Bottlehead Reduction

mrbiron

It only took 8 weeks to get but its finally here! I was in the market for a couple budget phono pre's. I bought a Hagtech Bugle2 (going on 10 weeks undelivered) and the Reduction. Both have great reviews and are affordable.
My Reduction kit is currently underway and things seem to be going smooth. This is my first real solder job besides for the Samsung TV I saved last year with two blown caps. I bought the analog soldering station by Weller to replace the 40watt pencil that i had previously grabbed at rat shack. Night and day difference and well worth the investment.

After a couple hours work, I've managed to mount the RCA's, tabs, solder boards, transformer and started the wiring. Checked the PS with my cheapo voltmeter and so far so good. Hopefully I can get this wrapped up for the weekend. These will be my first tubes (6922s). Don't know what that means but oh well.

This will be the first step in upping the vinyl experience. Next will be a new TT. In the end, my plan is to compare the Bugle and reduction and keep the better.

More to come......

zingo

Have fun!

mhardy6647

Good luck - let "us" know if you need anything (up to and including a trial tt or cartridge) :-)

mrbiron

DSkip, I'll be honest with you, this thing is so idiot proof, my newborn could do it. Its just a matter of learning the iron. BH sends you a PDF instruction manual with detailed step by step process plus pictures. Otherwise, i would have never been able to touch it.

MHardy, i have your pm button as a quick link since you were the one that talked me off the ledge ( insert smiley face that may have a smidgen of confusion). I just wish Jim would ship the Bugle2 so that I could transition from one to the next!

mhardy6647

Oh, I am an enabler...

If the Bugle lags too long - I have an original Bugle you're more than welcome to borrow :-)
I would just have to find it in the post-move rubble...

mrbiron

I'm going to write Jim an email this afternoon. I had a conversation with him a couple weeks ago which he replied that he was on vacation and orders would ship shortly.
I will still give you an opportunity to try either or, or both when complete.

I thing the bugle build will be much easier than this as it is all on one board.

mhardy6647

But the real estate is tight on that Bugle PCB, isn't it? At least, it was, on the original version.

mrbiron

Yes, but that will keep out the riff raff. On the practice builds I did on small PCB boards, I found that putting in a bunch of resistors and bending the tabs was much easier than this p2p junk.

Just finished up the heater supply. Now I head onto the amplifier circuit starting with the ground buss. I'm on pace to finish by Friday.

drumminman

Way cool! I'd like to try one of these and have looked at Bottlehead stuff. They seem to be a solid company. Looking forward to your listening impressions.

mrbiron

My only comment if you're looking to try them out is to have patience. They only put the kits together when they have enough orders. I ordered mine on the 12th of august and received it last week. Their 3-4 week turnaround is BS. With that said, its still fun. If this turns out well, I may try out their monos but the kit is a little steep at $1600.

I'll post some more updates tonight.

Still havnt decided if i want to stain and poly, clear coat, or just paint the box. Decisions decisions...

mhardy6647

I've left all mine unfinished - I figure I do the least harm that way :-)

mrbiron

That's the most sound advice I've seen on this forum to date!

mrbiron

That's the most sound advice I've seen on this forum to date!

camaroguy

Hi mrbiron, I built the Reduction a few months ago and my first impressions were not that great. It had a lot of hiss on one channel with lower output on same channel. It turned out to be the tubes they sent with my kit, when I swapped the tubes side to side the hiss and lower output swapped sides also. A friend sent me a pair of Amperex 7308's from the 60's and all I can say is OMG! I hope you have better luck with the supplied tubes, but I suggest you look into the world of 6922 and 7308 tubes to see what's available (just in case you need to upgrade). I'm waiting on the constant current upgrade for it now and can't wait to put it in to see how much better this phono preamp can sound. In the end I think you will be very happy with it. Hope this helps, camaroguy.

mrbiron

All done! It only took 3 pints of beer and one de-solder, due to a spare part at the finish line, to finish this up.
Now I just have to stain and poly the box and wait for a set of cables from Doug and we're in business!!

Fun little project so far.

mhardy6647

Cool e-nuff! Congratulations... it's fun to roll your own! It looks great.

FYI, I can gladly spot you a couple of 'good' 6922s to try if whatever came with the preamp aren't up to your expectations ;-)

mrbiron

Let me try these out first. Then, I will let you know.

mrbiron

So, its finally finished it. Well, I actually finished it last weekend but I had to finish the box. A simple cherry stain and a couple of coats of poly. That is all. Now I'm in the process of checking all readings. The problem is, my junky little multimeter sucks so I'm heading out to get a better one. (Can't afford a fluke) The initial readings were all over the place and started to scare me.

I'll report back after I've troubleshooted the whole thing.