Crack voicing

[Bagelmeister]

Hello
I completed my Crack a few days ago and just added the Speedball upgrade.  Everything went together and passed all tests without a hitch and I've been enjoying the amp with my HD 650's and BorderPatrol DAC SE.  Overall I prefer the sonics with the speedball installed but to my ears the highs are slightly too aggressive.  I'm interested in finding a tube compliment that will yield a more relaxed presentation without sacrificing too much detail.  Also I've found that the supplied 6080 is somewhat microphonic and periodically develops noise in the form of a soft, high pitched whine in the 1~6khz range, usually in the left channel.  It's very faint and it comes and goes, but I'd like to find an output tube that's quieter.  Do the 6AS7G's fare better?

Thanks!

[Paul Birkeland]

You could add a pair of 47K resistors at the volume pot between each middle lug and the wire that's normally attached to it. 

(Or you could wait for break-in, which generally takes a hundred hours or so)

[adydula]

I have several coke bottle 6AS7G's.....most all of them are slightly "sensitive" one is highly microphonic, I cant ttype on my pc keyboard without upsetting the sound....with most others this is not the case.

I have gone thru many of these type coke bottle tubes looking for the ones that are not microphonic....the one that came in my original crack is great...pretty solid.

The 6080 WA tubes I have are very solid, and you can tap on the Crack top or case and its not upset etc....seems these non-coke bottle tubes (that look GREAT!!) have more mechanical issues that the
larger type tubes...

But if you like them and their sound, just dont beat on them or move it off your desk etc..

Good Luck!
Alex

[Bagelmeister]

You could add a pair of 47K resistors at the volume pot between each middle lug and the wire that's normally attached to it. 

(Or you could wait for break-in, which generally takes a hundred hours or so)

OK, cool.  I've experienced my recapped gear get better with time and just assumed that with so few components in the Crack maybe the effects of burn-in would be negligible.  It only has 10 hours on it so I'll give it some time to settle in and re-evaluate. 

Thanks!