Bottlehead Crack Group Buy! - Page 17

well, almost a year later and over the holidays, I finally built my crack w/ speedball kit. having built a couple of bottlehead foreplay preamps before, I knew exactly what I was in for - straight forward instructions, quality components, and something to marvel at in the completed build. true to form, the crack was much fun to put together and I was very happy that there were no problems at all with the build. I auditioned the crack for a day with HD650s and was blown away. in stock form, this amp rivals most other amps that I have had the pleasure of listening to. after what couldn't even be called a break-in period, I went to work on the speedball upgrade which went flawlessly as well. the upgrade is well worth the minimal cost IMHO and while i'm no audiophile, the upgrade really does tighten and give more depth to the music. the final touch was the tung-sol 5998 and clear top 12au7a - another worthwhile upgrade. thanks again to Zlobby for putting this whole thing together and to Doc, Eileen, and the entire Bottlehead team for this amazing amp!

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynagroove 

well, almost a year later and over the holidays, I finally built my crack w/ speedball kit. having built a couple of bottlehead foreplay preamps before, I knew exactly what I was in for - straight forward instructions, quality components, and something to marvel at in the completed build. true to form, the crack was much fun to put together and I was very happy that there were no problems at all with the build. I auditioned the crack for a day with HD650s and was blown away. in stock form, this amp rivals most other amps that I have had the pleasure of listening to. after what couldn't even be called a break-in period, I went to work on the speedball upgrade which went flawlessly as well. the upgrade is well worth the minimal cost IMHO and while i'm no audiophile, the upgrade really does tighten and give more depth to the music. the final touch was the tung-sol 5998 and clear top 12au7a - another worthwhile upgrade. thanks again to Zlobby for putting this whole thing together and to Doc, Eileen, and the entire Bottlehead team for this amazing amp!

Congratulations Dynagroove, have you built other amps before?

Is the schematic for this amp public? 
 

Hi Luke,

I have built the Bottlehead Foreplay II preamp, refurbished several old tube amps, and built a Millet Hybrid among other things. The Crack headphone amp is not a public design (the kit uses a proprietary transformer), but I can tell you at the price point that Bottlehead is selling this kit for, I don't think you could do better cost-wise, even with the schematic. The group buy was an excellent way to knock a few dollars off the already low price, so if you can find enough interest, it is totally worth the effort and cash invested. http://www.bottlehead.com/store.php?crn=224&rn=442&action=show_detail For the HD650, this amp rivals pretty much anything else I've heard and it right up there with my stock and relatively unsafe Singlepower Extreme that had a much higher price tag.

Hi Dynagroove,

sorry to reply so late, I wish this site sent an email when a thread has been updated. 

I appreciate your comments, it seems like a good buy. You mention a custom transformer but its an OTL? I imagine the power tx is not so special?