Its first location was a small building at 405 Howell Way in Edmonds, Washington.
The first amplifier produced was the Phase Linear 700. With 350 watts per channel it soon became the standard amplifier used in recording studios, sound reinforcement companies, professional musicians and audiophiles. It had a retail price of $749.00, or a little more than a dollar a watt. The design was notable for its brushed aluminum front panel and large dual VU meters.
The next product was the Phase Linear 4000 Series Auto-correlation Pre-Amplifier introduced in 1973 and manufactured through 1978. It retailed for $700.00 at the end of its life. It was a design collaboration by Bob Carver and Bill Skinner.
The second amplifier released was the Phase Linear 400 with 200 watts per channel. It shared the same distinctive brushed aluminum, dual VU meters front panel style as the 700. It retailed for just under $500[1].
The company was known for the most powerful audio amplifiers of the era led by the Phase Linear D-500 introduced in 1978. It was a stereo power amplifier delivering 505 watts of clean (typically < 0.1% total harmonic distortion over 20 Hz–20 kHz) RMS power per channel. It had a retail price of $1395.
The company would later be bought by Pioneer Electronics and Bob Carver would go on to found Carver Corporation in 1979.
Pioneer added a high end cassette-tape deck designed in house and CD players designed by Kyocera to the Phase Linear line. But by that time the company was in decline due to the increasing cost of research and development, and the departure of founder Carver.
In the 1980s Phase Linear was sold by Pioneer to Recoton and is currently only producing car audio equipment.
Bob Carver later switched from Carver to Sunfire taking the design and the price-tags with him.
Phase Linear History Reference Site: http://www.phaselinearhistory.stereomanuals.com/
The Phase Linear Reference Site (German and English): http://www.kleines-kalb.com/
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