Crack Magnum

C

crackuser

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I have to put on some feet to finish. But its running and sounding good and breaking in.  
Here are the changes:
1.Panel custom made by Front Panel Express for the 12sn7 tubes, Nutrick Headphone Jack, and Dac 23 step Volume Control. Adjustments also made for Speedball board. They were spot on in there measurements. Good job FPE!
2.Variable Volt D.C. Filament Regulator by Pete Millet.
3. Choke across power supply caps
4. AmpOhm .22 uf Paper in Oil, Copper Foil Capacitor
5. 15 volt 1 amp Transformer
6. 10,000 hour Panasonic 220uf Power Supply Caps
7. Russian Flying Wing 6H13C and Phillips Miniwatt Black Glass 12sn7gt.
8. Special thanks to Mr. JB Weld
9. And to whomever invented shrink tubing
Edit:Added Dynamicap 1uf across last P.S. Capacitor
Edit:Took the Dynamicap back out. That didn't work.
Edit:Bypassed last two power supply caps with Russian P.I.O caps. Seems like those made the music sound a little bit more dynamic and worked better than the Dynamicaps in this location. The effect is subtle so it could be the placebo effect.











 
Thanks, I tried this time to make a good looking build. It is starting to smooth out but I still have a bit of a "bite or crispyness " I guess I will call it in voices that are not smooth. Singers like Charlotte Church, Aron Neville, Katie Malua who have a smooth voice sound good but others like Tom Waites, Bob Dylan(Modern Times), still need some smoothing.(60 hours burn in time) As far as all the instruments, they sound great. Every tube amp I have had though its the gravely voices that have the hardest time to be reproduced to my liking.
I am experimenting tonight with a couple Russian .22 PIO's I have lying around as bypass caps in the last 2 caps in the power supply. If the AmpOhm caps smooth out enough I can stack them around the Ampohms. I kept the bypass cap area open for big caps if needed so I used standoffs and JB Weld(to keep holes out of the top plate) and stacked everything in the back over the crack transformer.
 Right now I am listening to Joe Walsh's  "I like big tits". (Forum moderator, it really is a name of a song!!)  Back to listening!
 
nub said:
What did you use to stain the wood? 
Click to expand...

I used a gun stock finishing kit by Birchwood Casey. If you use it may I suggest that you use a sanding block to keep from digging in to the wood if done by hand and also put on the true oil part of it on in a thin a coat as you can and wait overnight between coats to minimize streaking. The dark areas on the side of the amp that you see is from sanding by hand and digging in. You cant see it with bare wood but the true oil really makes it stand out. Other than that it does leave a nice finish.
 
The speedball board sure did tighten up the bass. Before I installed it I was equalizing the bass as it was to much bloom. Not any more, its tight and sounds good. It is starting to sound warm now to, the tube heaven.  80 hours on.
 
150 hours on and its sounding great except I can hear enough to know that I would like to change the output caps. But still Ray Charle's "Genius Loves Company" sounds really good regardless of the electrolytic's. Now I have to figure out what to get.

My wife says "You don't fish, drink or hunt, so fix this amp up like you want it." I am going to take full advantage of that statement!

Edit:Well I got 4 Obbligato 70uf Film in oil to be bypassed with the Ampohm. I think I can get another case from Bottlehead and double stack them with some half-round in between them to hold the top part in place.
 
Holy moly... you may as well just drill 4 big holes into the side of the case and mount them that way so you can use them as handles!
 
Burni'n in.  

kestis.jpg

Sounds really good already with only a few hours on it. Each side is 140uf Obbligato film and oil caps and bypassed with a Ampohm 2.2 Aluminum in Oil and Ampohm .22 Copper in oil.

Edit: 100hours on. I sure am glad I got the 2.2uf Capacitors. The film and oil caps sound kinda anemic without them. It sounds smooth and the squirley metallic new sound of the caps is gone. Good recorded material like "Blue Moon" by the Mavericks or Chris Isaaks "Wicked Game" sound fantastic. Best that I have ever heard, but I admit, my listening time with Tube headphone Amps is very limited. These caps cost almost as much as the kit with the speedball, but to me it was well worth it. Now on to figuring out a box design to hold it all.

 
I kind'a like this suggestion.  But it isn't my amp.  Funny, but maybe not practical.

Armaegis said:
Holy moly... you may as well just drill 4 big holes into the side of the case and mount them that way so you can use them as handles!
Click to expand...
 
What a great bunch of suggestions guys! But what I was thinking of doing was putting one of the big caps in each corner, slap some nose cones and fins on them, grab some Estes engines and make me a rocket amp.
 
Then I could send in a suggestion to Mythbusters to find out if the urban myth that tube amps don't make good rockets holds up!
 
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