Crack on speed with Blue Balls!

[ALL212]

I think at some point in my life someone must have said to measure first...  I'm sure I forgot to note that as a wise thing to do. 

I replaced the power supply caps with matched Rubycons - they are longer and the one pointing out to the side barely fits.  Next revision I'll mount that one like the other two - straight up.  Input wiring is 2x21 Cardas, volume is Alps Blue, the sandcast power supply resistors replaced with Kiwame carbon film.  All high volt wires are 18g vampire wire and the rest are cloth wrapped 20g solid.  Once done I was pleasantly suprised that it worked immediately.  Not that the kit wasn't well done and the instructions were spot on but with changing of wires and components it's always somewhat of a challenge to keep things together.  1st power up was done with the stock output caps, a standard 6080 and 12au7.

Care to guess where the problems began?  Those big beautiful blue Clarity PX caps just don't fit.  So I ran leads out from underneath the cabinet and here we are.  Might not be a beauty but the sound is amazing!

6080 socket has a 1955 Chatham Electric JAN 6AS7G and the 12au7 socket a Valvo red label E80CC.  Still some work to be done.  It's just starting to warm up and I do my woodworking outside (big boss gets a bit upset when I do it in the living room...!).

 

[Grainger49]

Looking at the first picture I'm thinking to myself, where are the blue balls.  Then I scrolled down

I laughed!  I like it!  This is something I would do.  I think you have the Thrush mufflers beat.

 

[Laudanum]

I looked at those when considering film caps but I didnt think they would fit.  Guess I was right

 

[satbaba]

  Those big beautiful blue Clarity PX caps just don't fit.  So I ran leads out from underneath the cabinet and here we are.  Might not be a beauty but the sound is amazing!

where the capacitors are soldered?

 

[Laudanum]

I wonder about a seperate enclosure just for the output caps.  And some way to be able to easily connect and disconnect Crack from the "Cap enlcosure".  Could run just about any monster sized cap you wanted then.  Maybe recessed binding posts like used for speaker enclosures installed on both the Crack base and the Cap box.  That may be pretty cool.  Could even make a plexi or glass top for the cap box so you could see them.  Or a cap box that the Crack stacks on top of.  Im half joking here but, thinking about it, with the size of film caps pretty much increasing as the reputed quality (and associated cost) does, the sky would be the limit with an external enclosure to house them.  And you could easily seperate the units for more tweaking, modding or troubleshooting. 

 

[Doc B]

 

[Grainger49]

That would have a surge voltage that no one would worry about.

Do the "girls" come with it?

 

[Laudanum]

Ok, well maybe the cap enclosure idea wouldnt work so well with a pair of those  ... unless you wanted to build a cap silo

 

[ALL212]

The "flying" leads coming off of the terminal strip connect the caps.

  Those big beautiful blue Clarity PX caps just don't fit.  So I ran leads out from underneath the cabinet and here we are.  Might not be a beauty but the sound is amazing!

where the capacitors are soldered?

 

[ALL212]

I wonder about a seperate enclosure just for the output caps.  And some way to be able to easily connect and disconnect Crack from the "Cap enlcosure".  Could run just about any monster sized cap you wanted then.  Maybe recessed binding posts like used for speaker enclosures installed on both the Crack base and the Cap box.   That may be pretty cool.  Could even make a plexi or glass top for the cap box so you could see them.  Or a cap box that the Crack stacks on top of.   Im half joking here but, thinking about it, with the size of film caps pretty much increasing as the reputed quality (and associated cost) does, the sky would be the limit with an external enclosure to house them.  And you could easily seperate the units for more tweaking, modding or troubleshooting. 

That still might happen.  I've thought about slitting the cabinet so that the leads can be dropped through to the outside - then some kind of square "cup" to house them and keep them off of the table top.

 

[Laudanum]

You could always build a taller base for Crack.  They'd fit if they can clear the internals but if it needs to be too tall, it would probably look odd.

 

[Chris]

"Do the "girls" come with it?".... haha Yeah , what's up with the girls:?... haha I guess "sex" sells even in the world of giant capacitor rigs....

 

[Noskipallwd]

I hope that if the "Girls" are included, it's their daughters. Those two are probably a tad bit, um... Mature for me. The cap size is funny, Dr. Toobz put some 330uf electrolytics in his Crack to help drive the AKG K702s, with success he reported. I was thinking of using some Mundorf MKP 330uf caps I pulled from my Bijou, I took one look and said where the heck can I put these, sorta look like rocket pods on a attack chopper sitting on the sides.

Cheers,
Shawn

 

[HF9]

Haha, awesome. You might be able to try mounting them to the top of the chassis like this:

Just make sure to use rubber grommets where you drill the chassis so you don't inadvertently short the leads to ground.

...or just do what I do and mount them on standoffs and the chassis on long spikes

 

[Oberst Oswald]

HF9... Where did you get the Bottlehead name tag?  That tag sure adds class to your amp whereas the "Bottlehead Man" seems kind of corny to put on a finely finished amp.  Even though I might buy the "Bottlehead Man" tags I'd rather have ones like you have.  I checked the Bottlehead site for them but could not see where they are for sale.  Are you "on the in" on a future Bottlehead product?

 

[HF9]

I don't want to throw this thread off course, but I designed the badge and had a promotional products company make a couple for me for personal use. I had two proofs made at $150, and it would take quite a bit more cash to get them to churn more out unfortunately.

 

[Doc B]

That tag sure adds class to your amp whereas the "Bottlehead Man" seems kind of corny to put on a finely finished amp. 

Funny, in the past month I have had two different graphic designers tell me they love our logo. Never gonna please 'em all, I guess.

 

[Chris]

yeah true Doc... cant please us all.. I dont like it either , so when I get my planned 4 BH kits , i will probably design my own also, THAT is the fun of the customizing process!

 

[ALL212]

Update:
I had my brother make a new box for me and I then modified it so the caps can go inside.  This box isn't much taller but enough to get the caps in.  I used popsicle sticks to build a grid under the caps to hold them and then added some spikes for feet.  Just need to poly it a couple of times and we're done!