Bottlehead Crack Headphones Amplifier (Part 3) Tube Upgrade Using Tungsol 5998 & GE 5814

Yesterday, I just finished the restoration process of this Bottlehead Crack amplifier. This is just like a new unit with few upgraded audio parts on it. I enjoy the music from it, especially when I paired with the Sennheiser HD600 headphone, it is sound so good.

After quite some time, there something bothering me. It is the hum idle noise. Although it is small noise but id I can going lower hum, then this would be better. This problem could be cause from those vacuum tube. I don't know how long this vacuum tube has been used previously and I guess replacing them to the new one is a good investments and upgrade to this amplifier.

I bought the new old stock vacuum tube from my friend.

They are Tungsol 5998 and GE 5814, direct replacement with the 6SN7 and 12AU7.

For the price, they are way more expensive than the Russian 6SN7 or 12 AU7. But for the sake of this upgrade, I think they are worth every penny.

And here is the Bottlehead Crack amplifier with the new vacuum tube on it.

This Tungsol 5998 is big in size, looks like 300B.

Those new vacuum tube are glow bright compares to the old ones.

This make the amplifier looks more beautiful.

The sound with new vacuum tube is more reveal and transparent. The dynamic and details is improved which makes the music deliver more emotion and depth.

The hum noise I mentioned before is almost disappear. It is still there, but small hum compare than before.

So I guess, replacing the stock vacuum tube with this Tungsol 5998 and GE5814 is an easy upgrade to this Bottlehead Crack amplifier.

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