Amp Camp Amp - ACA

I'll get some matching Dales later, but this worked. Noticed something interesting though. With the new part the initial bias read 9.38. I got it to 9.98 and decided to turn on the other one for warm up. The bias jumped to 10.17 then settled back to 9.78. Probably no big deal but a bit surprising as each amp has it's own 18.5 Vdc power supply. Didn't think these were that sensitive to line fluctuation. I'll adjust to 10V with both amps on over time.
 

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Hi,

is ACA suitable as guitar power amp for home practice? Mosfets in class A, simple circuit, low damping factor seems it could work well. Does it have the liveness and warmth of tubes?

Thanks.

The ACA makes a great little power amp for guitar. The low amount of feedback and generous amounts of 2nd harmonic distortion make it ideal.

Experiment with the output voltage adjustment (P1) and connect/disconnect the 68K feedback resistor (R12). Just be aware that you could damage some FETs if you drive the input with too much voltage like from a tube preamp. Keep the input under something like 10V peak to peak or be prepared to replace some parts. It might be a good idea to replace C3 with a film cap. Experiment with the value but something like .22uF or .47uF might work just fine.

See my posts in this thread: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/instruments-amps/230639-low-wattage-power-amp-preamp.html
 
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Grappling with the Mu in ACA and J2 clone

I'm still trying to get a feel for the Mu Follower. In the ACA, is the value of R7 a major factor in the bias? If one wanted higher bias, what are the best options?

Can you lower the value of R7?

Would a Darlington at Q3 work well (to get a Vbe of 1.3 instead of .65)?

I used the addition of R15 in my build of the ACA, but would that type of solution work for any bias desired?

I'm also trying to understand how the J2 CS works, and I'm having a hard time drawing analogies to the ACA when it comes to the opto-isolator. Is the opto-isolator forcing a Vbe of 1.4V to get the 1.7A bias?