FS: Bottlehead S.E.X. 3.0 (C4S, Auricaps, Cardas Inputs, Goldpoint V24)

SOLD

Selling a Bottlehead S.E.X. 3.0 I bought from a head-fi user (Todd R) in January 2019. Todd built the amp himself, and spent $1000 adding the upgraded C4S constant current board, Cardas input jacks and speaker posts, Audience Auricap XO Capacitors, and a Goldpoint V24 stepped attenuator. He also painted the chokes, top plate, and transformer in a Hammered Copper finish, and finished the wood base with rounded corners and two layers of tung oil. It's a fine sounding and beautiful amplifier that is something special -- a supercharged Bottlehead S.E.X. 3.0 amp.

You can see his original head-fi for-sale post for the complete info and extra photos. I purchased it from him as the first owner for $825.

This is the amp that made me sell my Lyr 3 (with upgraded raytheon tubes) roughly a year ago. I just found the SEX had greater slam and a wider more spacious soundstage with excellent imaging. I've never heard a regular SEX or the crack, but just comparing it now to the black widow and 3F, the SEX has much wider/spacious soundstage, a warmer/more full-sounding midrange/lows, and an overall wetter sound that just sounds euphonic and full (as maybe is expected from a tube amp); downsides are slower speed and slightly less microdetails/resolution (but again, with a very full soundstage). The Gungnir Multibit A2 -> SEX 3.0 -> clears makes a wonderful pairing. It's hard to part with this, but I think I prefer the space-savings and convenience of solid state amps in general, and don't want to deal with tube nervosa anymore. And honestly the black widow is plenty "tubey/organic" for me.

The amp uses 6FJ7 tubes, and comes with two sylvania tubes (not sure which ones; pictured below). Todd R didn't know about the output impedance, but it sounds great with the clears, and Todd mentioned it sounding great with the HE1000 and MrSpeakers Aeon.

Full disclosure: When the amp first arrived, I noticed a channel buzz/loud pops in the right channel sometimes. I bought new tubes and that helped a lot, but I suspect there's maybe some kind of weird solder thing going on, but not sure what it is. For what it's worth, I just tried it earlier today for 2+ hours of listening, and didn't hear any buzzing/pops this time, so maybe it was just tubes/some weird ephemeral glitch and it's gone away. But just a heads up for anyone thinking of purchasing this, maybe it's best if they had at least some DIY knowledge/experience with debugging this kind of thing, or are willing to dig around the bottlehead forums if anything does happen. Given this risk, I tried pricing the amp lower accordingly. Again, I listened to it today for two hours and nothing happened.​

Asking for $500 shipped CONUS only, paypal fees included. This amp is special, and will only be available for known friends, contributors, and members only. (No, people who got friend status really early on when contributing gave you friend status and haven't posted much doesn't count.) Local pickup in berkeley for $450.

Please PM me if you are interested/have any questions. Thanks for looking!

 

Looks like a nice build. GLWS! As for the buzzing/popping, the S.E.X. 3.0 I have exhibits similar symptoms when the amp is within a few feet of my phone or wireless router. Sensitive headphones will make it more obvious. Could just be a little RFI. Cold solder joints can act like RF detectors, too. Either way an easy fix and a great amp for whoever takes it!

 

That's a hell of a price for an upgraded, clean build SEX. If I didn't spend my monthly salary on 5 pallets of toilet paper I'd be all over it.

 

I'll take this beast so I can do a shootout between SW51+

 

Sold to @tommytakis!