Next in line was Tierney Sutton’s homage to Sinatra, Dancing in the Dark. I played Victor Villadangos’ Guitar Music of Argentina and heard the plaintive cry of (the Cuban!) Leo Brouwer’s 'Un dia de noviembre'. Bass was not as deep but with certain recordings grippier and drier even as it was smaller and less propulsive. Yes this tube amp compared favourably with the Burson. The soundstage doubled in size in relation to the Little Dot. In any case, now I could truly appreciate the majesty of my Beyers. I wasn’t quite sure how it stacked up against my Australian-designed solid state Burson HA-160D. It was marginally better than my Canadian-designed but Chinese-made Musical Paradise MP-301 MK2 and MK3. I knew that this simple little amp had relegated my Hong Kong-made Little Dot MkIII and my artisanally crafted Japanese Almarro A205a Mk2 to second-tier status. I had ordered the Crack kit without the vaunted $125 Speedball upgrade. Had it really been necessary to spend so much on so many different amps over the years to arrive at this… this $269 assortment of parts? Perhaps not.īut there is no time to second-guess myself. Had my 25 hours of hunched-back labour been worth it? Yes I suppose so. I was at once overjoyed and disappointed. From the Crack, it was onward and upward to my 600Ω Beyerdynamic T1s. The signal darted along my Connex/DH-Labs BL-AG silver interconnects to my Crack. When I pressed ‘play’ on the $399 giant-killer Marantz CD5004 that graces my upstairs office system, I was disabused of that notion. I thought I knew this disc like the back of my hand.

Open, vast, clear, clean.Ĭharlie Haden and Pat Metheny’s minimalist masterpiece Beyond the Missouri Sky was playing. If you don’t own these things you must budget another $100 for high-quality solder and a basic soldering iron.Īnd so how did it sound? With the flick of a switch, a rich warm sound free of etch, hum and hiss filled my ears. The ever-helpful PartsConnexion in Ontario had supplied me with my WBT silver-lead solder and Hakko soldering station.

(I had practiced in advance using some wires and other odds and ends I had lying about the house). Point-to-point wiring means you’ll certainly improve your soldering techniques over the course of this project. A CD/ROM containing a 30-page illustrated instruction manual is your guide. A parts check list helps you organize your way. Step by step one is walked through the process in language that any layperson can understand. The Crack comes with the most user-friendly instruction manual I have ever seen for any product. This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below

Bottlehead amp review