New Owner

[Paulv]

Hi - Recently purchased my Crack from a guy named Callum, Who stated my amp had been serviced by Paul Birkeland. My first impressions of the crack was wow just wow.
My equipment is a modified Fiio X7 docked in a Fiio K5, this is fed into a Tilsbury passive pre amp which is acting as a switch box for my Graham Slee ultra linear DE headphone amp (with slee power supply) and the Crack. The rca leads are Graham Slee cusat 50 and Beldin. The Crack is fed by a black rhodium libra mains cable with uprated fuse. Everything is connected to silver 6 gang mains extension power block using Belden 19364 Cable and a HIFI supreme fuse.
  My first question - is there someone in the UK (Paul Birkeland?) who can upgrade parts on my crack for me, ie volume pot etc.
  My second question is - when i check the big tube is seated properly with the amp and headphones on, i sometimes get a loud pop or crackling through my headphones. Is this Bad?

[Paulv]

Forgot to mention my HP are HD650 & Beyerdynamic T1 2nd Gen.

[Paul Birkeland]

I'm not in the UK unfortunately and shipping can be a bit expensive.

Either the 6080 is pushed in all the way or it's not.  If you move it around a ton because you aren't sure, eventually you'll wear out the octal socket.  Experiencing some noise while moving the tube around while the amp is running isn't that surprising; that's just not something we recommend doing.

[Paulv]

Hi Paul, thx for the feedback. Unfortunately i am not electrically minded, but i am hoping to learn as i i go. I think the Crack was sent to you to fix the speedball upgrade (LED?) and replace rca post - including a service in the past. I would be willing to send my crack to you in the future. I have a  Crack fund that i am paying into.
I am looking at upgrading the volume control and rca posts, what else would you recommend upgrading. I will try and upload some pictures of my Crack at a later date.

[Deluk]

Check the soldering on the 6080 socket tags, you may have a poor joint. Carefully check with a chopstick or plastic knitting needle. If you get a crackle re-solder that one and then reflow the rest.

[Paul Birkeland]

Yes, I replaced some broken wires, installed new RCA jacks, and replaced the front C4S boards with the new single board design.  I may have also installed the padding resistor modification outlined in the Crack FAQ, though I do not show in my notes that I did. 

The TKD pot fits reasonably well where the stock pot mounts.  I don't generally recommend changing out the RCA jacks.

[Paulv]

Check the soldering on the 6080 socket tags, you may have a poor joint. Carefully check with a chopstick or plastic knitting needle. If you get a crackle re-solder that one and then reflow the rest.

Will attempt this thx.