Hi everyone,
First of all, thanks to the Bottlehead team for such a great product. I enjoyed every moment of learning, building and listening experience.
As DIY never ends I kept modding and I've made my Crack digital. It featured Khadas Tone Board inside, shielded with half of Audiophonics chassis, facing the rest of the circuit. There is a switch mounted to switch between builtin DAC and analog inputs. No noise, silent background. On my setup with my ears I could not distinguish the sound from built-in Khadas and external SMSL M500, both precise DACs, which is a great sign that there is no interference.
I've added two digital inputs on the back - USB-C and coax. Coax goes to my computer, which is Chrome OS and it resamples audio, so I listen to music via USB-C. Here is the interesting part.
USB-C is hooked up to the Raspberry Pi 4, running a Roon bridge software. To make the whole thing look nice together, I've made a mini case in the style of Bottlehead Crack - I called it "Bottlehead Berry". It is not an actual Bottlehead product, but to the Bottlehead team - feel free to offer one, for DACs on a chip or Raspberry, I am sure it should sell.
One reason I've put the DAC together with the amp, not together with the source is because sometimes I trade amps with my wife and she has Mac OS X, that does no resampling. It means she does not need Roon and she can just use normal Tidal app and get a full quality.
There are slight differences between the wood texture and height, because I could only get wood from a local store and it was pine. But I think it still looks amazing.
I hope this thread will inspire modding and provide some ideas on what you can do with your Bottlehead setup.
Cheers everyone,
Viva DIY!
« Last Edit: April 07, 2021, 12:32:47 AM by ipetruk »
Crack, Mainline, Pipettes, Subette
