Hot-Rodded Crack

[HF9]

Finally finished with mine (mostly, I want to add a vintage pilot light at some point).

A pic of the inside. A few variations to the kit, including:

Cardas Rhodium RCAs
DACT 100k stepped attenuator
Kimber TCSS wiring
Kiwame Resistors
Neutrik Locking Plug
Obbligato 1uF Copper coupling caps (hidden under Speedball board)
Solen 100uF Capacitors
Teflon Tube Sockets
Woo Audio Tube Socket PCBs

Attached to the bottom are EAR feet for ample ventilation

Here's a photo of the bypass caps nestled under the vent holes. Do note that if you use these caps, the shell is conductive.

The whole shebang

Made especially for the kit is a 10 gauge power cable with Marinco plug, Right angle IEC and DHLabs power cable.

 

[Dr. Toobz]

The whole thing rocks, but the custom Bottlehead logo is way cool. Where did you get something like that?

 

[HF9]

Thanks! I have a friend in the promotional products business, I created a vector graphic for the badge with a nice vintage looking font and had him take care of the details. It's metal and has a nice weight to it.

 

[mrarroyo]

Hi Bryan, beautiful work as usual. If you should ever tire of the amp send me a PM (here at at HF).

 

[HF9]

Added a pilot light and a power bypass cap.

Tried to make this one look like a vintage photo in Photoshop.

 

[2wo]

That is way cool...John

 

[jrihs]

Hello...I'm very interested in finding some of your upgrade parts, but am having no luck. Like the Kimber wire (not on their site...gauge?) and the right angle IEC.  Also, What model #'s for the RCA's and teflon tube sockets and pot. I just ordered the crack and am too inmpatient to wait and see...Sorry bout all the questions, but I'm really close to ordering all the wrong parts or so I suspect.

Thanks!

 

[HF9]

Here's the Cardas RCAs: http://www.partsconnexion.com/product7459.html

The Kimber wire is 19 gauge TCSS: http://www.partsconnexion.com/wire_hookup_kimber.html

Right Angle IEC was Schurter: http://www.partsconnexion.com/shurter-70447img.html

The Teflon sockets I purchased on an auction site, but PartsConnexion should have them. Make sure to get the socket PCBs, otherwise soldering the 9 pin would be tricky.

 

[Bones13]

How did you place the nylon post next to the circuit board on the 9 pin socket?  I am looking to have to grind away some of the edge to seat the nylon post on the screw for the long speedball board?

Otherwise your setup has really helped me, being not well electronically trained.  Thanks!

 

[Thoburn]

Hi,

I love it. Beautiful amp. I would love to get one of your bottlehead logos. Is it something you could sell? Maybe Doc would offer them on his website. You could get royalties

 

[Raksasa]

Wow, your Crack is AWESOME  ;-)

Like the way you mounted the couplers, will do that in mine.
And that logo is just way cool.

Also the raised case looks great. Does it really help with ventilation ?
Great work.

John T
Australia

 

[HF9]

Thanks I'm sure having a little bit of extra room underneath can't hurt I used EAR feet if you are looking for a substitute to the stock feet. They sell them at PartsConnexion and Percy Audio

 

[HF9]

It's been a little while since I worked on the Crack, so I figured I would give it a fresh upgrade I managed to squeeze in a Solen 220uF film cap in the final electrolytic power cap location. I also took the time to bypass the other two power caps with a pair of low-cost Audiophiler 2.2uF film caps.

 

[tubeglow]

Wow. That's...uhh...big!

 

[steel]

Wow,

Great

 

[mrarroyo]

Bryan, that looks like a rocket on a platform ready to be deployed. How does it sound? If you ever tire of it let me know.

 

[Grainger49]

Congratulations, you now qualify for the Capacitor Junkie Club with me.

Those caps are monsters!  I love it!

 

[HF9]

Lol, that was my aim Grainger. There's nothing like fitting as much high quality capacitance as you can into a build

Thanks Miguel. The sound is even more silky smooth than before. I'm trying to consider if there's anything else left to try... maybe adding a choke to the power supply. I wonder where I can fit a Triad C7X, lol. I'll be sure to let you know when I get bored of it

 

[deltaunit]

Wow, that's some hotrod!

Are those Kiwame resistors in there? I'd be interested to know if you found them to be an improvement.

 

[HF9]

Those are Kiwame's alright. I didn't compare the stock resistors to the Kiwames in the Crack, but in previous experience, I tend to prefer them over other resistors. They sound a little more natural than the more "etched" sounding metal film. I tend to go out of my way to get the metal film resistors out of a build, but it takes a little more effort to replace them with carbon film because of the variances. Kiwames are usually within 1-2% of the specified value, but they don't always fit, so when you get generic carbon films they vary from plus or minus 5%, almost always falling on the minus side. I usually get a 10:1 ratio of these and only use the ones that fall close to 1%. Takmans are also an option, they make carbon films that are rated within 2%.