[Loquah]

  Glad to hear you figured it out.
 
Does the kit come with a slow blow fuse? Personally, I would not use a slow blow fuse unless that was specified by BH. I would also never use a larger value than specified (though you can use a smaller value if that works).
 
 

 
1A quick blow fuses seem to be the norm in the headphone amps from Bottlehead

 

[DefQon]

A friend of mine has been running his modded Crack/SB that I built for him late last August since, has not powered it off at all, he leaves all his audio stuff on 24/7.

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

lol, unless you're using some kinda nuclear caps

I only ask coz I know some tube amps like the Woo Audio WA7 Fireflies say not to run it for more then 8 hours or something

A friend of mine has been running his modded Crack/SB that I built for him late last August since, has not powered it off at all, he leaves all his audio stuff on 24/7.

:eek: those tubes must be red hot :eek:

 

[DefQon]

I only ask coz I know some tube amps like the Woo Audio WA7 Fireflies say not to run it for more then 8 hours or something

those tubes must be red hot

Tubes can withstand the heat but I'm surprised his tubes are still going strong.
 
He has 2 Manley Stingrays. Now those are real heaters.

 

[Doc B.]

The amp is designed for continuous operation. The heaters in the tubes slowly lose their emissive coating over time. Figure about 5000 hours lifetime for the 6080 and 10,000 for the 12AU7. The electrolytic capacitors may need replacement at around 10,000 hours too. We have had a few of our older kits come in for service (maybe 15+ years old) that ran the capacitors much harder than in the Crack and some of them needed a cap replaced.

10,000 hours is very roughly 5 years running for 8 hours per workday (like at your office workstation) or 20 years running a couple hours an evening after work.

Re the question about HD800s and Crack - it works great. If you're going to buy $1500 headphones, I'd suggest really doing right by them and matching them to the Mainline. It's even more betterer.

 

[Shaldome]

Finished my Crack yesterday. Wanted to build it during my week of last week, but lost one of the shoulder washer for the bottom of the transformer and had to wait a week for a replacement (thanks again to Eileen for the quick response!)
Only problem I had after finishing it was, that it did not turn on when I was going to do the voltage checks. Turns out I missed to solder one cable at B7L. After soldering it everything worked fine, although the points where I should have 90 V I only have 76 V. But I guessed that was inside the tolerance level.
Other than that it is not the most beautiful build of a Crack, but it is mine. I blame the scorched isolation of the cable to my lack of depth perception, which I was made aware of during soldering.
Next week end I will try to install the speedball upgrade. For now I like what I am hearing. Was a bit bummed by the lack of loudness and background noise, but it turned out to be my ODAC/AMP. When I use my Ibasso DX 50 as a source everything is perfect.

 

[skeptic]

Ah yeah I can see how that would be easier. Sometimes I end up just holding the solder in my mouth... is that bad?

I got helping hands kinda useful but for something like the crack maybe not so much

I think I forgot to ask this earlier, my DT880s are the the 250 ohm versions... thats not a problem for this amp is it? I read that it really love 600 ohm ones better

Hey AJ - yes 250 ohm dt880s sound great with the crack. I tend to prefer Senns most days, as a matter of subjective preference, but could live very happily with my dt880's regardless. They are an excellent pairing.

 

[dsound]

  Finished my Crack yesterday. Wanted to build it during my week of last week, but lost one of the shoulder washer for the bottom of the transformer and had to wait a week for a replacement (thanks again to Eileen for the quick response!)

Congrats on finishing the build!  Please post pics when you can.  What headphones are you listening with?

 

[roguegeek]

  I see there are a lot of positive impressions of the Crack with the HD 800. Does everyone still feel that way about it? Worth the price of admission?

Thoughts?

 

[brunk]

  Thoughts?

I really liked the pairing when I had the HD-800s, so I think it's definitely worth the price of admission. Definitely not letting go of my Crack either, it'll collect dust until I get another high impedance headphone. I sold the HD-800 because I enjoy the HE-6 more, I was mainly using it as an expensive evaluation tool and for classical music lol, so it got sent off to a better home.

 

[roguegeek]

  I really liked the pairing when I had the HD-800s, so I think it's definitely worth the price of admission. Definitely not letting go of my Crack either, it'll collect dust until I get another high impedance headphone. I sold the HD-800 because I enjoy the HE-6 more, I was mainly using it as an expensive evaluation tool and for classical music lol, so it got sent off to a better home.

And the reason you aren't using it right now is because you just don't have anything to currently use it with?

 

[brunk]

  And the reason you aren't using it right now is because you just don't have anything to currently use it with?

Yep.

 

[Sonido]

Thoughts?

It's great. Makes the HD800 quite musical, though at the expense of detail. I found the Vali to be better in details, but thinner sounding.

 

[MattTCG]

It's great. Makes the HD800 quite musical, though at the expense of detail. I found the Vali to be better in details, but thinner sounding.

 
I heard it the same way. I only had a brief audition with the crack/hd800/Vali. I preferred the crack by a good margin. 

 

[roguegeek]

It looks like a lot of fun, so I'm going to order a kit no matter what just to play around with. If I were to order it, I want to do the Speedball upgrade right away. Would purchasing the kit and the upgrade together still allow me to build the unit without the upgrade? The reason I'm asking is because I want to build the Crack in its stock form so I can see what the stock signature sounds like before moving to the Speedball upgrade at a later date.