Was Phase Linear Bob Carver's company? Or did he just work for them? And when he was with Phase Linear, was it his first audio job? When did he do Carver- before, or after?
As the previous posters have stated, Bob was the founder, in 1970, along with his partners Steve Johnston and Jack Goodfellow, and Chief Engineer of Phase Linear until he left in 1977.
Shortly thereafter, he formed Carver Corporation and his first Carver offerings were in fact Phase Linear Series Two designs. Subsequently he left Carver Corp, formed Sunfire, which he just recently left to persue other endeavors. Prior to funding Phase Linear he was a physics student at the university in washington State..
I've read from a respectable source that the early Phase Linear tuners were "big boxes of air", and not well received. They were unnecessarily big yes, made that way to cosmetically match the size of the pre-amplifier and power amplifier. They sold thousands and they worked well as Series One and series Two products before the susequent models were down sized.
I've also read, this time from a source I'm unsure of if it's respectable or even reliable, that the Phase Linear amps aren't the most reliable or quality- but I dunno if this is a fair assessment or not. Entirely false, IMO. I own 11 of them at the moment and have owned them since the mid seventies. Clair Brothers used these exclusively for years for the concerts that they were contracted for. As a matter of fact, Bell Labs did as well for their testing and Audio Analyst in Montreal used them exclusively for the Summer and Winter olympics. They are very very solid power amplifiers.
The comment about some folks of old referring to them as flame linears is true to the extent that it was in fact a rival company of Clair Brothers that started the comment. When Carver first provided the 700 power amplifier as a commercial offering, Clair Brothers actually contracted for a 'commercial version' to be built and provided to them. It was beefed up to handle the enormous load of providing 'stadium wide rock sound' for hours on end, throughout an entire tour, tour after tour. The rival company used stock home versions to provide the same sonics without contract and ended up with problems, reacting with calling them 'flame linears' due to the fact that they burnt them up. Audio Analyst contracted for a comeercial version as well and had no problem with there version at the Olympcs. Driving 4 to 1.5 loads they must be cooled with a muffin fan naturally, however, handle it without stress and with complete stability.
I will say they are good looking items.
But how do they sound? Any good?
