#reduction phono

A little something before bed.

I got my headphone rig sorted out today. It's been packed up for quite a while. Since my last move there wasn't a lot of room for it so I tucked it away for safe keeping till I could get it out again. I noticed one of the massive output caps had come loose from its solder joint. I carefully packed it away, I would fix it when I could get it out again. That was today! I carefully unpacked it, dusted it off, fixed the solder joint, put the tubes back into it and fired it up.

I'd forgotten just how brutally honest this setup is. The Stones album pictured was one of my recent $1 bin finds, and through my regular system sounds pretty ok. I cut the $1 records a lot of slack but it cleaned up well, and sounded pretty good when you consider it's age etc. but through the headphone amp with my Sennheiser's wow this is a well loved LP. Was still a good listen.

Since I still have a little bit before I want to hit the sack I put on my old copy of Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon. This LP is hmm also well loved but in spite of it's little imperfections is still stunning through the headphones. I never get tired of listening to it.

I love my headphones and my wife doesn't have to hear me listening to another record at 1am. Gotta love it. Ok I think I'm going to enjoy the rest and crash. Have a great weekend all.

Bottlehead Reduction tube phono stage. Part 1

I was finally able to begin building the new phono stage. This kits comes with everything you need to build a complete phono preamp. Tubes are 6DJ8 family. Parts are all high quality which include Vishay Dale resistors where they count and Dayton audio grade Polypro caps. I should be able to start soldering parts tomorrow. I wanted to start tonight but once I get started I may not leave the basement till it's done and very likely there is at least 5-6hours worth of work left. So I figured I would post my initial progress.

I had to ream out one of the holes for the tube socket to fit properly, I cleaned, etched and painted the transformer end bell a nice hammer finish grey to match my Bottlehead Crack OTL headphone amp.