Bottlehead Forum

Bottlehead Kits => Legacy Kit Products => Smack => Topic started by: keto on April 03, 2013, 07:22:00 PM

Title: new smack!
Post by: keto on April 03, 2013, 07:22:00 PM
Hey all,

I just finished up a Smack kit (thanks Jim!) and hooked it up as a pre-amp using a 1/4" jack-to-mini and mini-rca-pair kludge.

The kludge is so funky that I have to wiggle it into the right position to get both channels working. But, whoa! a) it works and b) it sounds fabulous!

I'll be making some unbalanced xlr-to-rca cables for pre-amp-function and leaving the 1/4" connection on the front of the chassis for cans. And I'll leave the balanced output wiring in place, in case I come across some balanced cans.

Saludos!
Title: Re: new smack!
Post by: xcortes on April 04, 2013, 01:49:52 AM
Welcome back from the dead.
Title: Re: new smack!
Post by: keto on April 04, 2013, 04:41:24 AM
Hahaha, good to be back!
Title: Re: new smack!
Post by: Grainger49 on April 04, 2013, 01:03:25 PM
Wait, does that make him the "undead" now?
Title: Re: new smack!
Post by: xcortes on April 04, 2013, 01:17:19 PM
Nah, he's a dead man walking.
Title: Re: new smack!
Post by: keto on April 05, 2013, 06:05:28 AM
I've now switched in the 15K:600 cobalt OPT's, wired for unbalanced outputs. The system is very hot, so maybe lowering the overall gain with the 5670 soft-start option would be in order on the Paramounts. Gain-wise, something like a 6SN7 would also work.
Title: Re: new smack!
Post by: keto on April 15, 2013, 11:07:49 AM
Hey all, I've finally got "tri-amp 1.0" wired-up and working. In the photo are...

Smack as pre-amp, with MQ cobalt 15K:600 B7 OPT's, instead of the stock 8K:16, 32, 64, 128 ones. The Smack seems not to distort at all, even with the volume all the way up. Nice!

SEX amp for 97dB tweeters (above 1200hz), operating fullrange into a passive, speaker-level filter

SEX amp for the the 106dB mids (220-1200hz), with Marchand XM46 low-passes (not shown in pic) @ 2200hz.

300B Paramounts for 95dB woofers (below 220hz), with low-passes (shown) @ 220hz.

The Marchand filters present a load of 2.5K each, so all-in-all the Smack sees a load of about 1K.

I also rewired the speakers with long runs of 14ga wire. Note, the standard binding posts can't handle 12ga. Err, I've got a few lengths of that left over now.

Lots to work on, of course. Pretty good sound over-all.