Happy to say that I completed the Crack about a month ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it in stock form. Today I finished adding the speedball and everything is working perfectly on both the initial build and the speedball upgrade. Voltage were nearly perfect out of the gate on both builds.
The only things that have me any trouble was attaching the transformer screw that has the extra washer. That took a little finagling. I also took a guess at the new transistor orientation on the speedball and guessed wrong. Ended up having to resort to a heatgun to get those stubborn three pin transistors removed (luckily, BEFORE I fired up the circuit) from the small speedball boards. Despite the forum sticky, I would highly recommend some sort of notation in the manual, would saved some poor souls a lot of trouble.
Base was finished in 3 coats of shellac and a final coat of automotive lacquer. The sound, well it was brilliant before the speedball with my humble pair of Senn HD650; and now with my first hour with the speedball it is other worldly!
I have a Smash preamp incoming, and looking very much forward to slinging a little more solder. I have been an audio enthusiast for some years, but never had the satisfaction of building my own amplifier. I'm hooked!
