Speedball had opposite effect on me.

[JJPOD]

I've been in love with the crack amp for a year now and finally decided to upgrade to crack+speedball.  after a clean and fun install, all of the voltage tests were great.  i turned it on and was surprised at the sonic outcome.  the soundstage was smaller and the dynamic range between low mids and highs seemed overlapping.

dont get me wrong, the amp still sounds much better than other amps and by no means sounds bad.  however, it does seem less impressive than the stand alone crack.

are there any reasons anyone can think of that would cause this: soldering joints/ bad components/ oxidized components (i noticed some of the components had a white-ish coating on them when i opened the box)

my setup consists of music hall 15.3 dac&cd player/ crack+speedball/ hd600s

any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[Paul Joppa]

Two possibilities come to mind:

1 - The Speedball reduces distortion, but it also changes the harmonic structure of the remaining distortion. You may just prefer the original for this reason - people and their ears are not all the same, and our differences are all equally valid.

2 - We do get used to things we are familiar with. I suggest you listen to it for an extended period, maybe a couple weeks, and then restore the amp to the original and see whether you still prefer that presentation. If you then keep the parts in a box, you can swap in the Speedball again in a year or two to see if your tastes have changed. You will certainly learn something with any of these experiments.

[borism]

You also mentioned that you listened to the original Crack for about a year and didn't like the speedball upgrade without the benefit of burn-in. Maybe you just need to give it some time regardless if you want to call it burn-in or your ears getting used to the sound.

[Kris]

It does seem less impressive than the stand alone crack.

I had similar experience with speedball upgrade. In my case it ended up to be a cold solder joint on one of the PC boards. After inspecting and reflowing all suspected joints, everything started to sound really beautiful.
BTW. I was under the impression on how cold solder joint can affect the sound.

[Nathan]

When I installed my speedball I too thought there was something I lost in the transition. I then experimented with tubes. I retained my Tung Sol 5998 but wound up putting in a Mullard CV4003. Once that was done, it was clear the Speedball was a clear improvement

[Doc B.]

Some people are looking for a more classic tube sound. That sound is softer in the bass region and tends to compress when pushed hard rather than clipping hard. These are both effects that make tubes more forgiving and perhaps more spatial sounding to some degree when they are subjected to more difficult material or pushed close to the limit dynamically. It's simply a matter of taste whether this is more attractive or running tubes in such a manner that those non-linear effects might be reduced at the expense of them hitting the wall much harder sonically when they are pushed. The Speedball puts the tubes more into the latter operating condition.