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- #Bottlehead amp review mod#
- #Bottlehead amp review upgrade#
- #Bottlehead amp review mods#
- #Bottlehead amp review crack#
Some may scoff at the use of bypass on the AN output caps and TBH I was dubious myself but thought what the hell. Looks great IMO with the black paint job and polished gold volume knob I’ve fitted.
#Bottlehead amp review mods#
In fact, I think the RCA is probably the most “HI-FI” sounding 12xx7 I’ve ever heard, but perhaps a bit Marmite to others.ĭetailed here are the more specialist mods I’ve made. Rich, fat, lush and involving or super balanced and detailed with astonishing extension respectively.
#Bottlehead amp review crack#
I have a slew of 12AU7’s (ECC82) that have been tested through this Crack now and could go on about how each one sounds, but I’m not going to (another article for the future perhaps), needless to say, I have settled on either a Mullard (Blackburn) Short Grey Plate or an RCA 5963 Long Black Plate depending on the mood. I also swapped out the supplied 6080 power tube for the wonderfully detailed and far sexier looking ‘Svetlana Winged C 6AS7G 6H13C Black Plates’ courtesy of the guys over at Watford Valves. Personally, I love the Elna Silmac but unfortunately, these can’t be bought as a 160v version so AN is my second choice. The truth in that statement I wouldn’t know, as I don’t think I’ve ever knowingly heard some before. I’ve read the bumph and these are supposedly the closest you can get to the renowned Black Gates. The pot is an Alps blue I had replaced early on, during the ANK work.Īn initial change to the original kit-supplied parts was to swap out the original 100uf 160v electrolytic output capacitors with the excellent AN Kaisei Electrolytic. I had this left over from the E元4 build and I’m using it here to connect the input RCA sockets to the volume pot. (Love this stuff)Īs you can see from the pictures, the initial build includes a piece of the rather excellent IMO ‘Yarbo Audio pure silver interconnect’. As ever, everything is glued together with AN 6% Silver Solder. You can find the fairly long detailed story of that journey further down the Blog if you’re interested (‘Modding an ANK E元4 Level 4 C-Core – A journey down the rabbit hole’). In this initial build, I included a couple of bits I had left over from my earlier ANK E元4 build and modding journey. TBH, it looked just like the pics on the Bottlehead website anyway.
![bottlehead amp review bottlehead amp review](https://aws1.discourse-cdn.com/business6/uploads/headphones/original/2X/2/2e74bcae4aa30f0fbc44a962d7031e9ec20e7ba7.jpeg)
Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of the kit pre-Speedball.
#Bottlehead amp review upgrade#
See my first build images below, showing the kit with the Speedball upgrade fitted. As much to reflect the modest cost and budget nature of the Crack kit itself, why spend loads on tweaks when you could simply spend the money on something better in the first place. Also, a big thank you to the lovely Queen Eileen over the sea at Bottlehead HQ, who helped me out resolving some issues I was experiencing placing my order and for generally being lovely throughout the process. Thanks again Eileen…įor this build I have chosen to go with a slightly more modest approach to the modifications, trying where possible to keep the costs down overall.
#Bottlehead amp review mod#
As always big props go to the awesome guys here at .uk for the majority of the mod parts that I’ve used in the build. "Here we have details of my latest build and modding journey for the newest kit in my collection, the excellent Bottlehead Crack with Speedball Upgrade. This kit suits high impedance headphones. This kit is their all new output transformerless valve headphone amplifier featuring the double triode 6080 valve.
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In outline, US-based Bottlehead has been creating valve kits for some time and have a good following. reviewing the Bottlehead Crack Headphone Amplifier kit and detailing some of his very own tweaks. This blog post was sent in by a loyal customer, R.T.