Crack;Bottlehead OTL

[cobyatch]

Hey everyone, thought I'd share my tube rolling experiences with you all. Running them all with a Tung Sol 5998, speedball upgrade, and a cheap stepped attenuator from eBay. Shoutout to L0rdGwyn for helping me start my journey haha

Sylvania 6F8G: Very energetic and fun tube. Bass is thick and has a lot of upper mid/treble presence. Largest soundstage of the bunch. My favorite with the Atticus when I want powerful, in-your-face bass.

National Union 6F8G: Clean and fast sounding tube, probably the closest to neutral and analytical out of the ones I've tried. Soundstage more intimate than the Sylvania. Slight touch of warmth while retaining speed and clarity. Upper bass can get a bit muddy with the Atticus, but works great with the HD6XX IMO. Compliments the HD800 perfectly, giving it the right amount of warmth and retains detail.

Pinnacle 13D5A: Really nice tube. A bit more bass presence than the NU with smoother vocals. Soundstage pretty much on par. A lot more clarity in the mids and highs compared to the stock 12AU7 tube, however doesn't extend as much in the highs compared to the 6F8G tubes. My personal favorite with the HD800 for a more romantic listening experience. Really surprised by this pickup considering how cheap they were on eBay, highly recommend picking up.

Looking into getting more tubes soon, have my eyes on the RCA 6F8G but would love your guy's recommendations as well. Also, is upgrading the output caps worth it? Seems like it's a pretty common upgrade but haven't read much about the benefits of it.

 

[Wes S]

Hey everyone, thought I'd share my tube rolling experiences with you all. Running them all with a Tung Sol 5998, speedball upgrade, and a cheap stepped attenuator from eBay. Shoutout to L0rdGwyn for helping me start my journey haha

Sylvania 6F8G: Very energetic and fun tube. Bass is thick and has a lot of upper mid/treble presence. Largest soundstage of the bunch. My favorite with the Atticus when I want powerful, in-your-face bass.

National Union 6F8G: Clean and fast sounding tube, probably the closest to neutral and analytical out of the ones I've tried. Soundstage more intimate than the Sylvania. Slight touch of warmth while retaining speed and clarity. Upper bass can get a bit muddy with the Atticus, but works great with the HD6XX IMO. Compliments the HD800 perfectly, giving it the right amount of warmth and retains detail.

Pinnacle 13D5A: Really nice tube. A bit more bass presence than the NU with smoother vocals. Soundstage pretty much on par. A lot more clarity in the mids and highs compared to the stock 12AU7 tube, however doesn't extend as much in the highs compared to the 6F8G tubes. My personal favorite with the HD800 for a more romantic listening experience. Really surprised by this pickup considering how cheap they were on eBay, highly recommend picking up.

Looking into getting more tubes soon, have my eyes on the RCA 6F8G but would love your guy's recommendations as well. Also, is upgrading the output caps worth it? Seems like it's a pretty common upgrade but haven't read much about the benefits of it.

Good stuff! I found some of those 13d5a and 13d5, on ebay and I am gonna get one of them, soon.

 

[attmci]

Quite the patronizing remark! I will dignify it only by saying, no thank you, I am very content with what I have built myself and its performance.

Congratulation on the new GOTL!!

 

[attmci]

I seen that comment, all the time and always, disregard it. I love putting the best tube I can find, in my tube amps, regardless how much the amp cost. Seems like a good and easy way, to get better performance.

Great idea!

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Congratulation on the new GOTL!!

What can I say? What I said was true, I love my Crackatwoa. After realizing I had matched pairs of 421As and 7802s, curiosity gave way. I plan to keep my Crackatwoa, it is a great amp, as is the Crack, we will see how they compare

Oh, and don't congratulate me yet, the long wait now begins...

 

[attmci]

What can I say? What I said was true, I love my Crackatwoa. After realizing I had matched pairs of 421As and 7802s, curiosity gave way. I plan to keep my Crackatwoa, it is a great amp, as is the Crack, we will see how they compare

Oh, and don't congratulate me yet, the long wait now begins...

You sure you don't want to roll the rectifier tubes? You don't need the most expensive ones to roll. And a rectifier tube will last very long.

