John In Cali
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2011
- Posts
- 918
- Likes
- 31
You finished the Crack? Pictures and impressions please!
THIS STUFF IS GREAT, BUT I WANT MOAR!
You finished the Crack? Pictures and impressions please!
THIS STUFF IS GREAT, BUT I WANT MOAR!
i bet the crack would work well for me
if it didn't only support hi-impedance headphones,
Listening to my newly finished crack now. Feels like a Xmas gift to myself
Did you build the Crack -plain - or with the Speedball constant-current stuff? I built mine with Speedball, and never heard the "un-speedball" Crack. I wonder what it sounds like, what the differences are between Speedball and Plain.
I used 100 uF film capacitors from Parts Express for the output DC blocking caps, instead of the stock electrolytics. In fact, I have BOTH in the Crack, with a switch to toggle back and forth, so I could A/B the difference between a film cap and an electrolytic. The difference was audible, I wondered if it would be. I mean everyone says, oh film caps sound so much better. Well, I had to see for myself- or rather, hear for myself. It's not a night-and-day difference, but I could hear a difference. The film cap had a slightly smoother sound to cymbals and other high frequency stuff. More of like a 'sheen' of highs and less "crunch" or "edginess" in the highs. Midrange and bass sounded the same. Like I said it wasn't huge difference, but there was a difference. I preferred the film cap sound.
I liked the Crack so much I also built an Eros phono stage. The Eros is a great phono stage, just like the Crack is a wonderful little headphone amp. And the Bottlehead kits are fun to build.
Crack, white lacquer color scheme
Eros, also in white
Did you build the Crack -plain - or with the Speedball constant-current stuff?
I've never understood why the headphone jack is on the top and not placed on one of the sides of the amp instead.
Did you build the Crack -plain - or with the Speedball constant-current stuff? I built mine with Speedball, and never heard the "un-speedball" Crack. I wonder what it sounds like, what the differences are between Speedball and Plain.
I used 100 uF film capacitors from Parts Express for the output DC blocking caps, instead of the stock electrolytics. In fact, I have BOTH in the Crack, with a switch to toggle back and forth, so I could A/B the difference between a film cap and an electrolytic. The difference was audible, I wondered if it would be. I mean everyone says, oh film caps sound so much better. Well, I had to see for myself- or rather, hear for myself. It's not a night-and-day difference, but I could hear a difference. The film cap had a slightly smoother sound to cymbals and other high frequency stuff. More of like a 'sheen' of highs and less "crunch" or "edginess" in the highs. Midrange and bass sounded the same. Like I said it wasn't huge difference, but there was a difference. I preferred the film cap sound.
I liked the Crack so much I also built an Eros phono stage. The Eros is a great phono stage, just like the Crack is a wonderful little headphone amp. And the Bottlehead kits are fun to build.
Crack, white lacquer color scheme
Eros, also in white