I will do that!
Some of those solder joints look downright ugly. I’d reflow anything that looked suspect, may save yourself issues down the line. The person that soldered the IEC connector is clearly not the same person that soldered the capacitor.
I second (or third) the solder joints. Post pics of all solder joints so we can look at them (this is what the BH forum will ask so just go ahead and take the pics). Honestly I’d go through and fix all of them as a matter of good hygiene.
Agreed looking at the picture above the solder joints on the headphone connector are horrid, and it was clearly done by 2 builders.
Yeah the joints on the PSU caps look horrid af. And those aren’t the stock caps so it’s possible they used the wrong value. For reference the stock are 220 uF and 250 volts.
Ok nevermind, yours are the same values. The joints are still shitty though lol.
Yeah, you guys are totally right. I had in mind to resolder everything that looks crappy tomorrow and see what it does.
And I guess you are right with the two people. The guy I bought it from had an XLR jack in it and soldered the 6.3mm jack in. And I guess he had someone to build it for him in the first place coz i found a few notes on the manual that show this.
The likelihood of reflowing solder fixing your issue is pretty high.
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I hope so! I will keep you guys updated in the process. Have already registered to the Bottlehead forum aswell.
I don’t see anything blatantly obvious but I see a lot of suspects. Just reflow them all. And wick or suck the blobs away - they may be hiding a bad joint. Oh and ask BH for a copy of the wiring diagram to confirm everything is where it should be.
Pic 5: there should be a total 4 diodes crisscrossing connections back and forth across the terminal strip. I see two of them but not the other two. Are there 2 more hiding behind the blue cable?
Here’s a pic of the diodes I’m talking about:
Check out this page - it has a ton of pics of a build:
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You also should have the tabs of the RCA input connected to one another (signal ground) they look not to be connected in those pics. A lot of suspect soldering point, like very poor so as already stated, clean them up, suck up all the old solder and reflow it. For the most part there was someone that knew what they were doing on a lot of the weld joint but it looks like someone went back at some point to “upgrade” and really went and some of the connections way too many times. The base of the tabs 4 & 5 in your second to last picture (ending in 215916) look exceptionally poor.
So ive checked the diodes and they are all there. The blue cable is hiding them.
I have reheated many solderjoints today and tried what i could to fix some of the bad solderjoints on the headphone jack and in the build in general. I guess they are better now, but it hasnt changed anything. Found a few other issues aswell, a cable fell off as i touched it, one connection on another cap broke but i fixed all of it with no result. I switched the resistors on the headphonejack from left to right but the crackling remained left. I also applied that diode mod for the ground pin of the powerconnector but it didnt do something.
@db_Cooper I connected the tabs of rca inputs, they were not connected. Changed nothing.
Did all sorts of tests today, touching all the solderjoints , tilting the tube etc, nothing helped. On thing i noticed is that the tube socket of the 6080 has some “bit” loose pins. I tested if it changes anything if i push them more inside the socket while the crack was running, but nothing.
Have made a post in the bottlehead forum aswell.
The previous owner sends me 2 new caps that he has left to test ( the silver ones).
That is a soundfile of the noise it makes.
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I know you’ve probably tried this, ensure your cellphone isn’t anywhere near it and ensure your no where near a wifi router. It’s not usually an issue on the Crack, but the filaments in a tube can act as antenna’s, and pick up RF Noise, though that doesn’t sound like the Wifi noise I’ve heard on other devices.
I assume you’ve also left it on for 20 minutes to see if it goes away? Valves sometimes make a lot of noise while warming up, but again the longer white noise bursts don’t really sound like that.
The odds are it’s still a bad connection somewhere, I’d at least do the voltage checks in the manual to confirm those. Hopefully the BHC forum can be more helpful.
Do let us know if you do track it down.
Ive shut down my router, my phone, unplugged my pc and everything to try this out. Doesnt change anything. And i lef it running for hours, it doesnt go away. I guess its like you say, it still has some bad connection somewhere.
Hmmm…yup, as mentioned, you need to check voltages to see what’s what. I still suspect a bad solder joint as those seem to be like 99% of problems with Crack but who knows, it’s possible there’s a bad component somewhere.
Extremely informative thread, following along to see the results of this crackling issue 
Best of luck!
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Hopefully nothing was over heated. Crackling can be a burnt volume pot too.
I have to find out over time. I have posted in the Bottlehead forum and the Bottlehead man said that there is much wrong with my build and that I should sent it back, which is unfortunately impossible. So I have to take my time and try to fix it for myself. Since I can’t sent It back I see it as a project to learn something. I will go on to resolder more connections first.
I will probably try to get wires/ caps/ resistors/volume pot etc that have the same specs as the ones used in the kit and rewire everything If nothing else helps.
Should find similar grade stuff in here in germany aswell…