[Maven86]

  Bottlehead Crack with speedball upgrade. Haven't heard the WA3 (which is comparable to a DV336) but have heard the other two mentioned amps. For the HD650 it's a no brainer you won't get a better synergistic match with the Crack and any of the high impedence Sennheiser can's namely 580/600/650 and 800. The Crack + the 580-650 headphones is the perfect couple. /thread.

I was curious about the crack myself.  Would you say it's worth upgrading to a Crack without the Speedball upgrade from a Burson HA-160, or would the improvement be marginal?

 

[DefQon]

I'd recommend the Speedball with the Crack. Like a cake without the icing on top is just incomplete.

 

[Maven86]

Thanks DefQon, I'll look out for one then!

 

[King of Pangaea]

  I was curious about the crack myself.  Would you say it's worth upgrading to a Crack without the Speedball upgrade from a Burson HA-160, or would the improvement be marginal?

 
All I can tell you that the Burson HA160D/Senn HD600, 800 combo just has very low synergy.  I got rid of my Burson.  Maybe try Conductor, or Go Senn HDVD 800/600.  These are supposed to be very good with upper grade Senns.

 

[Maven86]

Perhaps it's because I haven't heard anything better but the HA160/HD650 combo was pretty good to my ears.  I was thinking of the conductor at one point as well but more people seemed to say that the Crack/SB combo had a lot more synergy with the 650's.

 

[Aeolus Kratos]

And now, just to let you all know, after a decent time researching, I finally came to this

 

 

[formula1]

  Perhaps it's because I haven't heard anything better but the HA160/HD650 combo was pretty good to my ears.  I was thinking of the conductor at one point as well but more people seemed to say that the Crack/SB combo had a lot more synergy with the 650's.

 
The conductor and Soloist are great match for the Sennhs. It all depends if you like the sound characteristic of tubes or Solid state amps. 
 
Kratos, you built that Crack? 

 

[Aeolus Kratos]

   

 
Actually, I built this with some 'minor' help of my friend
The Crack is fairly easy to build, even for those who have never soldered anything before. But I admit that I'm never confident of my soldering ability, and I have a friend who knows how to solder, he helped me on the difficult parts
 
The Speedballed Crack is superb with the Senns, no doubt about it.

 

[sacaudio]

How do these amps compare with the sound of the Antelope Zodiac--I have not heard the woo tube amps, but have heard the solid state Antelope Zodiac plus.

 

[Aeolus Kratos]

  How do these amps compare with the sound of the Antelope Zodiac--I have not heard the woo tube amps, but have heard the solid state Antelope Zodiac plus.

I have not heard the Zodiac, but I think it really depends on what headphone you are using. High impedance Senn cans really shine with tube amps like Bottlehead Crack or Woo Audio tube amps. Other headphones may prefer the solid state amps.

 

[sacaudio]

Thank you. From what I've read, it's wa3 or bottlehead crack with speedball for the sennheiser 650's.

I'm trying to find a wa3, but I'm not having much luck on this site yet. I will try going to the sf meet and see if someone has a unit for sale.

I'm new on this site so I can't place a wanted ad yet.