Jeb Jeb
Member
Hi everyone,
I built a Crack with Speedball in 2015/2016. Soon after, I got into DIY speakers and didn't really have the desk space to keep the Crack set up permanently, so it has (sadly) remained in a box in my cupboard since then.
Today, I decided it was high time to give it another listen! Just pulling it out of the box and looking at it reminded me of all the happy memories of building it, learning new skills, talking to fellow builders, and the feeling of listening to music on it for the first time! I was completely new to DIY audio at the time, and I remember I received a lot of amazing help and encouragement from forum members and the fine people at Bottlehead. Returning to the forum today, it's great to see this community still thriving and so many people building these wonderful kits.
So, back to today: before turning it on, I decided to flip the amp over and have a look. The first thing I noticed is that in the 8 or 9 years since I last used it, the Mundorf film caps I installed have yellowed a lot. Is this just normal age related yellowing of the plastic covering rather than deterioration? The one that looks a bit funky is the central film cap that I used to replace the last electrolytic cap in the power supply, but again maybe it's just yellowing of the outer layers and the glue that holds the outer layer together?
I added a few photos below. The last photo is what they looked like during the build and modifications in 2016.
Thanks for your help (once again!)
2016:
I built a Crack with Speedball in 2015/2016. Soon after, I got into DIY speakers and didn't really have the desk space to keep the Crack set up permanently, so it has (sadly) remained in a box in my cupboard since then.
Today, I decided it was high time to give it another listen! Just pulling it out of the box and looking at it reminded me of all the happy memories of building it, learning new skills, talking to fellow builders, and the feeling of listening to music on it for the first time! I was completely new to DIY audio at the time, and I remember I received a lot of amazing help and encouragement from forum members and the fine people at Bottlehead. Returning to the forum today, it's great to see this community still thriving and so many people building these wonderful kits.
So, back to today: before turning it on, I decided to flip the amp over and have a look. The first thing I noticed is that in the 8 or 9 years since I last used it, the Mundorf film caps I installed have yellowed a lot. Is this just normal age related yellowing of the plastic covering rather than deterioration? The one that looks a bit funky is the central film cap that I used to replace the last electrolytic cap in the power supply, but again maybe it's just yellowing of the outer layers and the glue that holds the outer layer together?
I added a few photos below. The last photo is what they looked like during the build and modifications in 2016.
Thanks for your help (once again!)
2016:
