Changes from Stock - done at my own risk for reasons that could be vague or completely without reason. Some of this was done in an attempt to equalize this build with the modifications I've done on the Crack to make a comparison fairer. Some of this was done because I already had the part.
Please reread - "done at my own risk". I'm not recommending modifications to ANY Bottlehead kit without approval from BH staff. This is kit number...10 or 11 or 12...so I've got a few under my belt.
Cree diodes - fairly inexpensive and done on the Crack. I used the mounting holes of the terminal strips replaced with nylon standoffs and then added a standoff to the center vent slot. The nuts are on the board side and the board fits between nut and base - no holes drilled. I think I stole this idea from someone's Crack build. Holds it in very well.
I don't like sandcast resistors - it's just a "thing" with me - but the ones in this kit fit perfectly and I could not get anything else to physically fit that well. I really like how those go in.
Cap #1 replaced - I had this monster Jensen with mount so I crammed it in. Tipped with a 1uf film cap - just because.
Wiring - ya, I like that cloth wrapped (has a rubber interior so it's not just cloth protecting those) look when I can use it. It's a slightly larger diameter solid core so it can't be used everywhere. Other wire is 20 Ga. Stranded, Silver Plated, Aerospace Grade, PTFE from TubeDepot. It's probably a bit larger than the stock wire but I only had a challenge with it when I needed three wires in a single terminal hole.
Upgraded caps on the two outboard boards. Completely unnecessary but I was placing an order anyway...
Upgraded caps on the center board. From what I understand they can have a small effect on the sound and my very favorite economical cap are Sonicaps. Necessary.... ?
Wiring from inputs to selector to volume and then to headphone jack (can't be seen) is Mogami and all the same wire in spite of color. The color helps me with the wiring at the selector. It's shielded and the shields are all connected and grounded. W2534 has shield + 4 conductors. I used another version of this at the headphone jack - it has 2 conductors and shield (W2549?). These two Mogami wires have blue and white conductors - have a MM on hand to figure out what goes where. You might notice small red bands on wire pairs - this tells me those are the right side.
Selector switch and Volume: Yup...I took out the balance pot. I had the volume laying around doing nothing from a prior experiment and it happens to be a 100k. I lucked out. Selector is Goldpoint.
The big blue babies...I like the sound signature of ClarityCaps. I'd forgotten how big these were... They fit, barely. Once installed don't plan on getting to the terminal strips behind them without dropping the circuit boards to do so. Or uninstall the caps.
Top side - power switch. It's just a Cherry Switch with writing on it - nothing complicated or needed. I like it.
Headphone jack is just the black version of the one that comes in the kit. It was already in house.
Bottlehead badge fits quite well over the unused balance pot hole.
Knobs come from Goldpoint. I like the smooth ones for volume and the knurled for selector.
RCA's - I put "different" ones in. Whether better or not would be questionable.
My brother is building a custom base for it. Not sure which wood he's working with, probably oak.
IERC covers - in house, they work. I am using one of those graphite 6080WC's and everything gets warm. I think those are indirectly heated and really warm up the place. The IERC over the 12AU7 isn't the right size but I'm not sure if I have the smaller version.
I put the HD650's on last night and was just sucked into the sound. Crystal clear...this thing is going to rival the Mainline I think...!
I'm hoping to run up all four of the headphone amps I have from BH and compare them.
Thank you Bottlehead - another great kit!
