Hey guys, I finished the speedball a couple days ago, and at least as it is, I’m not impressed. It sounds like a downgrade in most ways, if anything. And I appreciate both solid-state and tube amps; I started with solid-state and more flat headphones before going to the amazing hd650’s and then the lively, yet distinguishing collage that is the crack.
• Compared to my stock crack that I built a couple months ago, not modded in any sense, sound has less life, and seems a bit congested, muffled, softer (not as clear) and dry (though I am aware you lose some of that gooey viscosity that the stock crack has), yet it isn’t too accurate or punchy, strange enough, as those are perks I’ve heard touted for the speedball. Right now, strangely and scarily, my speedball crack w/ modi 2 uber sounds a lot like my independent fiio e10k. Also, the soundstage if anything seems to have narrowed. The amp now seems to heavily favor high-lows and low-mids, without giving deep lows, high-mids and highs a chance to fully take the stage. Still, you can hear the mids and highs, and they can sound pretty good. But nothing sings and resonates like the stock crack. Are these normal characteristics of the speedball? Does it take time to break in? Or perhaps my ears aren’t trained enough or there’s some mental, placebo effect stuff going on. Otherwise, I do believe there is something wrong with my kit because, given the state of it, I don’t understand the speedball hype at all.
Below are some other seemingly minor complications or concerns I have, most being pre-Speedball:
• Buzz, very quiet, in the right ear.
• High hum or screech, very quiet, in left ear; sometimes a similar buzz to the right ear.
• Channel issues aren’t always present but usually are.
• light snapping/popping (more like a “tick†sound or someone tapping the glass with their nail) sounds, only once or twice, when turned on and off (the insides of the tubes or its glass?)
• Some hot smelling stuff (solder?) when very close to the crack? But it isn't seriously noticeable. I thought this would be normal, but the manual says otherwise to some degree. No smoke or anything else extreme.
• Were my pcb’s maybe somehow damaged? Does flux from the solder have any real effect on the pcb in the short term? I'm aware that it may cause corrosion in the future. Some small amounts of “liquid†have spewed around joints that I may have heated for too long. Tracks all look good, and so do the contacts.
Disclaimers:
• I have meticulously and obsessively checked all my solder joints, most of them more than three times, and have redone some potentially suspicious joints on the crack, and have redone all the joints on both speedball boards. This all took me nearly a whole day, so by no means do I believe I rushed anything. All joints are shiny, have solder enclose the entirety of the pad, create “fillets†as the manual suggests, and convex towards the end of the component being soldered.
• All voltages on speedball are good, same with resistance on oa and ob.
• I was even more ocd with the component orientation. I triple checked during installations and have checked countless times after.
• Checked voltages on crack right before starting the speedball. Everything was great. Checked resistances on crack after speedball. All readings that don’t concern the speedball are good.
• DAC is a Schiit Modi 2 Uber, connected to a pc via usb b to a
• Z170-A motherboard
• Fuse is good
And a quick question: Resemblance on page 15 of speedball 1.1 does not match the final picture on the crack 1.1 manual on page 46. I assume the picture on p.15 is of crack 1.0. It is okay to proceed as per picture on page 46 of crack 1.1 manual, right? That is what I did.
Sorry for the dump of text; thank you in advance!
