didn't change my mind. I know I probably paid more than it's worth, but rather pay more for a perfect one, that a little less for crap-O-la.
No hums, no speaker hiss, no turn off thumps, just works fantastic for an antique.
This unit is mega-old and never been worked on, yet the DC offset is still right on spec and never been adjusted. Not many amps can boast that....well my mint Hafler still does, but not much really can when they get ancient.
Anyway, I know I've built this up pretty good, and don't get me wrong, it isn't the best there is or even close, but it sure is decent for the money and if you have a reasonable budget, don't want to sacrifice above average sound for muscle-bound power, this is one choice to look for if you can find one that's been looked after.

Strengths:
Soundstage depth if paired with good speakers
Detail if teamed with good preamp
Bags of power

Weaknesses:
Crappy power cord, but hey, it's old school

Similar Products Used:
Hafler 220
Hafler 500
Conrad Johnson 250-please, not even close
Adcom 555 - better than the CJ
Yamaha
Carver - quite a few and none as good
Sonic Frontiers....mmmm...nope these are better
Bryston..(any)..ok I suppose in durability and power but far to clinical and dry

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Price Paid:  $500.00 from Used

Summary:
Over the years I have heard a lot of negative reviews about many of the Phase Linear product, and definitely some for good reason.
I have owned many Carver amps, such as M1.0t, M4.0t, Silver t, as well as others and this 400 Series II blows all the Carvers away big time in the sound quality category.
I've always found the transfer function style far too rolled off and uninteresting sounding for my liking, as if B.C. went just a little to far trying to make it sound tube-like, whatever that might be...but that's another long story as I also own a complete tube system which is highly detailed and anything but bloated and dull as many refer "tube-like" as.
Anyway, so far I have found this unit to have bags of power, very detailed and deep soundstage, with just enough warmth so you could listen forever without ear drums drying out and cracking, but lots of detail and great vocal presnetation.
No hums, no speaker hiss, no turn off thumps, just works fantastic for an antique.
I've also owned many, many other amps, mostly a lot more expensive that I won't name just so as not to cause any emotional injury, that didn't sound half as good.
This unit is mega-old and never been worked on, yet the DC offset is still right on spec and never been adjusted. Not many amps can boast that....well my mint Hafler still does, but not much really can.
Anyway, I know I've built this up pretty good, and don't get me wrong, it isn't the best there is or even close, but it sure is decent for the money and if you have a small budget, want power but above average sound, this is one choice to look for if it's been looked after.

Strengths:
POWER
Detail, not brash
Deep soundstage
Warmish vocals
Good looks

Weaknesses:
Crappy power cord, but hey, it's old school

Similar Products Used:
B&K - far too warm
Carver - paleeeeze
Conrad Johnson solid state - not even close!
Adcom - better than same priced CJ by a long shot
Denon - about the same quality sound, just different
Pioneer
Yamaha - highly under rated
Bryston - better than their stuff of the same year and probably even NRB (too clinical)
Marantz - again, in the same league, just different sound
Sonic Frontiers - mmmm...no not as good as this stuff