• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Is the Bottlehead Crack comperable to any commercially made Chiense alternatives?

It doesn’t answer the question of why such an expensive kit would come with a bad tube to begin with. Pay top dollar and get mediocrity?


They do test all the tubes before they ship them, but as above a tube tester cannot detect all issues. You do realise you are whingeing about a long obsolete 60-70 year old tube that went bad, i mean, what are the odds of that happening...


I wouldn't call them "top dollar" either. Go build your own and see how much change you have out of $300.
 
I think you should definitely buy a Chinese amp. If a Chinese toroidal transformer is more desirable to you than a transformer designed and wound in the US, then you're going to be happier with a different product.

Maybe you'll get some of these awesome "authentic" parts that Nobsound includes with their kits.
 

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Well it's really $392 because of their expensive shipping.

Shipping is expensive for everyone. The "shipper" doesn't decide what the rate is going to be.

I'm surprised the part cost adds up that much given Chinese sell high power amps with a heavy teroidal transformer for the same incl. shipping.

You don't seem to understand that there's a lot more to selling amplifier kits than just the parts cost.

Personally, I dont like bottleheads marketing ploy on human addictive substances. I'd NEVER call a product by such a name, just for a possibility of increased sales...

For most of us, it's just a name.🙄

jeff
 
I personally wouldn’t buy *any* tube kit that did not have a support forum. It’s absolutely the buyer’s prerogative to reject a product due to cost but it strikes me as foolish to not account for or discount the value added by customer support.
 
Two things that Bottlehead is known for is their almost moron proof assembly instructions and a great customer forum.

Crack goes on sale every once in a while. It is one of the easiest kits to build with a number of mods possible. The kits are fun to build, I have built eight.
 
You guys were right. I just got a $100 (not including shipping and tax) JDS Atom and it sounds absolutely amazing with my T1, almost as good as listening to my home built Jim Holz's Finalists speakers...
No aliexpress equipment for that price sounds that good.