One month ago I received a Bottlehead Crack kit, and posted a box shot above.
It seems I may have received a new old stock model from the ancestor to the current Bottlehead company. It turned out to be a vintage 1921 Cabezal de Botella model Fissure!?! I’m guessing this was the headphone amplifier favored by Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Herbert Hoover, Winston Churchill, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Babe Ruth, and F. Scott Fitzgerald to power their Sehnsucht model DCL headphones.
I somehow received an ultra rare Lengua del Diablo volume knob too.
And finally, the requisite glam shot! A Trader Joe’s bag behind a step stool communicates nothing but luxury. Bokeh, bokeh, bokeh!!!
Build photos and comments to be presented in another thread. It works fine, with no Bola de Velocidad yet or perhaps ever. I have the upgrade kit but don’t know if it’s needed or desired. Sound comments will also be presented in another thread. Starting with natural black walnut wood dye leads in a certain aesthetic direction.
You put this together much quicker than you initially led on - nice work!
Thanks. I pushed myself to FINISH! Upon looking over the parts I realized this is not a beginner’s kit, nor a kit for those who cannot follow instructions, nor for those who do not respect high voltage, nor for the faint hearted. It taps a wide variety of craft and technical skills, and if I didn’t push myself I’d find excuses for ages. Also, the cosmetics are the first steps. You have to decide on the metal finish before getting started on assembly or the electrical steps. The wood has to compliment the metal.
I spent probably 2x or 3x the hours on wood and metal as on assembly and soldering. I’ll say a lot more in a build post.
sweet. Please report back with your thoughts once you get some listening in!
Been using the signature for a while now. The best way that I can briefly describe this is the how it seemingly lack any sense of congestion or compression to the music. This is most apparent when switching back to my other dacs like RME and Bifrost. It has an uncanny ability to seemingly separate and render each instrument within the mix regardless of how congested or busy the track gets. Hands down the best dac I’ve heard granted I’ve not heard many dacs especially in this price range.
It’s here … had to unbox it right away - it’s soooo tiny … What a coincidence that Nike has the matching shoes 
It even makes my 40% board look big, let alone the HIP DAC!
OK, we’ll wait for the ifi Buck Eye Edition.
It’s really loud, and difficult to mute.
Can you dumb down for me why I would need or want “converter transformers” to go from XLR to RCA rather than a simple adapter? I understand why you would want a converter to go from single ended to balanced, but not the other way around. I currently have the xlr out of my Bifrost feeding the RCA in on my Lyr 3 with a simple adapter and it works just fine.
I asked Schiit about this last year and their reply was “It’s not safe to use XLR-RCA for any purpose. I would highly advise against that. Use RCA and/or XLR but no conversion cables.”
Interesting. Thanks
I was able to pick up a new accessory today for my audio chain, I must say it was quite exciting to be able to bring it home today and start using it right away.
It is has great blackground, and it allows the music to play in a very open space. My music chain is 150% more holographic sounding, and the 3-D effect makes me feel like I am there as the artist intended.
I am really smitten with this thing, had to post and share with everyone as it would be selfish of me to keep it a secret:
Definitely a TOTL accessory for cheap
Somehow, I think we all would have managed fine without knowing this… secret. 
I’m telling you this black spacious accessory is killer, a must have for any serious hobbyist
I see those of us who couldn’t make it to CanJam this weekend are finding other ways of amusing ourselves… 
Saw a deal on these at amazon and couldn’t resist. 
The Senn “veil” collection is now complete. 
To quote @chrisnyc75 from a conversation on the Tubes Talk thread: “ Valhalla 2 is certainly a better price-to-value ratio for your first ‘dipping your toes in the water’ with tubes… BUT you’re going to end up with a Pendant eventually anyway, so sometimes it makes sense to jump right to endgame.”
Well, yes…
A great amp and a great record behind it! (I’m also a fan of the Russian fiction)