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Crack;Bottlehead OTL
Mar 7, 2013 at 12:29 PM Post #1,561 of 12,346
My plan when I saw it was to bid what the cost of a new one is given the wait to get a new one + the cost of buying one pre-assembled.  I REALLY wanted to build my own, but I can always start messing with this one. 
 
I'm into Haywood Wakefield furniture, so I plan on trying to build a new case based on this style of bed, out of birch.
 
http://p2.la-img.com/919/16340/5516892_1_l.jpg
 
I figured with people paying over 400 dollars for other peoples' projects that the price I paid was safe.  I'll be able to get it up and running, but this is my first foray into this sort of thing.  I know how to solder and I have several other useless hobbies to help me extrapolate on this one :wink:
 
Is the assembly manual available for download anywhere?  I'd love to reverse engineer it a bit.  Otherwise I'll try to read through this thread to learn about the common upgrades to capacitors, tube sockets, etc... 
 
Mar 7, 2013 at 1:26 PM Post #1,562 of 12,346
Quote:
silverhead said:
My plan when I saw it was to bid what the cost of a new one is given the wait to get a new one + the cost of buying one pre-assembled.  I REALLY wanted to build my own, but I can always start messing with this one. 
 
I'm into Haywood Wakefield furniture, so I plan on trying to build a new case based on this style of bed, out of birch.
 
http://p2.la-img.com/919/16340/5516892_1_l.jpg
 
I figured with people paying over 400 dollars for other peoples' projects that the price I paid was safe.  I'll be able to get it up and running, but this is my first foray into this sort of thing.  I know how to solder and I have several other useless hobbies to help me extrapolate on this one :wink:
 
Is the assembly manual available for download anywhere?  I'd love to reverse engineer it a bit.  Otherwise I'll try to read through this thread to learn about the common upgrades to capacitors, tube sockets, etc... 
Click to expand...

You can probably get the manual if you ask on the Bottlehead forum.
 
I decided to not raise my bid because building it from scratch would be easier than a complete rebuild.
 
Mar 7, 2013 at 2:28 PM Post #1,563 of 12,346
I'm going to listen to it first.  If it's dead quiet, I might just leave it alone and let it sit there looking like a  Homer Simpson spice rack.   I'm pretty stoked to get it.  The simplicity of the design is what I appreciate most.   It keeps it dumbed down to that 1940's era electronics theory that I can digest mentally.  I'll sign up over on the Bottlehead forums now. 
 
Mar 7, 2013 at 2:36 PM Post #1,564 of 12,346
We're gearing up for AXPONA at the moment, but I have a few thoughts to offer -

We aren't able to offer assembled kits anymore. My techs are hired for R&D and have been so busy that there is little time available to do assembly. The assembly does take some time because the kits are hand wired, which we feel is important for sound quality. It's also a fun process. The Crack kits are built primarily by first timers, and there are many hundreds of them in the field. I don't think people need to worry about whether or not they can build one. We have sold a few million dollars worth of Bottlehead kits in the past 19 years. If they were hard to get working I think I would be saying we sold a few hundred dollars worth - and maybe still making pastries for a living.

As to buying used, from my perspective it's a crap shoot. That may be because those who buy a good used kit are happy with it and I don't hear about it. But when one does buy a bad one, it has often been "improved" and then the guy who originally built it dumps it on ebay for someone else to sort out the problems he introduced with his "improvements". You can find some of them coming to the Bottlehead forum for help, because as near as I can tell the seller seldom offers to help.

My advice in most cases is build it yourself, and build it stock first. It's more rewarding to build it from the start and not as much fun to sort out some other newb's mistake. The process is also not an instantaneous one, that is to say that buying a kit and reading something on the interweb does not always qualify you to dive in, make changes and know for sure the change was a positive one . You have to have a baseline to start with, the stock kit. Get it running the way it was designed, then move on to learning about modifications.

I would also suggest not getting so hung up on cosmetics that you need change the basic layout. There may or may not be issues of noise, cooling etc., that arise and we may not have tried doing it the different way you want to do it.

Don't take this the wrong way, I'm totally for finding the killer deal myself. And I started Bottlehead out of a love for building and modifying gear. So much so that I like to see others go about the process in a way that lets their skill and knowledge grow without getting too frustrated in the process.
 
Mar 7, 2013 at 2:50 PM Post #1,565 of 12,346
Quote:
doc b. said:
We're gearing up for AXPONA at the moment, but I have a few thoughts to offer -

We aren't able to offer assembled kits anymore. My techs are hired for R&D and have been so busy that there is little time available to do assembly. The assembly does take some time because the kits are hand wired, which we feel is important for sound quality. It's also a fun process. The Crack kits are built primarily by first timers, and there are many hundreds of them in the field. I don't think people need to worry about whether or not they can build one. We have sold a few million dollars worth of Bottlehead kits in the past 19 years. If they were hard to get working I think I would be saying we sold a few hundred dollars worth - and maybe still making pastries for a living.

