Retired Products – Bottlehead Archives

Paramount V1.1 300B/2A3 Monoblocks Pair Kit

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 20:11:21 +0000

Paramount – a new level of quiet, linear performance with 300Bs or 2A3s

A curious situation arises once you have created kits that become classics like the Paraglow SE 2A3 amp and the Parabee SE 300B amp. It’s difficult to decide when to update them in order to incorporate the ideas for improvement that are acquired during their long production run. Do you add a bit here and there, and call it “Mark II”, or do you let a lot of cool ideas come together at once, retire the original kits, and make a new kit that’s a level above the old? (see ‘more’) …

Bottlebatt

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 01:47:54 +0000

Bottlehead DAC Battery Supply

We spent quite a bit of time experimenting with various power supply schemes during the five year development of the Bottlehead DAC. In the end we found that a robust battery supply was the most dynamic and quiet solution. And so we are happy to offer this battery supply designed specifically for the Bottlehead DAC, taking it to an even higher level of refinement.

Installation is simple. Just unplug the line lump supply from your DAC and plug it into the Bottlebatt. Then plug the umbilical cable coming out of the Bottlebatt into the power jack on your Bottlehead DAC.

There are three operating modes:

CHG ONLY – this cuts power to the DAC and lets the battery supply recharge itself at the full charge rate. The charge light will be lit in this mode when the battery is charging.

BAT CHG – this mode lets you play the DAC while the battery charges- useful when you are near the end of the battery charge but not at the end of your listening session. The charge light will be lit in this mode.

BAT ONLY – this is the most “pure” mode, the charging circuit is disabled and the DAC is supplied solely by the battery. You may find this mode ever so slightly more black between notes than the BAT CHG mode. In this mode the battery should last about 6-8 hours from a full charge.

Early on we had thought this supply might be offered as a kit. However we have found that the exclusive number DACs we produced makes it more cost effective to assemble these supplies for you in our lab.

Bottlehead DAC

Thu, 16 Oct 2014 03:51:50 +0000

Nearly four years of design and research headed by John Swenson has brought us to the release of this very special Digital to Analog Converter, the Bottlehead DAC.

Our first run of DACs has sold out. We hope to have another production run in the future.

For those of you who just need the highlights, here are the bullet points-

• 32 bits, up to 384kHz USB, 192kHz S/PDIF
• USB, coax digital, TOSLINK inputs
• Approx 2V output via RCA jacks
• A radical approach to digital filtering

Impressions

My BH DAC arrived last Friday . . . while I was away :'( Home on Monday and I hooked it up and
ran a burn in disc for 24 hours. Sat down on Tuesday night to take a quick listen. Put on Sarah
Jarosz Build Me Up From Bones and ended up listening to the whole album. I had tears in my
eyes and I’ve heard this album many times. …I’d been using an … which at this point in time was
my reference having beat out … that had been greatly enhanced and built by … Both these DACs
are in the mid 2k range so having the BH DAC soundly (no pun intended) trounce the … was a
very satisfying experience. After my brief listen what came to mind is and openness, smoothness,
and rich detail that I had never heard. Softened sibilance but no lack of high frequency
involvement. The sound stage seems slightly compressed but may be more real. More listening
will tell. Thank you, thank you, Bottleheads all for a truly remarkable DAC. I can’t wait to do some
more listening. -Chris Adams

My BH DAC arrived on Friday so I spent the weekend listening through my speaker system and
headphone setup and came to the conclusion that it is simply stunning. Has far exceeded my
expectations, and without a doubt it has been worth waiting for. To date my main DAC has been a
… which has a fairly unique design using a discrete transistor output stage and any reviews I have
read always praised it for being refined and analog sounding. The Bottlehead DAC immediately
stomped all over it, everything about it is improved, lovely tight and dynamic low end, sweet
detailed high end, nothing ever sounds harsh or sibilant or badly recorded. Even low quality MP3
files sound good. The more I have listened the one thing that has impressed me the most is its
ability to separate different sounds into different layers. It’s like listening to multiple sound sources
at once as nothing ever seems to get in the way of each other, truly remarkable imaging and
separation. I know it’s a bit cliché to say I am hearing things I have never heard before in songs I
know well, but it really is a case of listening to things differently as there is so much more depth
and detail to be found. I just love it, thanks Bottlehead! -mcandmar

Seductor Single Ended EL84 Amplifier Kit

Thu, 11 Sep 2014 16:18:28 +0000

Introducing: Seductor Single Ended EL84 Amplifier Kit

Stereo single ended power amp using SEDCTR circuit technology by Paul Joppa
All pentode tube complement – 2x6AU6 and 2xEL84
Two stage direct coupled circuit with no global negative feedback
4 watts per channel, strappable to create an 8 watt parallel single ended monoblock amp
Universal 110/120/220/230/240V power transformer

The Seductor is a great match to the Smash preamp and Reduction phono preamp. Why Seductor? Here’s designer Paul Joppa’s explanation for the name – (See ‘more’)

Quicksand Battery Powered Solid State Amplifier

Sat, 21 Jun 2014 03:15:58 +0000

Introducing Quicksand

Having established a benchmark of performance and affordability with the Quickie directly heated preamp, demand quickly arose for a matching power amplifier. Consequently, we set out to determine how to create an inexpensive power amplifier that would deliver the goods with a very low noise floor, adequate output power, upgrade potential, and compatibility with both speakers and headphones. With a $99 price point in our sights, we forced ourselves to look beyond vacuum state amplification, and determined that only a Class D amplifier could satisfy our needs… (See ‘more’)

Smash DHT Preamplifier Kit

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 22:54:40 +0000

Smash DHT Preamplifier Kit – now including the Smashup Upgrade

Smash is an AC powered preamp that fits very nicely between the budget minded Quickie and our top line BeePre 300B preamp. Smash is a directly heated triode design like our other preamps and it incorporates many features found in the top of the line BeePre preamp… (see ‘more’)

Eros Tape Head Preamplifier Kit

Sat, 11 Jan 2014 16:09:16 +0000

A few years ago we became interested in high performance reel to reel tape playback, after winning a couple of best sound of show comments from reviewers at audio shows when we demoed with tape. Our Seduction phono preamp kit worked well as a starting point from which to build a dedicated tape head, or as it is known in the recording industry, repro amp. When we gave the Foreplay line stage a major revision in the form of Foreplay III (and the ultimate version, Extended Foreplay) and we felt is was also time to bring out a phono preamp kit and a tape head preamp kit that were designed to the same sonic standard. And so after two years of development we proudly introduce Eros in two versions – phono preamp and tape head preamp – with higher gain, better signal to noise ratio and hybrid shunt regulation.

Bottlehead Filament Choke FC-1 – pair

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:21:56 +0000

Bottlenect RCA Interconnect Cable Kit

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:25:01 +0000

We are offering the cable kits in three lengths – 1/2 meter, 1 meter and 2 meters. One kit supplies you with what you need to build one pair of cables – four RCA plugs and the proper amount of cable and Techflex in two colors. These should make for an easy first kit, something to build in an evening.

The Fix

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 09:55:42 +0000

The Fix is a passive baffle step corrector and treble compensator kit. The box has a pair of inputs, a pair of outputs and four switches with attendant network components attached. It installs between your source component and your integrated amp, or between your preamp and power amp.