[i luvmusic 2]

That may need to be burned in a bit longer than usual....

When i was in Middle East doing some work i saw some of  this i should have take some for my amp.

Good to know,Thanks!

 

[PETEREK]

I just ordered my Crack + Speedball kit! Looking forward to the build.

 

[krikor]

  I just ordered my Crack + Speedball kit! Looking forward to the build.

Congrats cCasper! Perhaps we'll have two in rotation at our next Michigan Meet. Good to see you last Saturday, and wish I had a chance to listen to your modded DT-770s, but time ran out (someone else was using the headphones everytime I tried).
 
Let me know how it goes with the build, and let me know you need any help. I found it a little confusing doing a fresh build with the Speedball upgrade (since it is written assuming your Crack is already built), but not to bad if you take it slow and be methodical. Look me up if you make it back to the east side of the mitten.

 

[PETEREK]

Congrats cCasper! Perhaps we'll have two in rotation at our next Michigan Meet. Good to see you last Saturday, and wish I had a chance to listen to your modded DT-770s, but time ran out (someone else was using the headphones everytime I tried).

Let me know how it goes with the build, and let me know you need any help. I found it a little confusing doing a fresh build with the Speedball upgrade (since it is written assuming your Crack is already built), but not to bad if you take it slow and be methodical. Look me up if you make it back to the east side of the mitten.

I'm sure we'll have another meet in the next 6 months or so. I'm building the whole thing. The PDF looks pretty straight forward, I have soldered plenty so I think I will be alright. I'll look you up if I have any issues though. Maybe it would be best to do the Crack and the just do the speedball upgrade afterwards?

 

[krikor]

I'm sure we'll have another meet in the next 6 months or so. I'm building the whole thing. The PDF looks pretty straight forward, I have soldered plenty so I think I will be alright. I'll look you up if I have any issues though. Maybe it would be best to do the Crack and the just do the speedball upgrade afterwards?

If you want to compare with and without, definitely do it that way (obviously). What I did was go through the Crack manual and mark it up/delete all the items that were replaced or changed by the Speedball. I still have the instructions, so I can send you a copy of my marked up version. There was some wiring I changed/simplified by doing the Speedball as part of the initial build.

 

[NightFlight]

I'm sure we'll have another meet in the next 6 months or so. I'm building the whole thing. The PDF looks pretty straight forward, I have soldered plenty so I think I will be alright. I'll look you up if I have any issues though. Maybe it would be best to do the Crack and the just do the speedball upgrade afterwards?

Build the Crack. Enjoy the crack. Add the speedball. Enjoy more crack.

 

[bigfatpaulie]

Build the Crack. Enjoy the crack. Add the speedball. Enjoy more crack.

 
You crack me up!

 

[NightFlight]

   
You crack me up!

 
My haiku:
 
Build crack and listen.
Add speedball for improvement.
Listen and enjoy.
 
Bah. That's terrible.

 

[i luvmusic 2]

Build it STOCK listen to it for awhile then do the upgrade.
 
Trouble shooting a modded CRACK is a PITA.

 

[jbarnhardt]

  Build it STOCK listen to it for awhile then do the upgrade.
 
Trouble shooting a modded CRACK is a PITA.

+1
 
Yes, it really is much better to do the initial build, verify everything is working perfectly (and listen to it a bit!) and then go back and add the Speedball. It's not a very difficult addition. Even if you are very comfortable with your assembly skills, there is always the chance that a component or tube or something is flaky, and you will have a much more difficult time troubleshooting or getting troubleshooting support on the Bottlehead forum for a kit that has already had the Speedball installed (without first verifying 100% operation of the base kit). There is a good reason the Bottlehead folks strongly recommend that everyone assemble and test the base kit by itself before doing any additions/mods.
 
Enjoy your kit, it's a very fun build and the sound is fantastic. The DT770s sound great with the Crack.
 
-John

 

[NightFlight]

Yes indeed. 
 
