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Bottlehead Crackatwoa OTL tube headphone amplifier build

SIY

Grand Contributor
Technical Expert
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Apr 6, 2018
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@lordGwyn really appreciate your work and great amps. TBH I am confused why you would post this stuff here though where most people will never appreciate it because they base their entire lives off SINAD. Pretty sure many people here believe tube amp is outdated and obsolete technology of no value in audio.
Don't forget the part about us eating babies because they're too noisy.
 
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L0rdGwyn

L0rdGwyn

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@smodtactical thanks, I post on a number of forums, each has its own value for me, I like to share what I love doing. While my own listening preferences don't necessarily follow the SINAD metric, I enjoy the knowledge, experience, and discussion ASR brings. Tubes are fun and if done right sound great, so I think they have their place in the audio world.
 

charleski

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Pretty sure many people here believe tube amp is outdated and obsolete technology of no value in audio.
They glow and they look cool! Nothing wrong with looking cool.
It is possible to get fairly respectable performance from tubes, but requires meticulous attention to detail in both the design and build. Here's a long article on the sort of design and build elements required:
The author claims to achieve a THD+N of around -86dB just below clipping, which is quite satisfactory. But it should be noted that he's using pentodes running single-ended and unlikely to be putting out more than about 5W. That would be fine for a headphone amp though. :)
 

Tom C

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Jun 16, 2019
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Wisconsin, USA
@lordGwyn really appreciate your work and great amps. TBH I am confused why you would post this stuff here though where most people will never appreciate it because they base their entire lives off SINAD. Pretty sure many people here believe tube amp is outdated and obsolete technology of no value in audio.
Hey! I resemble that remark.
 

smodtactical

Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2020
Messages
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@smodtactical thanks, I post on a number of forums, each has its own value for me, I like to share what I love doing. While my own listening preferences don't necessarily follow the SINAD metric, I enjoy the knowledge, experience, and discussion ASR brings. Tubes are fun and if done right sound great, so I think they have their place in the audio world.

ASR don't deserve a genius and gentlemen like you.
 
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