Hey there. I believe I let my Crack amp get too toasty which seems to have led to some minor audio distortion before I turned it off and remedied the issue. I am looking for input on what I should check, if anything, before moving on and installing my Speedball upgrade.
Backstory:
A few weeks ago I finished building my Crack amp. It was a ton of fun, all my resistance checks passed, and most importantly, it sounded awesome. Like many others, I wanted to listen to it without Speedball to see the differences in sound once I installed the upgrade. I clearly read and understood the instructions about installing the rubber feet on the frame, but still hadn't decided how I wanted to finish the wood of the frame so I held off. You can see where this is going...
I knew I needed to elevate the amp to allow for airflow, so I placed spare bookshelf speaker pads I had under both ends of the amp to give it plenty of breathing room. Fast forward a few weeks and I removed the pads in a hurry one day to use them, forgot that I did so, and used the amp while flush on the desk.
While using it, I noticed the music was beginning to distort after a few hours and assumed something was wrong with my headphones. I turned off the amp, checked my headphones to make sure the cables were fully inserted, turned the amp back on and it sounded fine. I figured that something was loose until the same thing happened about an hour later. Turned off the amp again, realized I had screwed up and the amp probably couldn't breathe, and noticed that many parts of the amp where quite warm to the touch. Surprising, I know.
The distortion sounded something like mild electrical interference. I can only assume the distortion was related to heat, as I am not sure what else it would have been from.
Thankfully, both times I turned it off and back on, it then sounded fine again. I now have the feet installed, but that doesn't make me feel better about making such a dumb mistake.
I am looking for input on what, if anything, I should do or check before moving on and installing Speedball. I was thinking about redoing all of the checks at the end of the Crack manual before proceeding, but wasn't sure if that would tell me anything important or not.
Sorry for the long post. Any input would be appreciated!