As to buying used, from my perspective it's a crap shoot. That may be because those who buy a good used kit are happy with it and I don't hear about it. But when one does buy a bad one, it has often been "improved" and then the guy who originally built it dumps it on ebay for someone else to sort out the problems he introduced with his "improvements". You can find some of them coming to the Bottlehead forum for help, because as near as I can tell the seller seldom offers to help.

My advice in most cases is build it yourself, and build it stock first. It's more rewarding to build it from the start and not as much fun to sort out some other newb's mistake. The process is also not an instantaneous one, that is to say that buying a kit and reading something on the interweb does not always qualify you to dive in, make changes and know for sure the change was a positive one . You have to have a baseline to start with, the stock kit. Get it running the way it was designed, then move on to learning about modifications.

I would also suggest not getting so hung up on cosmetics that you need change the basic layout. There may or may not be issues of noise, cooling etc., that arise and we may not have tried doing it the different way you want to do it.

Don't take this the wrong way, I'm totally for finding the killer deal myself. And I started Bottlehead out of a love for building and modifying gear. So much so that I like to see others go about the process in a way that lets their skill and knowledge grow without getting too frustrated in the process.
Click to expand...

Thanks for chiming in Doc.  I hope that both the super headphone amp and DAC that have been talked about on the Bottlehead forums come to fruition.  As happy as I am with the S.E.X. that I bought second hand, I don't think I can resist ordering a Crack to do myself.
 
Mar 7, 2013 at 5:05 PM Post #1,566 of 12,346
Oh, I understand the risks of ebay and other peoples' projects =)   From what I could see the only 'modification' was that the transformer was 'low rider.'  
 
I'm the sort of person that'll take the whole thing apart a time or two by the time I'm done probably.  This just happens to be my first amplifier (as opposed to my first camera, car, motorcycle, etc...)    I'm really excited to get it because I've read nothing but good things about the design and simplicity. 
 
Who knows, maybe the guy is sending along the paperwork.  I doubt it though...  eBay stuff tends to come wrapped in Pampers diaper boxes smelling like cigarettes.  
 
I'm in that beginning phase of the hobby trying to sort out hype and religious experiences from things I can actually hear.   My hearing's not so great.  I can't hear any sounds above 15khz.   I'm currently listening to my headphones through a restored Marantz 2275.   The bottlehead is going to be fun for me to change tubes in to see how it affects the sound.    If I end up really liking messing with it I'll probably be after the Stereomour kit to use with my home speakers and turntable. 
 
Mar 7, 2013 at 5:11 PM Post #1,567 of 12,346
Just to briefly chime in, the Crack manual is excellent. The instructions are super-detailed and accompanied by color pictures that are fairly high resolution. As long as you take your time, don't rush and take the instructions literally, you won't have any problem. And even if you do, the Bottlehead Team (and the rest of the Bottlehead community) is very fast to respond to questions on the Bottlehead forum with lots of very helpful advice.
 
I have zero qualms recommending the Crack to someone with no previous amp-building experience. Building it was fun and the instructions were so clear and methodical, that it was actually pretty relaxing.
 
I do have one piece of advice: if you want to upgrade your volume pot (to be clear, I do not consider this necessary or even really cost-effective), then I would do it when you first built the kit, since doing it later is a pain. Also, as someone indicated above, fitting everything into the hole on Terminal 14U (if I'm remembering this correctly) can be a real pain, so alot some time to figuring out how you're going to do that, and don't solder anything to that terminal until instructed to do so.
 
Best regards,
Adam
 
Mar 7, 2013 at 8:55 PM Post #1,568 of 12,346
@silverhead, yeah I've bought a bunch of stuff from that pampers and cig smoke guy myself. Once I received a microphone in the mail, that had been taped onto a single piece of cardboard. The guy had a fit when I suggested he might want to spend a little money on packing material. I guess they got a different way of packing in some states. Maybe he needed the rest of the cardboard box to sleep in that night.

@adam, I am hesitant to suggest anyone who has never built a kit before change up something like a volume pot during the initial construction. Different attenuators might connect to the circuit differently than the stock pot and that could be pretty confusing for some noobs. Recently someone went into a series of mods on a Bottlehead kit and bought an "upgrade" pot from someone else that came with the wrong instructions. Mondo frustration vent on the Bottlehead Forum (I guess maybe the guys who sold the pot didn't have a tech forum for him to vent on). If someone feels confident about it, go for it. But if one feels they are in new territory I suggest sticking with the basic program first and then doing mods.
 
Mar 9, 2013 at 4:12 AM Post #1,569 of 12,346
My ebay Crack showed up today.  As expected, it was wrapped in newspaper and shipped in a used box.  No power cord and no paperwork of any kind.  
 
