Bottlehead Crack Headphone amps going on sale
ALL212
Posts: 1,273
in Headphones
Starting this Saturday, May 5th, thru Friday, May 11th the Crack headphone amp kit for high impedance headphones will be on sale for $199 ($100 off the regular price) and the Speedball upgrade kit will be on sale for $100 ($25 off the regular price).
Aaron
Enabler Extraordinaire
Enabler Extraordinaire
Comments
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Did you buy another....?“If your eyes didn’t water, it means I didn’t go deep enough” says the nurse administering my COVID19 test. She was sweet...
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Curious about these kits. Can anyone classify the sound and maybe list some other prior gear for comparison and how the Crack/Speedball compares?
I'm thinking about building one and sending it to Mark B. to audition.I disabled signatures. -
Did you buy another....?
Darn tempting... I've got one sitting on a shelf now unused so I'm not real sure where this one would go!Curious about these kits. Can anyone classify the sound and maybe list some other prior gear for comparison and how the Crack/Speedball compares?
I'm thinking about building one and sending it to Mark B. to audition.
If you hit up the Bottlehead forum you'll get a better picture. I've built every headphone amp Bottlehead offers but other than built in headphone amps I've really not much to compare these to. You'll need high impedance cans to use on these.
Roughly speaking:
Without speedball very "tuby" very pleasant.
With Speedball a bit less tuby and precise, still very pleasant. You can use a wider range of tubes with the speedball.
Some guys have put the speedball in and like the non-speedball sound better. They are few and far between but it's an easy mod to pull it back out.Aaron
Enabler Extraordinaire -
You could start a Bobblehead store. I mean Bottlehead.Make yourself necessary to someone. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Salk SoundScape 8's * Audio Research Reference 3 * Bottlehead Eros Phono * Park's Audio Budgie SUT * Krell KSA-250 * Harmonic Technology Pro 9+ & Pro 11+ * Signature Series Sonore Music Server w/Deux PS* Twisted Pear Buffalo III Dual Mono ESS Sabre32 DAC * Heavy Plinth Lenco L75 Idler Drive * AA MG-1 Linear Air Bearing Arm * AT33PTG/II & Denon 103R * Richard Gray 600S * NHT B-12d subs * GIK Acoustic Treatments * Sennheiser HD650 * -
I went for it.
How far from stock is/are your Crack(s) at this point, Aaron?Jay
SDA 2BTL * Musical Fidelity A5cr amp * Marantz DV-9500 * Modded Adcom GDA-600 DAC * Rythmik F8 (x2)
Micro Seiki DQ-50 * A hodgepodge of cabling * Belkin PF60
Preamp rotation: Krell KSL (SCompRacer recapped) * Manley Shrimp * PS Audio 5.0 -
Oh.... far. If you’re planning on non-stock I can give you advice on what works (you can hear it) and what doesn’t make much differenceAaron
Enabler Extraordinaire -
Cool. Suspect I will build it stock for starters, do it w/o Speedball initially, etc. as they suggest.
Likely won't get to building until the school year is over.Jay
SDA 2BTL * Musical Fidelity A5cr amp * Marantz DV-9500 * Modded Adcom GDA-600 DAC * Rythmik F8 (x2)
Micro Seiki DQ-50 * A hodgepodge of cabling * Belkin PF60
Preamp rotation: Krell KSL (SCompRacer recapped) * Manley Shrimp * PS Audio 5.0 -
If you need help - even on the stock build - just whistle.
Check over pictures on the BH forum for build ideas. The biggest issue is thinking through what you'll do if you replace the 100uf caps. They big - box is not.Aaron
Enabler Extraordinaire -
I'll shoot you a PM anon. My order is still 'processing' so no hurries just yet.Jay
SDA 2BTL * Musical Fidelity A5cr amp * Marantz DV-9500 * Modded Adcom GDA-600 DAC * Rythmik F8 (x2)
Micro Seiki DQ-50 * A hodgepodge of cabling * Belkin PF60
Preamp rotation: Krell KSL (SCompRacer recapped) * Manley Shrimp * PS Audio 5.0 -
I keep hoping/waiting they will have a holiday sale like this one soon..
I am ready to pull the trigger.. -
I think 15% off almost everything shortly. I’ll see if I saved the emailAaron
Enabler Extraordinaire -
Fortunately, I can resist headphone amplifiers
I really don't like wearing nor listening to headphones.
Can't resist much of anything else, though
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From the email:
Black Friday? How about Gray Thursday!
Nearly every product will be 15% off on Thursday November 22nd and Friday November 23rd (does not include repair service, parts or Jäger Speakers). the sale will start at 12:01 a.m. PT on Thursday and go until midnight Friday.
They have things other than headphone amps there also...
Aaron
Enabler Extraordinaire -
This also in the email:
A new way to order kits next year
Beginning in 2019 we will shift to a different way of producing our premium kits. Each kit other than the Crack headphone amp and upgrade kits will be offered for a limited order period a few times each year. For example, we may open a week long order window for Kaiju amps in, say, February, and maybe have an order window for BeePre preamps in March, and so on, much as we do now with the Jäger loudspeaker kit. This will allow us to more efficiently handle the order processing and hopefully keep the delivery period from stretching out as it does sometimes with our current system. We haven't yet worked out the details of which kit will be offered when. As soon as we do work that out we will let everyone know on the website and via the newsletter so that you can plan out your purchases for the year.
The Crack amp will not be limited like this, nor will upgrade kits. They will be available to order throughout the year and ship at the usual 4 or so week backlog.
If you wish to avoid the possibility of waiting a few months before being able to order any of the premium kits you can take advantage of the upcoming Gray Thursday and Black Friday sale. Those orders will be shipping beginning in early January 2019.
Aaron
Enabler Extraordinaire
