[skhan007]

Just scored a matched pair of NOS 5998 locally, which is great. I now feel "fully stocked" having a small stash of 5998's. If a good price comes along on a 421a, I'd be curious to hear one. I believe Tung Sol and Chatham are the same company, so these should sound identical to my '59 Chatham. They look structurally identical.

 

[GreenNeedle]

I didn’t use a magnifying glass and didn’t have any issues, but some might find it useful. I also bought a “helping hands” station which I found to be somewhat cumbersome and mostly just soldered directly on the solder mat.

I have some 1x 2x and 4x reading glasses that I use for all sorts of things like soldering, tinkering with watch movements.............erm, reading the teeny tiny print on food packets I used to be able to read. lol. Cheap and cheerful but mega useful for magnifying things.

 

[DenverW]

Just scored a matched pair of NOS 5998 locally, which is great. I now feel "fully stocked" having a small stash of 5998's. If a good price comes along on a 421a, I'd be curious to hear one. I believe Tung Sol and Chatham are the same company, so these should sound identical to my '59 Chatham. They look structurally identical.

Here are a couple pics of the 421a I have here at the office:

 

[skhan007]

Here are a couple pics of the 421a I have here at the office:

Beautiful! How fast can you ship?

In your opinion, can you tell me where a 5998 would score on a 0-10 scale and where you’d score the 421a? Trying to get a subjective ranking of the 421a.

 

[DenverW]

Beautiful! How fast can you ship?

In your opinion, can you tell me where a 5998 would score on a 0-10 scale and where you’d score the 421a? Trying to get a subjective ranking of the 421a.

Ah! You’re going to pin me down . I would say if the 421a is my favorite tube and gets a 10 then the 5998 gets a 8.5 and the gec straight brown base 6as7g is a 9. I haven’t heard the curved brown base gec 6as7g, but it is supposedly just as good if not better than the 421a, but costs a PRETTY penny.

 

[DenverW]

I will also say this: if you have a crack, don’t buy a 421a. If you plan on upgrading to the c2a one day, or a more expensive amp using 6080 equivalent that’s fine, but the crack sounds great with tubes that don’t cost $200, and the c2a stock sounds better than a crack with a 421a.

 

[skhan007]

I will also say this: if you have a crack, don’t buy a 421a. If you plan on upgrading to the c2a one day, or a more expensive amp using 6080 equivalent that’s fine, but the crack sounds great with tubes that don’t cost $200, and the c2a stock sounds better than a crack with a 421a.

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! It’s exciting to explore tubes, but at this point the cost of the tubes that I’ve collected for exceed probably what I need. While I am quite curious about the 421A, I think you’re right, it makes sense just to perhaps stick with what I’ve got. Honestly, I’m quite happy with the 5998.

 

[DenverW]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! It’s exciting to explore tubes, but at this point the cost of the tubes that I’ve collected for exceed probably what I need. While I am quite curious about the 421A, I think you’re right, it makes sense just to perhaps stick with what I’ve got. Honestly, I’m quite happy with the 5998.

You can also resell them. The way I look at it, is if I resell a piece of gear for less than I got it, I'm just paying a fee to rent the gear for a while.

 

[ColdsnapBry]

Just curious on what some BHC owners thoughts are. I'm having a service build my BHC and I'm wondering if I should have it built right out with a speedball. I have a ZMF Verite Open headphone and hoping to get a bit more of a warmer and fuller presentation with it on tubes. I heard the stock BHC is pretty warm and I might like that, but probably best to get the speedball installed?

 

[DenverW]

Just curious on what some BHC owners thoughts are. I'm having a service build my BHC and I'm wondering if I should have it built right out with a speedball. I have a ZMF Verite Open headphone and hoping to get a bit more of a warmer and fuller presentation with it on tubes. I heard the stock BHC is pretty warm and I might that, but probably best to get the speedball installed?

Honestly, my first suggestion is to NOT have a service build it, unless you are already comfortable with doing the builds and just don’t want to do this one. It isn’t a hard build, and the knowledge gained about the components, build, and soldering is invaluable in the future in case you want to upgrade anything or there is a future problem.

That being said, do the stock crack first, then add speedball a couple weeks later. It lets you understand the change in sound and determine which you prefer. Also, if there is an issue, it is easier to identify if everything is done separately.

 

[skhan007]

Just curious on what some BHC owners thoughts are. I'm having a service build my BHC and I'm wondering if I should have it built right out with a speedball. I have a ZMF Verite Open headphone and hoping to get a bit more of a warmer and fuller presentation with it on tubes. I heard the stock BHC is pretty warm and I might like that, but probably best to get the speedball installed?

Agree with @DenverW . I’ll also add that the ZMF VO and crack is a phenomenal pairing.

 

[barbz127]

Agree with @DenverW . I’ll also add that the ZMF VO and crack is a phenomenal pairing.

Would you know if it's as good with VC also?

 

[raindownthunda]

Would you know if it's as good with VC also?

It‘s excellent with the VC

 

[DeweyCH]

Anyone have thoughts or experience using a solid state preamp feeding a Crack? I’m considering making the Crack my second “zone” for my Luxman TP-117 rather than feeding my DAC into it directly. This would be nice because the TP has a nice phono stage, remote control and can switch easily between sources and outputs (main zone is a R-117 SS receiver).

 

[SHIMACM]

Hello friends, I am a new owner of a Crack with Speedball in the area.

Some valve bearings.