Bugger (All good will report once plugged in) [resolved]

[gnnett]

Well I nearly got there but managed to go down a rabbit hole!

When I was putting the input sockets in I was not impressed with the socket quality, thread not very healthy and only apart turn of thread holding the socket on. Should have stopped there and sourced some better quality sockets.

Didn't and got to the stage of fitting the first input wire and with a little bit of heat on the earth tag it loosened and then here comes the rabbit hole.

Should have replaced the sockets with something better! Didn't and decided I could improve things by a bit of solder to the nut after retightening. Nope just destroyed the internal insulation and made it impossible to undo the nut when it became obvious I would now have to replace the sockets.

Will now have to cut them off, will damage the perplex plate and probably loose interest in this little project.

Shame really as the Smash was fun, just this was going to let me hear it at its best as main system needs a balanced preamp output and so Smash will remain in the cupboard too.

Apologies for whining and I know it is all my fault, but sometimes a quick vent lets you move on quicker.

Cheers

Gn

[Bonzo]

try remove as much solder as possible with the help of a copper braid, then try remove the nut with pliers (or better with vise and plier) avoiding any bending of the plate.

Take your time and... don't panic  You'll surely succeed

Ciao

[gnnett]

Hi Marco

Got by well a pair of needle nose pliers and a decent sized crescent wrench.

And had to resist the temptation to use a spare set of WBT sockets.

All done and will plug it in when the wife turns her back for 5 mins.

Cheers

Grant

PS Apologies again for the whinge.

[Bonzo]

 
So glad you sorted it out! And don't worry about the whinge, we're all here to support and encourage builders!

Please, report how is the quicksand with smash, I'm really interested in mix and match bottlehead series.

Ciao!

[gnnett]

No smoke on switch on and 'running it in' with TV watching the motogp!

Will let it do it's thing with the TV and throw in a new set of batteries on the weekend. Hmm keeping the volume down but still hearing some bass with 83dB speakers, how does that work?

Cheers and thanks again for the encouragement.

Gn

[gnnett]

Well no news is good news. Quicksand has now been through 3 sets of batteries and have been impressed with what 4 watts can actually achieve with way less than ideal speakers. No it doesn't rock, no it doesn't fill the room and no it doesn't provide all the musical enjoyment I need.

However, for 4 months it performed adequately as both a TV sound system, a background music system and for late night listening to small scale music, a view into the music I have no had since packing up my main system to move last year.

The last month or so I have replaced a passive preamp with my Smash Upped Smash and used with a relatively ordinary multi disc Pioneer CD player I am getting elements of tone and soundstage that I am enjoying and did not think possible at around 90dB.

The Quicksand is obviously a very capable device to let the special qualities of the  Smash come through, all be it at rather modest volume levels. I look forward to digging deeper into it with headphones and uniting it with my fathers Goodman Axiette II's some day.

The Smash on the other hand will be spending time in my main system, if I ever get it up and running again.

Thanks for keeping me sane and interested in audio and looking forward to take my previous system to a new level.

Kind regards

Grant