English Crack

[ccoolliinn]

My first home build of any hifi after years of interest. The build was very straight forward and great fun. I started with the case which i kept simple with just a clean up and rounding of the edges and ten coats of clear varnish. I tried to make the wiring as neat as possible routing some wires to give a more pleasing look. The base plate was going to be painted but liked the brushed look when the kit arrived so left well alone.
The Crack has now been running for a while and with my Beyerdynamic T90 headphones comparing it with my Bayerdynamic A20 amp and are very pleased with the results. The next job is the Speed ball but i going to enjoy the Crack as it is for a while first.  Front end was Arcam CD37 and Chord Anthem II cable.                                                                     

 

[Doc B]

Very nicely done.

 

[grausch]

That is some nicely done wiring. Are those stock or upgraded RCA jacks?

 

[ccoolliinn]

Hi. They are the stock ones from the kit as is everything else.

 

[grausch]

Then Bottlehead included some nicer RCA jacks while still keeping the price low. Enjoy your listening. The Crack is something special...

 

[richmi]

Very neat and clean build!

 

[Grainger49]

Nice work!  The wires are neatly dressed.  Shoot!  I even wish I had your handwriting skills.

 

[akis]

Nice work.

Can't wait for mine to arrive. I haven't soldered for some 25 years - looking forward to it.

When will we get a UK power cord option?

 

[ccoolliinn]

Not sure if the same wire could be used in the UK with the different voltage.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

That's a great looking build!

The Euro power cord kit is an interesting idea, I'll have to float that one by the chief.

Cracks do now come with nicer jacks, free of charge.

 

[BigAl954]

That really is a nice neat job and good dressing of the wiring.
I'm a bit of a stickler for good cable dressing and taking time to do a build , so well done.

 

[goozy]

Congrats, nice one.

 

[ccoolliinn]

As a first upgrade i decided to replace the output caps before fitting the speedball.

Some rerouting of wires was required to keep a neat look. :-\

Only had a chance to run one cd through it so far but there is improvement. 

 

[kekoukela]

Wow. Nice way to add on the caps!

 

[ccoolliinn]

The Crack is now finished with Speedball added. This has been a very enjoyable build and i am very pleased with the final results. What a great product you have here, a match for any £1000 ready made amp. I wish i could build one of the other amps but my speakers would not like tubes (PMC Twenty 23)

 

[kekoukela]

How did you drill a hole through the crack without damaging the components? Also, the cap holders, am I correct in assuming that the metal post doesnt come into contact with the chassis?

 

[ccoolliinn]

To awnser your first question very carefully  .

The mounting screw and post are isolated.

 

[grausch]

haha...I've also got some very careful drilling to do.

 

[kekoukela]

Haha. Nice. Well then another question. What drill/drill bit did you use? I want to make the hole for the headphone jack bigger because i want to add a neutrik jack instead. But I'm not sure on how to go about it.

 

[ccoolliinn]

Haha. Nice. Well then another question. What drill/drill bit did you use? I want to make the hole for the headphone jack bigger because i want to add a neutrik jack instead. But I'm not sure on how to go about it.

The screws for the posts were 4 mm thread so I used a 5 mm bit, sorry I don't know the imperial size.