Any plans to bring back the crack-a-two-a?

[phatfish]

Or a similar souped up OTL headphone amp?

[Paul Birkeland]

I think that when we put out the Crack-a-two-a, people thought a "souped up OTL headphone amp" was a Crack with a choke in the power supply and some 100uF film caps at the output.  The performance improvements offered by the C2A are difficult to properly explain to someone who is hyper focused on what $50 in replacement parts can do, and really on that basis the kit wasn't all that popular. 

There are lots of other ways one could go in terms of making OTL headphone amps, but whatever we would do would compete with the Crack itself, so doing a $1000+ OTL kit may end up being an exercise in futility!

[Doc B.]

To add to what PB says here - we retired it simply because we didn't sell nearly as many as we did Crack kits. Interestingly most of the components that go into the kit are still on our shelves. We even have a few chassis panels, IIRC. If there were, say, three people who would commit we might be able to get the parts we don't have in stock and do a small run of Crackatwoas. I can look into this in the coming week.

[caffeinator]

I think I'd be in for a Crackatwoa.

[phatfish]

I appreciate the response and explanations!  Add me to the list of those who would purchase a kit. 

[currly30]

I might be interested in buying the amp. Though, I already own the Mainline. So, I'm not sure it would be worth it. Unless there is a difference in performance with higher resistance headphones between the amps. How much would the Crackatowa cost?

[Happy Ghost]

Though, I already own the Mainline. So, I'm not sure it would be worth it.

I own both the C2A and the Mainline. Unlike the Mainline the C2A works only with high impedance phones.. but  it offers much more of a "boogie woogie" factor compared to the Mainline(no other words to better explain it) On the downside it does not have as much resolution as Mainline (though it is not far behind either).. I still prefer the C2A to the Mainline when it comes to high impedance cans... The stepped attenuator, premium tubes, o/p caps upgrade will bring the cost close to a stock Mainline.. but you would not have any regrets I feel.. At least I don't

Hope my post adds more confusion and desire to your audiophile journey

[Thermioniclife]

I have a a C2A and a Mainline I enjoy them both. They each have there own flavor. Will be building a vertical rack to stack them up. I built a switch  box to send the output of my dac to either the mainline and  the SM2. Will modify to select Mainline, C2A  and SM2 for speaker use. In my opinion the C2A is a nice head amp but the Mainline is my usual go to. If you can get ahold of a C2A I think you will not regret it.

[Happy Ghost]

I built a switch  box to send the output of my dac to either the mainline and  the SM2. Will modify to select Mainline, C2A  and SM2 for speaker use. I

Hey Lee.. How're you.. Can you send me some details of the switch box you built? Currently I use a Schiit Sys right now for switching between amps..  What is this SM2 that you were referring to?