My little Quickie has had an interesting journey since i bought it for some fun, and possibly to learn a little something from in the process. I actually learned a lot about its circuit design, DHT's in general, and the effect of preamps in the audio chain, gain structure etc. I had a little fun tube rolling, cap rolling, and then i stumbled across the thread about converting it into a headphone amp via a pair of Speco transformers which i immediately fell in love with. Shortly after (around the time the batterys ran out) i started doing some experimentation with AC power supplies on breadboards which ultimately ended up as my AC powered headphone amp, aka Project Babybottle. This little amp really has taught me a lot, and has been constantly tweaked to become the amp it is today with the ability to drive high impedance or low impedance headphones with aplomb, its the little amp that could.
I still had the original chassis plate complete with battery holders, and a little baggy of parts left over including a PJCCS board. It then occurred to me all i was missing were the two terminal strips and two tube sockets as every other part has been replaced at some stage. Long story short, i sourced the parts i needed and rebuilt the quickie exactly as it was, i had even kept all the original lengths of wire in the baggy so its like nothing had ever happened.
By some twisted fate i then managed to blow up my main preamp (dont ask), so i found myself in need of something to drive my speaker setup. My only omission to Project Babybottle was i never added any RCA outputs so technically it isn't a preamp anymore, but i did have a complete Quickie with PJCCS.
Like going full circle and ending up back where i started there was but one problem, i didn't have any 9v batteries. Rather than go out and buy some like a normal person (where would the fun in that be?) i connected together a few 12v lead acid batteries with some test leads. Funny thing is, i had forgotten just how good a Quickie can sound, especially nested between my Bottlehead DAC and F4 amplifier. What a great product, probably the best value hifi product ever made?
Only thing it needs now is a proper base so I've ordered an alloy Hammond enclosure to replace the cardboard box. I believe Hammond 1444-16 will fit the bill, 10.0x6.0x2.0". A 1" deep enclosure will work for a stock quickie but the PJCCS is too tall, besides the added depth will come in useful for cap rolling space
