at a loss.....looking for guidance...

[madbrayniak]

hey guys, I have been coming around here for along time reading these forums and looking at all the beautiful work you guys have done on your kits.  I have also been wanting to build one for quite a long time too.  However, I do not have sensitive speakers and therefore the tubes currently arent worth it for my main system.  However, I currently have a pair of AKG K241 Mk2 headphones and thought that these may work with either the quickie, crack, or SEX.  however, I am unsure which would be best.  I was thinking that the SEX kit would be the best route to go because when I do finally build some high sensitivity monitors I can use it for the speakers too.  But then again maybe ill just want the stereomour by then?


I also spend alot of my time and money on my computer as I like to work on it and upgrade and play games.  I am rather curious as to what would happen if I did somthing like a crack and ran the audio through the amp first....for games or just my digital music.

The other thing that I am looking to do as well is to get a turntable....probably a Lenco, DUAL, or if im lucky a Garrard and fix it up.  So I think I need to take that into consideration too as I need something that would pair well with that once I get the speakers built....which will hopefully be a summer project.....but that depends on a few other factors at the moment.

(if you havent noticed I really like to work on things myself, hence a tube kit is PERFECT for me)

anyways, I am not realy sure what would be best for me at this point.  I do have experience with soldering irons as I used to build R/C cars as a hobby so i have alot of that under my belt.  So the assembly isnt too much of a concern.

Most of the things here too would be great options....the quickie would be converted back to a preamp for the TT, the SEX could be used to drive speakers, the crack with the computer....I just dont know the route I should start out with and was hoping that someone on here could give me some advice on information that I have yet to find answers to.

thank you,
Bryan

[BNAL]

Bryan,

Based on the impedance of your headphones the S.E.X. or Smack would be a better choice.  If you had high impedance headphones, such as the Sennheiser HD-600/650s I would recommend the Crack.

I have both amps and they both sound great. It is just a matter of what you

[TadS]

Hi Bryan--

As Brad mentioned, the SEX kit would probably be a better match with your headphones.  If you want an amp to use for nearfield listening with a computer, the SEX kit would probably be fine, even with inefficient speakers, as long as you are not looking to fill up a whole room.  Regardless of whether you are using speakers or headphones, if you are using the computer as a music source, you might consider a good quality DAC to feed the amp.  Not only will the fidelity be way better than that included on a typical motherboard, but it will give you a line-level output which should be higher than what you would get out of the headphone jack from the computer.

--Tad

[corndog71]

I would also recommend the Sex amp as well as the quickie for preamp.   Set aside a couple hundred bucks for some cap upgrades and with your AKGs I think you'll be blown away. 

You might not need the quickie right away but I would still recommend one so that you have a nice little tube preamp to go with whatever amp you choose down the road.

[madbrayniak]

I thought that I replied to this earlier but I guess i didnt.

I'll look at getting the SEX kit.  It would have been nicer to try something cheaper but maybe ill do the quickie first and then the SEX and convert it back to a preamp some how?

I unfortunately just lost my job so this is going to have to be put on hold.....

How is the foreplay/quickie again a conrad-johnson classic preamp? they are quite affordable and they have a great reputation. 

I am really looking forward to upgrading my system more for music.  want to get an old turntable and get that fixed up, preamp, and some tube amps for music.....let alone build some high effeciency speakers.  How does the foreplay hook a sub up? or is it supposed to be for full range speakers only?.....im learning

[corndog71]

My quickie with PJCCS sounds better than it has any right to for what I paid.  The stock kit sounds good but a little tweaking goes a long way.  The PJCCS makes a significant improvement.  Another effective tweak is replacing the output caps.  There are many caps to choose from but my current favorites are Clarity Cap ESA series.  Next I'm going to try their MR caps as I've read great things about them.

Bottlehead gear lacks the physical refinement of fancy boxes and bulletproof construction (unless you build them that way) but provides excellent sound quality and they do it for ridiculously low prices. 

I know piecing together a great system on a budget can be challenging.  But with lots of patience and smart moves like getting Bottlehead gear, you'll get there.  Oh and stick around here and keep reading.  You'll learn a ton.  This is one of the best audio forums out there.

[madbrayniak]

have you compared it to any bought preamps?

[Grainger49]

I replaced an Audio Research SP-14 with a Seduction and FP 2.  They sounded better.

[earwaxxer]

I've been real happy with tube sound on the preamp side (quickie) and keep the amp solid state. That leaves you much more to play with in terms of speakers. Many great and relatively cheap solid state power amps out there. Powerful tube amps are going to be in the big bucks league. Some day I may build some super sensitive speakers and drive it with a premo SET. When I have a bit more time on my hands!

[madbrayniak]

Ok. So how would you hook up a subwoofer to a quickie or foreplay? I only plan to build two way horned monitors and simply refine them over time

[earwaxxer]

Go digital to subwoofer. I ran a toslink out of my Squeezebox Transporter to a DAC then ran the sub amp off of that. You could use a cheap DAC to do the job. That way you can adjust the bass separate from the mains, and run a long toslink to the sub and position it behind the listening area.

[corndog71]

Ok. So how would you hook up a subwoofer to a quickie or foreplay? I only plan to build two way horned monitors and simply refine them over time

I would just split the signal at the preamp outputs.  There may be better ways but the simplest way is to use these.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=091-515

[madbrayniak]

what if with the subwoofer I did a split like you suggested and then send it through a minidsp to set a high-pass filter on it?  I know it would turn the signal digital to my knowledge but I dont know how much of a difference it would make at that low of a frequency.  Part of my goal is to keep the analog signal pure analog from a turntable to the preamp to some tube amps and then to the speakers....I can always hook up an ipod to the preamp too and even though that doesnt go along perfectly with what I am trying to do it will still work and probably sound better than the way I am doing it now and running everything through a receiver.

[corndog71]

What kind of subwoofer are you using?

[2wo]

I am considering going the  mini DSP route myself I think it would work well. At low frequency I don