Completed First Crack Build-- [resolved]

[Emoreigns]

Completed my first Crack Build Last Night-

All Voltage and Resistance measurements came out right on the nose. I AM very excited to borrow my brother DAC and nice headphones and give it a listen tonight. I will update on the sound quality and my observations later tonight.

So excited- I had to share this first build with the world on the forum!

Got the crack stacked on top of my old Silvertone 1939 Model 6425 Magic Green Eye radio-- All tested and ready to go!!!

Cheers-

[Mucker]

Nice clean build. Great job! What headphones are you going to use with it?

[Paul Birkeland]

If you end up having issues getting that amp to pass signal, I would immediately be suspicious of those RCA jacks potentially creating a short across certain RCA plugs.

[Emoreigns]

@Paul Birkeland- All the volts.amps checks passed- But I am getting some occasional static/ distortion that can make listening unpleasant. Do you think this is the source Paul? Sure do appreciate the help and response on this, as I was just going to open up another thread.

Thanks-EE

[Cary]

Very nice build!

[Emoreigns]

Thanks Cary-

Having some static/ distortion noises. Going to go through and heat up any dull appearing joints tonight, and hope that does the trick.

Cheers + Happy Listening

[Deluk]

Have you done the diode mod on the power in socket?

[Emoreigns]

Deluk-

I have not heard of this??

[Deluk]

https://forum.bottlehead.com/index.php?topic=11676.0

[Emoreigns]

I'm going to try to heat up any dull joints I may have and reflow them and see if that takes care of the problem- If not I will implement this modification and report back.

Thanks,

[Emoreigns]

Update on the First Crack Build-

About a week ago I went through and reflowed any joints that appeared to be dull- After an hour or so session of that I re-tested and plugged the amp in- Same Problem of static and distortion-

So I got a little frustrated and just left it for a couple days while I read up on the forums. I decided I would try with the chopstick probing method recommended here before I went ahead and installed the RFI diode bridge to see if that would help.

Upon probing for 15 mintutes I found the wire that was the problem! Only 2 of the 3 wires were well encapsulated with solder- So I re-flowed that joint and I've been testing and listening to my Crack for hours and hours with none of the same problems what so ever. Just pure silence when there is no audio playing, and between songs. No need to install the diode bridge; at least at this time & with this location.

So, so happy about this!! Just wanted to thank everyone on this forum for all the support! I'm sure I'll be asking more questions on here, just as soon as my new kit I bought on the Black Friday sale comes;) or I try to install the Speedball attachment-

Cheers + Happy Listening + Thanks again everyone

-EE

[Cary]

Congrats on the troubling shooting and the build!

[Emoreigns]

Thanks Cary! Much appreciated- Was not super confident going in; but I am incredibly proud now

And I have a new found hobby and passion!

Cheers-

[Emoreigns]

Soldered up my first PCBs for the Speedball upgrade! They seem to have came together real well- All voltage checks pass, and the upgrade sounds great!

I've got the confidence to begin building my PreBee 2 now!

For anyone out there wondering, the PCB soldering is not too difficult and the upgrade makes a big difference from the stock crack IMO-

Had to share some pics! I think it came out pretty clean- Hope everyone is staying dry and warm. It is coming down here in California!

[Paul Birkeland]

Looking tidy!