[Loquah]

...and it's SO worth the short wait

Especially given the endless tweaking and modding opportunities

 

[skeptic]

I hear Doc is rolling out "Bottlehead Prime" memberships in 2015.  Pricing TBD 

 

 

[Loquah]

LOL. Shipping before you even know you want it

 

[atomicbob]

Have had my Crack for 14 months now. The wait back in Sep 2013 is now inconsequential compared to the hours of enjoyment experienced since. I have yet to install the Speedball upgrade sitting here. Too much fun rolling tubes and trying different DACs before taking that step. Today there is a bel canto RefLink driving a Ross Martin Audio DAC to the Crack. Tung-Sol 6AS7g and CBS-Hytron 12AU7. Even though I have the HD800, I am really enjoying the HD600 synergy with this combination.
 
Putting this all in perspective, I have more cans, amps and DACs than time to evaluate all the combinations. From O2 to ZDSE, ODac to DP1, and in-between. The two most involving for me are the Crack / HD600 or HD800 and ZDSE / HD800.

 

[jinrum8]

  Hey guys, as a former Crack owner I thought I'd let people on this thread know that I just posted some beautiful custom Crack bases and an assortment of 6AS7G and 6080 power tubes over in the FS/accessories forum.  I sold my amp a while back and these have been hanging around since then.  Cheers!  

I read this late. You still anything left?

 

[mcandmar]

It amazes me how well oiled BH are at this. Anybody who has put together there own project and bought parts from various suppliers, a transformer from another company, a chassis plate from another etc will find they are still collecting parts three months later.  Or the day you go to order your Mouser basket half the items are out of stock with a 17 week lead time!

 

[Doc B.]

  Or the day you go to order your Mouser basket half the items are out of stock with a 17 week lead time!

Oh, don't even get the guys started about that. PB is our "Hendley the Scrounger". 

 

[kothganesh]

.;...............
Putting this all in perspective, I have more cans, amps and DACs than time to evaluate all the combinations. From O2 to ZDSE, ODac to DP1, and in-between. The two most involving for me are the Crack / HD600 or HD800 and ZDSE / HD800.

Similar here..... HD 650 with the Crack and the ZD with the 800

 

[Angerer]

.... delete post

 

[listen4joy]

anyone have compared Vahalla 2 to crack+speedball?
 
 
from purrin comare:

• Vahalla 2 - not the Vahalla 1. probably top 1/3 of this list in terms of SQ. yes, that's how good it is. fast, clear, resolving - more than Crack. not as warm though / neutralish. does not work nearly as well with low Z or orthos. best to stick with high Z Senns or Beyers.
• Crack - must have speedball upgrade for use with HD800. warm (but again tubes play role). not resolving enough to take full advantage of hd800. this is why most owners say it better with HD6XX than HD800.

 
anyone have any experience?

 

[MattTCG]

I have both on my desk right now. I'll do a short comparison later today.

 

[atomicbob]

Similar here..... HD 650 with the Crack and the ZD with the 800

Those two amp / headphone combinations are highly addictive aren't they. The only can-amp pairings where I really don't want to stop the listening session when the allocated block of time is up.

 

[skeptic]

  anyone have compared Vahalla 2 to crack+speedball?
 
 
from purrin comare:

• Vahalla 2 - not the Vahalla 1. probably top 1/3 of this list in terms of SQ. yes, that's how good it is. fast, clear, resolving - more than Crack. not as warm though / neutralish. does not work nearly as well with low Z or orthos. best to stick with high Z Senns or Beyers.
• Crack - must have speedball upgrade for use with HD800. warm (but again tubes play role). not resolving enough to take full advantage of hd800. this is why most owners say it better with HD6XX than HD800.

 
anyone have any experience?

 
Matt's forthcoming impressions will obviously be of the most use to you, but what you might bear in mind, from a design standpoint, is that schiit is using global negative feedback to achieve low output impedance and (I assume) lower RIAA distortion measurements in the Valhalla - which sort of goes against the grain in so far as OTL tube amps.
 
Bottlehead, by contrast, is committed to non-feedback designs which, although higher in output impedance, tend to sound more pleasing and natural, particularly in the highs, to many of us.
 
To grossly oversimplify, although rarely published in the normal array of audio measurements, negative feedback introduces transient intermodulation distortion into the signal and can also cause, among other adverse effects, disproportionate high order distortions.  This is the inherent *flaw* (for lack of a better term) in all opamp based amp designs because opamps require the use of feedback to run in a linear mode.  My view/assumption is that TIM manifests most obviously as the subtle treble glare that many of us perceive when listening to the O2 - which I actually still quite like with some of my low impedance phones, but to my ears, my bottlehead stuff is just in another league in terms of sonics and enjoyability.   

 

[bigfatpaulie]

   
 "Negative feedback introduces transient intermodulation distortion into the signal and can [cause] disproportionately high order distortions."

 
Can I get that on a T-shirt?

 

[atraf]

   
Can I get that on a T-shirt?