[Oskari]

  The particular my Amperex 7316 has ALL the codes on the tubes, all the codes were printed on different places on the glass. But you should stick with the "Ct0" code only.

 
Just wondering about your tube. 

 
The factory/date code should be next to the Ct type code.

 

[Maxhawk]

Wonder how this compares to my own holy grail input tube, the 5687? I tend to gravitate towards the Sylvania gold brand 5687GB, but the T-S and GE 5687 are also very good and better than the others I have (perhaps 12-15 different variants including 12BH7 and ECC80). The asking price is a bit high for the sake of experimentation, but worth it (to me) if it truly is an end-game tube.

 

[moriez]

  Reserve not yet met 10 bids in  
 
Not sure if I'll join the bidding on those, but prices for a single out there are easily USD$225 from reputable dealers, tested NOS. Good luck to anyone bidding! Would love to trip across a box of them in some forgotten Eastern European warehouse - retirement would be that much closer 

 
I'm seeing it end up in the direction of $300 maybe even $400 as the reserve is still not met. For me there's just no way I'm spending ~$175 on one driver tube when I'm already getting that much WOW from the Crack as it is. Like you're saying Damian, the real fun is in finding them in secret rooms, pirate chests, homeless guy pockets and other Who Would Have Thought places

 

 

[Doc B.]

   
I'm seeing it end up in the direction of $300 maybe even $400 as the reserve is still not met. For me there's just no way I'm spending ~$175 on one driver tube when I'm already getting that much WOW from the Crack as it is. Like you're saying Damian, the real fun is in finding them in secret rooms, pirate chests, homeless guy pockets and other Who Would Have Thought places

 

You should have been into this in the early 90s. Guys would drive up to my house with carloads of loose tubes in cardboard boxes and ask me to take them, or help them by cleaning out basements and attics full of them. I recall pulling somewhere around 5000 tubes out of one hoarder's attic. I was also the only guy in my county who cared about LPs and I pretty much owned the bins in the thrift stores back then. 
 
On the other hand, since nobody else cared about this stuff it was pretty hard to make a living selling it back then!

 

[NightFlight]

I believe it was Queens U where it was rumoured to have cleaned out a warehouse of lab grade tubes into a bin and had it crushed.  Lots of this has happened because those not in audio circles only see them as trash taking up space. 
 
If I would have seen them crushed I would have likely collapsed... something like Roy Scheider did at the end of the movie 'Sorcerer'.  
 
Speaking of LPs in the 90s. Ever make it to Car City Records in Detroit? That place was just amazing.

 

[Doc B.]

I met a couple of Russian guys many years ago, whose job in the army was to crush tubes for precious metals recycling. They figured they crushed several million between the two of them. 

 

[gab840]

guys guys did you hear about the new crack announcement
Crackotowa

Check bottlehead fb page or forums...

 

[Rocketman248]

Already ordered mine.  

 

[moriez]

Cool! Was just starting to get interested in the S.E.X.
 
 

 
 

INTRODUCING: Crack-a-two-a headphone amplifier kit $699 (introductory price $599) 

Crack-a-two-a is a premium version of the direct coupled Crack circuit with the C4S active loads of the Speedball incorporated, and also shunt voltage regulation in the form of two 6AQ5 tubes along with a bigger power transformer. There are three pairs of RCA input jacks and a volume and balance control. The standard potentiometer controlled volume/balance setup will be upgrade-able to a coarse and fine stepped attenuator very similar to the BeeQuiet attenuator used in the BeePre preamp and a similar style used in our most premium Mainline headphone amp. Like Crack this amp is intended to be used with high impedance headphones (200 ohms or higher) like Sennheiser HD600/650/800, Beyerdynamic 250 and 600 ohms headphones, etc. 

One big consideration was that this kit was to fit between the Crack and the Mainline in terms of price. We wanted to keep the price below $700. Yes, the S.E.X. kit also fits in that price range, but there seems to be a devout following of high impedance headphone specific OTL amps that we wanted to address, and thus this alternative offering. With that in mind we decided that the biggest benefits would be from a more sophisticated power supply and the ability to upgrade to our very special stepped attenuator as used in BeePre (and in a slightly different form in Mainline). We also know that our customers like to have multiple switched inputs, so we include three. 

Estimated shipping of the first kits will be in late September. 

 

[moriez]

Dat name though.. Crack-a-two-a? 

 
 
For apparent lack of commercial ingenuity may I propose rebaptizing to Bottlehead ''CATA'' or ''CAT''? Something!

 

[JamieMcC]

  Cool! Was just starting to get interested in the S.E.X.
 
 

 

 
Looks like the Cracks gone to rehab and come out the other end a changed amp

 

[Dimitris]

Anyone in the Central Florida area that could help me with a problem on my 2nd crack?
It seems like it has developed a cracking sound on one channel and I am not handy at all. Please PM me.

 

[adydula]

Sorry to hear this.... did u try to swap the tubes from the working unit?
Alex

 

[music max]

Funny that you'd mention this because I just ran into the same problem with my crack. A crackling  sound in the right channel only. However, I haven't figured out how to fix this issue despite the fact that I recently replaced the power tube. If anybody has any suggestions, they'd be much appreciated.

 

[adydula]

Change the other tube as well..
 
Alex