You can Google and find out how rectifier tubes can change the sound.

Best wishes.

 

[adydula]

I have been spending ALOT of time with Burson Audios FUN amp and its various SS discrete op amps.

I put it away for awhile and started listening with the Crack with Speedball....RCA NOS 6AS7G and RCA 12AU7 Clear Top.

For two days I have ben listening and fallen in love with its sound all over again.

Words like, smooth, lucid, warm, lush, musical, to die for sound come out of my head....all with a set of HD600's.

Low levels, mid vol levels etc all sound so nice.

This amp and these cans make for such a nice listenable musical experience I am torn with leaving it again for more testing and evaluation!!

Next is the Mainline....but this BH Crack is indeed very, very special!!

Alex

 

[adydula]

I switched over to my Bottlehead Mainline this morning...and after an hour or so I have finally deduced that the Senn 600's sound better overall to me with the Crack!!

With my Beyer T1's the Mainline is the amp for them...

I think the Mainline being more articulate and light saber resolution qualities helps with IMO the more laid back sound of the T1's.
With the 600's and the Mainline its like they are too accurate or bright sounding...

Put the T1's on the Crack and its too subdued overall....put the Senns on the Crack and voila! Its audio nirana.

Alex

 

[ALL212]

New variation of the Crack with modifications. I've created an album of more pictures called the Crack C-4 version ( https://www.head-fi.org/gallery/album/crack-c-4-version.1154954/ ). C-4 as this is my 4th Crack build. I also have a Mainline, Crack-a-2-a and S.E.X. headphone amps.

I'm running Senn HD650, HD800s and ZMF Auteurs on it. The only major circuit change was using a much larger final power supply cap (470uf) and then dropping the output cap total to 79uf. I also plumbed the pre tube for a 6SN7 instead of the 12AU7. So far the sound is wonderful - bass is plentiful (especially with the ZMF's).

 

[JamieMcC]

I always thought that the T1 sounded a bit thin out of a stock Crack but on a Crack with all the normal mods it was significantly better almost like listening to a different headphone it scaled so well.

I used T1 on the Mainline for a while but after trying the hd800 Mainline combo there was no going back.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

New variation of the Crack with modifications. I've created an album of more pictures called the Crack C-4 version ( https://www.head-fi.org/gallery/album/crack-c-4-version.1154954/ ). C-4 as this is my 4th Crack build. I also have a Mainline, Crack-a-2-a and S.E.X. headphone amps.

I'm running Senn HD650, HD800s and ZMF Auteurs on it. The only major circuit change was using a much larger final power supply cap (470uf) and then dropping the output cap total to 79uf. I also plumbed the pre tube for a 6SN7 instead of the 12AU7. So far the sound is wonderful - bass is plentiful (especially with the ZMF's).

Looks awesome, love the "6080" and "6SN7" cut outs in the top plate.

 

[Wes S]

Happy to join the club! I fired up my Crack Speedball, for the first time last night, and within minutes, my HD650 never sounded so freakin good! I am pairing up the Crack and my Aeolus tonight, and think I am in for some musical bliss!

Happy Friday!

 

[Wes S]

Just did my first roll with the Crack Speedball, and decided not to mess around and went with my A- Team. I was going to work my way through my stash from medium grade tubes, then onto my top tier tubes, but made a last minute descision, and said what the heck, let's see what this amp can really do. I rolled in the Tung Sol 5998 and Mullard ECC82 57' Blackburn Square Getter. Damn, I did not know my HD650's could produce bass like this! I am going to make sure all is well tonight, and then tomorrow the Aeolus, gets it turn. I will report back, after some burn in.

 

[Spareribs]

Their products are so cool looking, One of these days I’m going to build one of their phono preamps

 

[Wes S]

Well after some tube rolling, I have realized the 5998 and Mullard ECC82 Long Plate, were a bit to warm, and bloated, for my Aeolus. So, now I am jamming with the 5998 and Brimar CV4003, and they are perfect. I did roll a Bendix 6080wb slotted plate, with the Mullard ECC82 Long Plate and that sounded really freakin good, however the Bendix was a bit noisy, and is being returned.

If anyone has a spare Bendix 6080wb slotted plate, I would love to buy it.