Bottlehead Crack

Wesley · November 22, 2020, 2:36am

I bought my 12AU7 from this guy. He posts the measurements he gets. Lets you pick what you want.

Hazi59 · November 22, 2020, 2:40am

I actually don’t care for the RCA clear top. It lacks bass impact and sounds way too solid-state like for my preferences.

marcgii · November 22, 2020, 2:46am

Thanks, I’ll definitely check him out. I haven’t come across him before yet.

Yeah that seems to be a common complaint with that particular tube.

Souldriver · November 22, 2020, 5:58am

Small steps forward. I scraped off as much extra glue as i could and put in some finishing screws to help hold it as the glueing wasnt as tight as i prefer. Here is a pic using some Naptha to bring out the grain and spot rogue glue. The random light spots are glue.

Tomorrow ill be doing a final sanding before i bring it in for spraying.

db_Cooper · November 22, 2020, 3:09pm

That’s actually pretty nice grain on that. They’re usually not as pronounced.

Souldriver · November 22, 2020, 3:28pm

Thats the naptha wipe down popping it out

Souldriver · November 22, 2020, 9:36pm

Here are some more pics after i sanded away the last of the glue this afternoon.
Here you can see it 100% dry

Here is it after i wiped it down to clean the sawdust and dried a little. The grain always dries last. I hope that means the black will go into there the most and define it more.

Souldriver · November 23, 2020, 7:05am

I went to finally download the crack manual and the speedball manual.

Both say ive hit my download limit. Which is funny since i have not downloaded them once.

A_Jedi · November 23, 2020, 1:43pm

I had the same thing happen to me. Just email Bottlehead.

Wesley · November 24, 2020, 11:26pm

A_Jedi · November 25, 2020, 12:22am

Crap I wonder if Mainline’s on sale. That may be too much temptation.

FBizzle · November 27, 2020, 4:24pm

So it does work on the Mainline. Save $194.85.

A_Jedi · November 27, 2020, 4:31pm

Yeah I noticed that will have to wait till next year though…I bought some pricey cans.

Hazi59 · December 3, 2020, 3:53pm

It’s officially been 1 month since I received my Bottlehead Crack Speedball. The stain and paint both have settled well and darkened slightly…it looks even better now IMO.

After tons of listening time, I can say without a doubt that my favorite tube combos are the Bendix 6080WB with the Matsushita 12AU7, or the Mullard CV2984 with the Brimar CV4003.

Anybody that owns a Sennheiser HD650 or HD600…the Bottlehead Crack should be a mandatory purchase, lol.

db_Cooper · December 4, 2020, 5:22pm

It is really where the name crack comes from! There’s just a certain magic that happens. Like having a piece of chocolate with a glass of port. Or sharing a bottle of liebfraumilch and a quart of spicy Szechuan beef. Or a good stilton with a schmere of fig jam on a water cracker. Magic combinations that you just can’t mess with, regardless of the price.

This post made me hungry.

Souldriver · December 5, 2020, 11:24am

Pizza and beer

Nick_Mimi · December 5, 2020, 9:37pm

Let me know when you get upgraditis please. Along with some favorite tubes. You had a really solid build and good looking amp made:+1:

db_Cooper · January 4, 2021, 4:07pm

BTC w/speedball. Where would the unity gain lvl be at for this? Using an Alps Blue Velvet pot.

I had a brainstorm of an idea that I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of before. Will be feeding the BHC SE out from my Freya +. Additional bonus is that I get a remote control volume out of it and don’t have to fiddle with changing switches or cables from the DAC.

A_Jedi · January 5, 2021, 3:34pm

I haven’t seen unity mentioned anywhere - you’d need to ask on the BH forum. I did however used to have the volume on my Crack bypassed when I was using a Saga as a preamp. If you want to do that, I can tell you the resistor values you need to use.

db_Cooper · January 5, 2021, 3:38pm

I’d like that just to have as an option. maybe I can even wire it up as something that I can remove and install with spades so I can have the option.