Phase Linear

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.

I had a 400 back from 1976 to 1980 to drive a pair of double/stacked Advents. Never had any trouble.

I had an original 700 which I used with a variety of acoustic suspension speakers, including stacked Advents. I eventually migrated to a set of Quad 57's and tube amps, but before I sold the Phase Linear, I did hook it up to the Quads, very briefly.

And, no I did not turn it up.
:)

At the time it came out, there were very few amps with this kind of power- the Crown DC-300, maybe a few others- not sure any of them would pass muster today.

If memory serves, the original PL 400 sounded better than the original 700, too.

And, lastly, the apocryphal story I heard about Carver was that he had the circuitry and power supply rigged up in a prototype that looked like, or was, a coffee can. (Remember when you bought ground coffee in big cans at the supermarket?) He allegedly brought this mess to the 'Mac' clinic- one of those manfacturer sponsored events at the local dealer where you could get your amp 'measured.' (Sort of like dyno-testing). He apparently made waves--- not sure this is true, though.