[Quadfather]

I answered your question in the other thread you posted in.

-Mark in St. Louis

Thanks

 

[DavidA]

The question was about Russian tubes but I have run Tung Sol etc. and own a Valhalla 2, IMHO the Crack is warmer sounding with most any combination I have tried. The Valhalla is a little tough to discern from solid state or maybe I have not varied my tube rolling in it enough to approximate a Crack.

The Valhalla2 is a strange OTL amp, agree with you that its like a SS amp, rolling tubes has little or no effect on the sound from my limited time that I spent with rolling tubes in it.

 

[Paladin79]

I ended up using mine more as a preamp out into other amps including Crack amps.

 

[attmci]

My pair of choice is the Tung Sol 5998 + Mullard 12AU7 (Or Amperex Bugle Boy, Tungsgram E80CC , Amperex 7119 PQ -> Crack needs modifications to run the latter 2)

You have to mod the Crack to use E80CC or 7119 (5687) tubes.

Amperex 7316 Long Plates Foil Getter is one of the best. But, hope you can find it.

 

[bloodhawk]

You have to mod the Crack to use E80CC or 7119 (5687) tubes.

Amperex 7316 Long Plates Foil Getter is one of the best. But, hope you can find it.

Yeap -> https://imgur.com/a/Ax2VG

Yeah i was looking for one of those, but as you said, they are super hard to find for a decent price.

 

[attmci]

Yeap -> https://imgur.com/a/Ax2VG

Yeah i was looking for one of those, but as you said, they are super hard to find for a decent price.

For that price, I will get a ECC33.

 

[bloodhawk]

For that price, I will get a ECC33.

Been debating getting a VT-231. Already have quite a few good 6SN7's. But lets see, now a days i usually swap around between the Mullar 12AU7/7119 PQ/Tungsgram E80CC. Sometimes even using the Telefunken 12AU7.

 

[i luvmusic 2]

I ended up using mine more as a preamp out into other amps including Crack amps.

Have you tried the CRACK as a PRE?I used my Crack as a Pre to drive my Kenwood Amp and a Sansui speaker nice pairing i would say.....

 

[Paladin79]

I have used a Crack as a preamp and even added outputs on two of them. I have several amps and amp/DACs with more arriving next week. They do work well in that function; I tend to experiment until I find an exceptional sound I am willing to share with others. My latest interest is balanced amps but I keep all those components separate.

 

[bloodhawk]

I have used a Crack as a preamp and even added outputs on two of them. I have several amps and amp/DACs with more arriving next week. They do work well in that function; I tend to experiment until I find an exceptional sound I am willing to share with others. My latest interest is balanced amps but I keep all those components separate.

Which would be your fav balanced diy amp ?

 

[Paladin79]

Unfortunately it is a tube amp I designed and built myself, class A, cathode follower, but I gave it away to a friend. I learned enough in the process to know what I want to build next. The Crack thread is probably not the best place to discuss such things. Currently I am doing an entire solid state balanced set up but I am a week out in completing that. I generally build my own cables and modify the headphones to fit the design. It takes a couple weeks to tweak everything.

I am not aware of a lot of balanced DIY amps but I was thinking the Bottlehead Mainline might be one? I have not built one so I cannot comment much about it but I did glance at them some time ago and I do believe they use a higher level of individual parts in the build and it is a company I would trust to provide great products. If there is a current thread in here talking about balanced amps send me a link and we could go there to discuss such things.

 

[Quadfather]

I cleaned the tube contacts, both male and female ends, on my bottlehead crack and it seems to sound even better. I use Deoxit. Am I imagining things?

 

[deserat]

I cleaned the tube contacts, both male and female ends, on my bottlehead crack and it seems to sound even better. I use Deoxit. Am I imagining things?

I've heard a difference when applied to NOS tubes. But I'm guessing it depends on how corroded or dirty ( finger oils etc ) the pins are. Once cleaned the first time repeat cleanings have never done any good.

 

[Demoninja]

So I'm getting ready to mod my Bottlehead crack and was getting my shopping list ready. I've decided on adding a choke, replacing the 2 output caps with film caps, modding the power supply with cree diodes. Anyone got suggestions on what to purchase to mount the choke? I think I've got the film cap mounting and the PCB board down.

 

[atomicbob]

So I'm getting ready to mod my Bottlehead crack and was getting my shopping list ready. I've decided on adding a choke, replacing the 2 output caps with film caps, modding the power supply with cree diodes. Anyone got suggestions on what to purchase to mount the choke? I think I've got the film cap mounting and the PCB board down.

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/2250-832-AL/1772-1226-ND/