Great photo. 
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messing around with my camera, I have a bunch more but…it’s late time to head to bed, and this one was the best of the first two I imported from my camera
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Great picture. It Didn’t take long for you to become quite proficient with your camera.
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16 posts were merged into an existing topic: Taking Audio Gear Pictures - Cameras, Tricks & Techniques
Nice shot!
Looks to me like you finally got a chance to put your 20mm f/1.7 to use …
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God label that NSFW! Have some decency man!
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Looking forward to your thoughts on the Clears!
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Interesting, BH recommends 120 ohms or greater for use with the Crack…but if your enjoying the results that’s great, your the first guy I have run into that really likes the pairing with a fairly low impedance headphone…
Alex
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Ha, I almost never used my Clears with the Crack lol, mostly at that time just my HD800(sdr mod). I now use most,y my ZMF collection on the Bottlehead Crack =)
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I use my Crack with Speedball with HD 600’s this and the Schitt Vahalla 2 are some of the best pairings I have heard…with the Clears is real muddy bass on the low end…
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Yeah, there is something “magical” with the Sennheisers and Bottlehead Cracks … I love my HD800 with my Crack +SB! It is the only reason I haven’t moved the HD800 along to be honest…hmmm…goes to headphone case and pulls HD800 out to listen to it with Crack
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My Crack with speed is dead silent at the highest volume level. The folks at BH will help if needed. Checking the solder joints is a a good idea, nice and shiny etc…wires should be crimped tightly around the terminal, tab etc before soldering, the key here is solder alone doenst cut it all the time, a good mechanical joint then solder applied well is the secret…
The Crack’s tube sockets are IMO a weak point. Its not a bad thing sonically, but many people swap out tubes looking for that perfect NOS tube…this removal and insertion moves the pins around the base of the socket, and things that are not soldered well or with no “strain” relief can over time crack and even break, especially those small red leds you have to install in the socket space…
You can post some clear pix at BH and Paul and the guys will look and offer some assistance…
Good luck should be fairly easy to track down…
Alex
My crack has the speedball mod, and I was worried about upsetting the sound etc, but it does indeed improve the overall sound quality of the original Crack design.
The biggest thing in installing this fairly simple mod is knowing how to remove already soldered parts and install the ugrade. Making a good mechanincal connection first then soldering with a hot iron and using some flux and the right amount of solder…it takes practice to do this well. Less heat is worse than too little, but the parts your soldering can be damaged by excessive heat, so it is a learning experience.
That said, I almost never use my Clears with the Crack…its just not a good pairing or what the amp was designed to do well, for that there is the Mainline which drives the Clears very well.
The CCS speedball circuit:
Bottlehead lists the Speedball as a Camille Cascode Constant Current Source (C4S) design, originally created by the late John Camille (known as Buddha in audio circuit design circles).
“It puts a very high (several Megaohms) impedance load on the plate of the gain stage and the cathode of the follower stage… Two small Camille Cascode Constant Current Sources are installed in place of the plate load resistors on the 12AU7 input triodes, and two big and beefy ones complete with heatsinks are installed in place of the cathode load resistors of the 6080 triodes.” – [Doc B]
Bottlehead that “the improvement is easily heard” and makes the Crack “quicker, more quiet, [with] better mids, better bass, better resolution.” In more technical terms, the constant current improves isolation of the power supply by about 60dB and keeps the tube in a more linear operating state as it approaches clipping. Read this as reducing distortion.
Its worth installing but dont do it for sevearal weeks so you can appreciate the original sound etc.
Also its not easy to install and have it be in or out with a simple switch. If you dont like it its easy to uninstall and put back the 4 resistors back in the circuit.
Some folks have 2 Cracks, one with and one without SB!
Alex
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I really like the Black & Red of the Pros. Super sexy…
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Yeah I always think Deadpool. If he was into audio he’d rock these. Haha
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