Phase Linear

well let's have a little balance in this discussion - the "Flame Linear" reputation came I believe from the fact they were used and abused in stacks for rock band performances, and they couldn't drive low impedance loads (ie <4ohms). My 400 performed very nicely from 1974 until I sold it in 2004. I drove it hard, especially in college. I didn't spend a dime on service and I sold it for $375 which is $25 more than I paid for it ('course not the same $'s). I have friends and relative who had the same experience. My brother still uses his.

very old amps & yes they were designed by bob carver,having owned carver & phase linear my thoughts were that both brands sounded terrible & could be bested very easily by rotel or adcom.

Bigjoe, I`m surprised the old autoformers don`t sound terrible to you.

I bought a Phase Linear 400 in the '70s when I was sixteen. It was very powerful. Then, it went up in flames--literally. A tech at a local stereo store replaced all the output transistors with ones of better quality. He said he put a lot of work in on it to make it "more stable". I have no idea what he did, but the amp worked great for years after that. When I hit my twenties and moved on, I sold it--to a sixteen year old.

Phase linear was designed by Bob Carver.I used to have there 2nd model from the top might be 400 (Led Indicators in the front and separate variable control for each chanel.
It was a heavy wieght and very powerful as most of the Bob carver's designs.I use to drive my old AR 9s (4Ohms and two side firing 10 inch woofers).It was very reasonable sounding amp in the price range.The production of these amps stops couple of decades ago.Be care full if you are considering one of these monsters they are very old might need recap also they give you hum of loose transformer core.