Here's a few images:
 

 
bigger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8530/8540582081_ff29638a39_h.jpg
 

 
bigger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8380/8540581821_468ed70814_h.jpg
 

 
bigger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8234/8541683888_b8f7a4bfe9_h.jpg
 
 
I looked it over carefully and there's a few solder joints I'm not that fond of, but they're all seemingly 'attached.'   I used come Caig Deoxit to clean the tube, RCA, and power sockets.   I cleaned the tubes so the big one wouldn't stink when it heated up.   So I powered it up and it came up just fine.    I'm supplying a signal from my iphone using a Pure brand DAC.   The amp is dead silent with the volume knob cranked when no song is playing.   To power my 250ohm headphones I've got the knob set to about 5-7 on a scale of 0-10.  7 is probably loud enough to cause me hearing damage over time.    The amp sounds really good.  Stereo works fine and both bass and treble are fine.   I'll probably be leaving it alone for the time being because it sounds how I want it to.
 
I've had it powered up for about 6 hours now.  The aluminum plate is quite warm, about to the point you wouldn't want to hold your finger onto it all that long, but it didn't burn me after holding my finger on it for 30 seconds.   I'll have to read about what temperature the 6080 tube should be running and how hot the transformer should get, etc.. I have an IR thermometer to check those values. 
 
All in all, I'm very happy.  The gamble on eBay appears to have paid off.   I am going to get up some time in the morning and get some supplies to square up the box and stain it.  I'm also going to sand off those gluey fingerprints on it.  
 
Mar 9, 2013 at 3:51 PM Post #1,571 of 12,346
The crack does run warm. Your description sounds pretty in line with how mine runs, fwiw. Enjoy it!
 
Mar 9, 2013 at 4:41 PM Post #1,572 of 12,346
The transformer shouldn't get that hot, but the tube can burn you (pretty sure I scorched a fingerprint into it once). The plate vent area also gets quite hot if you don't have a speedball in there.
 
Mar 9, 2013 at 9:10 PM Post #1,573 of 12,346
I'm not a woodworker.  I tried using a router (not mounted in a table) and a crappy miter saw today to make a case out of oak.  That worked in terms of making the right dimension pieces, but my saw doesn't cut 45 degrees flat across boards well enough to mate up the corners.   So I decided to take apart the factory box and shore it up using wood glue and metal angle brackets internally.  That worked out OK.  The corners didn't meet up perfectly because the last guy had some dry wood glue in there.  But I think it looks fab-tabulous anyway.   I sanded it down to 400 grit and smoothed off all of the corners and edges just a tad.   I used some Danish wood oil (walnut color) to finish it off when I was done sanding.    
 
The front panel looks cool because there's a knot in the wood, so it sort of looks like an eye.   It catches the light the same way a tiger eye agate does.    Here's some photos now that it's dry.
 

 
 
Bigger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8237/8543872572_d9adfe5c2b_h.jpg
 

 
Bigger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8511/8542771581_bbe0a83fe6_h.jpg
 

 
Bigger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8094/8542771027_4afa2e12bf_h.jpg
 

 
Bigger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8089/8543871982_24a6778a4a_h.jpg 
 
Mar 9, 2013 at 9:13 PM Post #1,574 of 12,346
Quote:
silverhead said:
I'm not a woodworker.  I tried using a router (not mounted in a table) and a crappy miter saw today to make a case out of oak.  That worked in terms of making the right dimension pieces, but my saw doesn't cut 45 degrees flat across boards well enough to mate up the corners.   So I decided to take apart the factory box and shore it up using wood glue and metal angle brackets internally.  That worked out OK.  The corners didn't meet up perfectly because the last guy had some dry wood glue in there.  But I think it looks fab-tabulous anyway.   I sanded it down to 400 grit and smoothed off all of the corners and edges just a tad.   I used some Danish wood oil (walnut color) to finish it off when I was done sanding.    
 
The front panel looks cool because there's a knot in the wood, so it sort of looks like an eye.   It catches the light the same way a tiger eye agate does.    Here's some photos now that it's dry.
 
 
 
 
Bigger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8237/8543872572_d9adfe5c2b_h.jpg
 
 
 
Bigger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8511/8542771581_bbe0a83fe6_h.jpg
 
 
 
Bigger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8094/8542771027_4afa2e12bf_h.jpg
 
 
 
Bigger: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8089/8543871982_24a6778a4a_h.jpg 
Click to expand...

Fantastic job!  Looks MUCH better with some proper attention.
 
Mar 9, 2013 at 9:16 PM Post #1,575 of 12,346
I bought a pre-built Crack + Speedball from a fellow Head-fier a few weeks ago and couldn't be happier with the amp. Not only does it sound absolutely *phenomenal* with my HD 650, the build is a thing of beauty. It's a very, very cleanly done job with braided wiring pre-cut to the proper length and practically flawless soldering. The Crack's wood housing however was received in its raw state, so this past week I decided to complete it. Ordered a Bottlehead badge from Doc to top it all off and settled on a distressed satin black finish with a few "antique " dings and dents here and there. Thought I'd post a few pics. Here ya go...
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
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