If you were to encounter an issue down the road with the full crack/speedball kit completed, removing part or all of the speedball can be a good troubleshooting step.  This is depending on the nature of the issue and how long it has eluded you of course.  I had a troublesome issue that I was only able to track down only by removing the C4S boards from the power tube section and dropping the cement resistors back in.  My problem went away and it immediately told me a CS4 board component was at fault.  Turned out to be a bad transistor that would flake once up to temperature! But I never would have gotten there without that isolation step. Thank you PB!
 
So, it is also true during the building process. Best to take it slow. Besides, the mod to drop in the two sets of boards is actually pretty trivial.

 

[PETEREK]

I ordered 3 feet of Black Dragon cable to replace the stock wire that comes with the kit, just for fun. I know the stock cable is solid core 20awg, and Black Dragon is 21.5awg, but it's insulated and will hopefully prevent some crosstalk. I'm not the biggest believer in upgrade cable, but I've been wanting to work with Black Dragon for a while now, and since it's only 3 feet (probably more than I need) the cost isn't too high. It was like $42 shipped. It should bump the value up though, some people believe in the upgrade cable. I mainly build cables for looks and convenience (length, termination, etc.)

 

[hdtv00]

So I finally broke down and have joined the club. Here is my setup now.

 

 

Many more of my pics here.. https://www.flickr.com/photos/hdtv00/sets/72157651442294571/ if anyone is interested.
 
So that's a Aune T1 for DAC into the crack w/speedball. And I'm sooooo confused now...
Ok so I have Senn HD 560 Ovation II's(which lacked bass), HD 650's that I thought were to muddy even yea sure it's very slight to much mids, and HD 700 which were clearly to bright. Now explain to me how this setup fixed every single issue I had with each pair of headphone. I LOVE them all now, seriously. 560 has more bass it's just wonderful. The 650's have great clear highs now that work better with the mids and bass is just fine. And somehow the 700's aren't a harsh mess anymore. I liked these the least but now I don't hear that harshness they had. What the hell is going on here, am I just drinking the cool-aid or what...I'm so confused. I have a Orange globe in the T1, NOS Tung Sol 5998 and Telefunken 12au7 in the crack.
 
Either way at times , which is most of the time it sounds AMAZING. I now get why Miles Davis Kind of Blue is raved about, I seriously have people in my head now playing live instruments, amazing. And some bells and what not from Bjork stuff I've heard 1000+ times blowing my mind.

 

[Keithpgdrb]

  So I finally broke down and have joined the club. Here is my setup now.

 

 

Many more of my pics here.. https://www.flickr.com/photos/hdtv00/sets/72157651442294571/ if anyone is interested.
 
So that's a Aune T1 for DAC into the crack w/speedball. And I'm sooooo confused now...
Ok so I have Senn HD 560 Ovation II's(which lacked bass), HD 650's that I thought were to muddy even yea sure it's very slight to much mids, and HD 700 which were clearly to bright. Now explain to me how this setup fixed every single issue I had with each pair of headphone. I LOVE them all now, seriously. 560 has more bass it's just wonderful. The 650's have great clear highs now that work better with the mids and bass is just fine. And somehow the 700's aren't a harsh mess anymore. I liked these the least but now I don't hear that harshness they had. What the hell is going on here, am I just drinking the cool-aid or what...I'm so confused. I have a Orange globe in the T1, NOS Tung Sol 5998 and Telefunken 12au7 in the crack.
 
Either way at times , which is most of the time it sounds AMAZING. I now get why Miles Davis Kind of Blue is raved about, I seriously have people in my head now playing live instruments, amazing. And some bells and what not from Bjork stuff I've heard 1000+ times blowing my mind.

more importantly, you should ask yourself why you bypassed the hd-600, which is superior to all the other 3!!!!  and is sublime on the crack.

 

[hdtv00]

Because after reading about the 600  for years it seems to me to just describe exactly what the 560's sound like to me. So I didnt see the point buying exact same sound Sig I've already had for 20 yrs.