[Allanmarcus]

if they were once cryo treated the heat from a brass brush on my grinding wheel negated that effect. They used to be black powder coated. I am listening to them now through a crack amp and they certainly did nothing to harm the sound.

Throw 'em in the freezer overnight and call 'em cryo-treated!

 

[Paladin79]

I suspect that happens in some cases, especially if you are relying on someone off shore doing the process. I had heard of it being done some in the states but I have not researched it much. The less I say on such processes the better.

 

[i luvmusic 2]

Throw 'em in the freezer overnight and call 'em cryo-treated!

You need to add SNAKE OIL so it's much effective.

 

[Paladin79]

I probably have an extra 50 or 60 feet of this particular coaxial cable. It requires a connector with at least an 8 mm opening though so it can be tricky to use. I figure for a connection from a DAC to the Crack amp it will not be moved much anyway, it is not super flexible. The way it solders and by the looks of the braid it may well be silver plated ofc copper. It does not have the look of normal tinned wire.

 

[Paladin79]

This may show it a bit, the wire is a real light color and shiny. Maybe it was just tinned with a ratio of silver solder.
I did find the specs and this is low capacitance silver plated digital audio cable, 110 ohm.

I now have an oak cabinet in hand, will work on the oil and wax finish this weekend as well as finishing up some of the electronic mods on the crack build.

 

[Paladin79]

I have to apply oil and wax finish but the quartered oak cabinet is complete otherwise. You can see the size difference between this and the standard Crack down the bench. Rear has four inch plate as well. The oak is so pretty I may finish the inside. The tiger stripes will really pop when completed.

Tom

 

[neddoge]

That looks incredible!

 

[Paladin79]

Thanks, just wait till the cabinet is golden brown and it picks up the exposed copper in the plates. The patina should show better then as well.

I am building two amps in this vein, I am seriously thinking of using polished copper for the second amp, same dual volume controls, same VU meters, same cabinet.
Then it is just a matter of deciding on which one I want to keep. I can easily do a headphone rack in polished copper; I have plenty of extra room for mods. I was aiming to install the headphone jack on the right side of the cabinet but I may have to think through that a bit before I drill the hole. The stripes will be glorious when completed. My son reminds me I need to beat up the cabinet to make it look old. This is nearly inch thick quartered oak, well seasoned. If I hit it with a chain, the chain might break first. The copper plate on top is two pounds, when completed this will be one heavy sweet sounding amp.

 

[Paladin79]

 

[DavidA]

@Paladin79, great craftsmanship

 

[Paladin79]

Thanks, one of my employees built the cabinet, I did all of the copper plate and design and will be altering some of the electronics. I went with dual single ganged volume pots because on some music, I like to turn left or right channel up a bit but that is more of a personal preference. On the second one I make I may put a dual ganged Alps pot on the front plate with the headphone jack next to it. Adding patina is a lot easier than buffing out all the copper so I will have to see how things work out on my second build.

 

[larcenasb]

Hi, some expert assistance needed please: Looking at my attached graph, it is not unreasonable at all to use 33uF output caps (I'm looking to get ClarityCap CSA 33uF 250V caps) with my AKG K240 Sextetts (600 ohms), right? I'm currently using Audyn Q4 68uF outputs and I notice no bass roll off from the stock 100uf electrolytics. I'm just trying to make my amp the best I can afford to make it.

My second question is: The graph shows output frequency at -3db, so with 33uF caps 8hz will be the limit with my cans before rolling off. Does this change with low volume level listening, meaning will it roll off sooner: 20hz, 30hz, 40hz?

Finally, I read from Paul Joppa, "I would never use less power supply capacitance (last cap) than in the output cap, and I'd prefer at least twice that - if it were my amp." I currently have 3 Audyn Q4 68uF caps (2 as outputs, 1 as the last PS cap), so if I buy the CSA 33uF caps, my Audyn 68uF would be fine as the last PS cap, doubling (just about) the outputs' capacitance. PAULLLL, SIRRRR, are you on head-fi!?!?!?! Can you (or anyone else that knows) please explain what the benefit is of the last PS cap doubling the outputs' capacitance? Does this affect the bass roll off? Thanks so much everyone. Have a good day.

P.S. I have my Alps pot padded, does that have anything to do with the bass roll off, since I am actually turning the volume up much higher because of the extra resistance? Thanks!

 

[i luvmusic 2]

Paladin79 WOW!That is really pretty.

 

[Paladin79]

Thanks, it will look better once I apply finish to the cabinet and get the VU meters working, and change some electronics. Everything is progressing as I expected up to this point. Luckily I have two to build and can sell one, I doubt I will part with this one.

 

[hawkwindx]

I did find a couple 6SN7GT Tung Sols to try out, they are on the way. They were not exactly cheap but they were not $150 each any way. I also found some 1578 Melz that were reasonable but shipped from Russia, I may get some of those to try out at a later time. Soon I will need to spend some time on finishing the cabinets for my Crack amps and building a headphone rack to match.

Did you get a chance to listen to those 6SN7GT Tung Sols yet?