What a great sounding amp

[BNAL]

I have been listining to my amp for about a month now and must say that this is such a great bang for the buck headphone amp. I'm liking it better then my S.E.X. Amp with my Senn HD-650s. I have not installed the Speedball upgrade yet and can't immagine it improving the clean clear sound I'm getting, even thought I know it will.

The only changes I have made are adding a 2uF cap to the last electrolitic in the power supply, which made a very slight improvement. The biggest improvement has been replacing the EH 12AU7 with a French Mazda CIFTE 12AU7. This tube lifted a vail from the music I did not know was there until I put this tube in. I even  have a Mullard 4003 that I have not tried yet, because I'm enjoying this combination so well.

The next change is going to be the addition of Triad choke in the power supply. I'm hoping that this will make an improvement, but we will see.

Now back to the music.

 

[BNAL]

Just finished putting Triad choke in the amp. I put the choke on nylon standoffs and ran buzz wire to the grounding tab.  I can't wait to do some listening. So far all the changes I have made seem to have make an improvement. So not so big others more dramatic. I would say so far the biggest improvement, on this great sounding amp, has been the 12AU7 to a NOS Mazda or Mullard.

The reason that the bottom is black is because I painted the wrong side first.

 

[Doc B]

The reason that the bottom is black is because I painted the wrong side first.

You're supposed to say "the reason the bottom is black is because I want my amps to look as good under the chassis as on top."

Raise the bar, bro, raise the bar.

 

[BNAL]

I guess I'm to honest, but the bottom does look good.

I can't wait to install the speedball.

 

[Grainger49]

Brad,

I would have said the same thing as you did.  I probably would have painted the wrong side first, come to think of it, I painted the wrong side of my Seduction when I got it. 

 

[Noskipallwd]

Talkin' about honesty..., a friend recently asked me to drill out a top plate for a phonostage he was building. Got a new drillpress to replace my harbor fright one for christmas. Well, I finished and it dawned on me he was using tube shields and I made the holes to big! After cussing myself out I figured I would buy him a new plate, I had an idea then. Went to Lowes and bought some fender washers, drilled the right size hole in them and mounted them on the plate. When I returned it to him first thing he said was, "great idea using the risers for the tube shields they are cool." I debated whether to tell him the tuth, honesty won. He just laughed his butt off, I did have to admit they looked good.

Cheers,
Shawn P.

 

[magnafuzz]

I was in the same boat thinking that the crack couldn't sound much better than it did without the speedball.. until i installed the speedball. It really does sound very good.

I actually wish i painted the wrong side of my chassis plate now, it looks good.

 

[Grainger49]

We all have the same feelings about our equipment.  It sounds great and can't imagine it better.  Then we prove ourselves wrong. 

Too much fun to be legal!

 

[BNAL]

I just added 0.22uF Russian Teflon caps that I had lying around that I figured I would give a try. After burning them in for 3 weeks I finial got around to installing them. It is a tough thing trying to wait and let them burn in. I just put them in and have only made sure that everything works. I will sit down later and give the amp a good listen.

 

 

[Noskipallwd]

Brad, those caps look great, it almost looks like you installed a couple of Thrush mufflers on the Crack! Very interested to hear how the Russ. Teflons sound in the crack, please let us know. Great work.

Cheers,
Shawn

 

[BNAL]

I have a little time to listen with the Teflon caps bypassing the electrolytics. My initial impression is that the high mids to highs seem nice and open. I'm not sure that low mids down are as transparent as they were before. This could be due to more transparent in the upper mids to high end. I'm going to install the speedball and see what that does. I'm hoping that will be the ticket. I already have the board put together now I just need to wire them in.

 

[BNAL]

I just installed the speedball and everything works. I have a slight grounding hum in the right channel that I will need to work on. My guess is that it is a bad solder joint. I will have to work on it later and hopefully fix it the first time under the hood.

I can't wait to give it a good listen. 

 

[BNAL]

Well got rid of the hum. I'm not sure what was causing it. I think the the heater wiring around the 9 pin socket was causing it, so I rerouted it and reheated solder joints and that was the ticket.

Not sure if I will keep the Teflon caps. I need to try the amp without them connected and see if I can hear a difference.

This is what it looks like.

By the way that is my Extended Foreplay III the Crack is sitting on.

 

[BNAL]

It has been a few days since I made the changes to the amp and I'm starting to get a good feel for the sound. I'm currently using a Mullard 6080 and 4003. With this combinations and the Teflon bypass caps I'm hearing more detail as well that better sound stage and placement of people and instruments. I'm even hearing things in records I never noticed before, such as people talking in the studio.

Now before I installed the Speedball I had the Teflon caps in, but was finding that the high down to the high mids were wonderful. It was the mids to bass that was a problem for me. It sounded congested. Not in the sound stage as much as the being able to define a speration of instruments in the region.

I think that I can hold off for awhile now on mods, since I have RCA 6AS7G and TS 5998 tubes on order and can't wait to give them a try.