[Sweden]

Fantastic job here!
 
Can anyone tell me the difference between the Smack and the S.E.X. amp in signature, coloration, soundstage, imaging and headphone compatibility/synergy? Any feedback would be nice.

 

[skeptic]

Sad to say it sweden, but my understanding is that smack kits are no longer being produced and sold by bottlehead. 

 

[Sweden]

I didn't see it on the Bottlehead site so I assumed it was out of production. There should be some already made you could buy however.

 

[Armaegis]

I got one of their very first kits and still haven't found the time to put it together 

 

[skeptic]

Hoarder! Gonna build it after you complete the sale of your crack?

 

[Armaegis]

I've gotten as far as painting the plate and transformer bell (which turned out really nice if I do say so), and ordering some Neutrik jacks. I'm trying to decide if I want to put a 4-pin XLR in there as well; thinking I'll replace the rear XLRs with XLR/TRS combo jacks and replace the front TRS with the 4-pin XLR. I was really hoping to find some time over the holidays to start it, but obviously that didn't happen. 
 
I guess I'll get to it when I get to it. It might depend how all my other sales go. 

 

[canister]

I ordered a Smack last year (one of the very last shipped) and enjoyed putting it together. I am very happy with its performance but I do find the noise a bit disturbing when I hook up a pair of low impedance headphones like the Audio Technica AD2000. With the HD800, it works fine and the noise is hardly audible.

 

[NuClear235]

How do HD800 work with Minimax, please? Is it the right tube amp for it? I didnt make any Tube amp yet, only OPAs... I like that minimax is low voltage.

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

How do HD800 work with Minimax, please? Is it the right tube amp for it? I didnt make any Tube amp yet, only OPAs... I like that minimax is low voltage.

Resurrecting this thread after 7 years. I have been using a Hagerman Audio Castanet for over a year and think it's one of the nicest sounding headphone amp's I've ever heard. I purchased mine from Jim Hagerman after he moved on to a Hagerman Audio Tuba (his latest headphone amp). This was serial number one of the Castanet/ HA10, and built by Jim. He used it for 12 years before selling it. I did not realize how rare these amp's are until after I had purchased mine.