[Paladin79]

  Looks like they are still on orders from 2/28. I'm sure there was a ton from the sale.

Oh good, at least I do not feel too bad about buying a second one quickly then lol. I have a plan with which I can  swap things in and out pretty fast to convert quickly from a stock unit to my dream build and back again within five minutes or so. I have two sets of VU meters from a couple manufacturers to try out. They are identical in size and range but have a slightly different dial.I have a half dozen logarithmic pots arriving tomorrow, switching from dual gang to single is no biggy.

 

[deserat]

  I was like you a few years ago and decided to take the plunge and build my own.  The cost of kit + speedball and the tools needed (multi-meter, soldering station, solder, flux, etc) was about $450 since the kit + speedball were on sale at the time.  It took me about 14 hours to build, started at 5pm and finished at 7am, granted my GF helped and we enjoyed a few bottles of wine along the way but the skills gained have remained and have enhanced my love of audio and saved me more than enough to pay for the equipment I purchased a few times over.  I've built new cables for almost all my headphones, done mods for removable cables on a few Grados, Beyer T1/DT-990, MDR-7506, ATH-M50, K553, TH-600, TH-900, and build a few headphones along the way. 
 
I can understand that its not for everyone but if you have ever considered building your own cables or even to repair broken cables, and other simple house hold task building the Crack is a great learning tool and the knowledge you gain will be useful for years to come.

I couldn't agree more with most of this. On the other hand I've a friend who who spent years in the music industry, tonight I've got my soldering iron fired up and am repairing a crappy cable for him.  I'm doing it for the experience of doing it. It's fun, but let's be honest if they guy wasn't my friend, I'd charge him for it... given what I make in my professional job, I'd charge him $60 an hour because I'm kinda new at this... that's just what my time is worth.

I really dig the Crack, it's an AMP that dances on top  of music and I'd like to share the joy I have when I plug mine in with people who aren't going to build it.  Who will spend more than $650 on an amp they won't enjoy nearly as much. $650 is an arbitrary number, I couldn't tell you what a Crack is worth. I know I like it better than my Lyr2 and differently than my Mainline. But I strongly support a cottage industry of people who are willing to pay attention to detail building Cracks, so that; a) Bottlehead can sell more of them and b) people who won't build them can enjoy them.

The other thing I know is that purists who insist the only people who should enjoy a thing are the people willing to risk screwing it up, and willing to risk building it themselves. Yes I'm better for it. Yes I learned alot. Yes I'll do it again for the fun... but most people just wanna have fun.   

FYI... I'm not the guy charging $650 for a built crack. But I'd like to see enough volume in crack sells that Bottlhead could either lower the price, make something better, or hell - just comfortably stay in business.  Honestly, buy a built crack, build your own... use the Crack Circut to create a work of Art, I'm with you.  Demand everybody else do enjoy something really cool exactly the same you do.... well that's just counter productive.

And hey, I'm sorry if I'm coming off argumentative... it's not my intent. There are number of people who responded to me and I don't have time to respond to a number of posts. I just summed it all up here. Peace out.

 

[Paladin79]

The Crack is a unique device that is pretty easy to research. Most people who would buy one built have probably been to the Bottlehead site and hopefully know the amp is for high impedance headphones before buying one built or building one themselves. When mine are finished they will not look like the traditional build so if I list one on Ebay I will mention upgrades and what the amp is capable of. It would be a little embarrassing if it did not sell but I may put a reasonable reserve on it so it does not sell too cheaply. The one for $650 is still there but a new one is now listed for $480 buy it now price complete with speedball as well. 
 
I should receive a Crack kit for today, it is out for delivery. Even though I work 50 miles away technology is such today that my phone will get a video when the box is delivered. (I can also control thermostat and lighting from most anywhere as well.)  Finding time to build it will be interesting but I will work it in and probably have the basic amp with speedball built before my kit from Bottlehead arrives.

 

[Doc B.]

Some of you guys are, understandably, antsy to get your kits. Here's a little update I am cross posting from the Bottlehead Forum:
 
Josh has been working like a madman the past few weeks getting ready to ship out the rather fantastic, record number of Crack kits that were ordered during the last sale. Everything is prepacked, I have maybe the last 10 or 15 panels left to brush as of this morning, and we are ready to slam these puppies out. The one small delay is that the power transformers that were due to arrive today have not. Apparently the hi-pot, which is a test to assure that the insulation in the transformers well exceeds any voltage they will ever see, did not meet spec on some. Our winder works to very strict standards and the transformers are being reworked as I type this. They are scheduled to ship Monday, and usually get here in two days. So God willin' and the river don't rise we should be blasting out mass quantities of Crack mid-week. 

We apologize for going a few days over our shipping window estimate due to this. It's the first time in over 15 years of using them that our winder has had to rework a production run. Just like us, they won't send it out until they are sure it's right. On the positive side, when they do arrive Josh figures to be shipping around 50 kits a day so they should all be shipped out within a few days of the transformers' arrival.

 

[Paladin79]

Thanks for the update!

 

[Doc B.]

Some good news - we just found out that apparently the rework is on a different transformer that we use in a different kit, and the Crack power transformers could be here by Monday.

 

[Paladin79]

  Some good news - we just found out that apparently the rework is on a different transformer that we use in a different kit, and the Crack power transformers could be here by Monday.

Very cool, and I actually knew what a Hipot test was that you mentioned earlier.
 
Tom

 

[i luvmusic 2]

I can't wait to see the STEAMPUNK Crack.

 

[Paladin79]

shhhhh Doc B is on here. He may never sell me another kit after I am done with the modifications on this one. 
 
I do have the majority of the parts, two large planks of wood, bunches of copper. There will not be a silver thing showing on it if all goes well. Either copper, brass or gold will be used. Maybe the prongs on the AC plug but that will not show.
 
I probably said this but the headphones will match at some point, they are functional but I need to work on cosmetics.

 

[i luvmusic 2]

I still have my burnt out CRACK that i want to redo however the Transformer is fried.

 

[TeeReQs]

Don't smoke the crack!

 

[Paladin79]

  I still have my burnt out CRACK that i want to redo however the Transformer is fried.

They would probably fix it if you sent it back to them. I kind of doubt they would sell just the transformer.  There is a guy on Ebay with a non working one but he is asking $324 I think, it obviously has a burned resistor but that is still a lot for a non working unit IMHO.

 

[i luvmusic 2]

NO actually the CRACK got smoked by a lightning strikeLong story short my site trailer at the job site got strike  by a lightning awhile back.

 

[i luvmusic 2]

 

  I still have my burnt out CRACK that i want to redo however the Transformer is fried.

They would probably fix it if you sent it back to them. I kind of doubt they would sell just the transformer.  There is a guy on Ebay with a non working one but he is asking $324 I think, it obviously has a burned resistor but that is still a lot for a non working unit IMHO.

Yes i discussed this awhile back with BH but for me to ship it back and forth is not worth it,Not like you guys from the US of A spoiled when it comes to shipping rates....

 

[Paladin79]

  NO actually the CRACK got smoked by a lightning strikeLong story short my site trailer at the job site got strike  by a lightning awhile back.

Yikes.