Amp Camp Amp - ACA

If you use a tube preamp to get the second harmonic rich sound: one produces. Do the second harmonics from the preamp get cancelled in the balanced mode?

The balanced mode tends to cancel the amplifiers harmonics. So its distortion figures are lower. But those harmonics are the ones generated inside of its own device.

If the amplifier input, to output is flat. And the output of the tube preamp is flat. In my head the harmonics from the tube preamp should pass right on through. Or not? Maybe someone can measure that?

i used both balanced and single ended bridging and the difference is almost nil to my ears...
 
i thought the late AndrewT and company pushed for twisted wires forcefully many years back, the reason being, the smaller the loop, the lesser the rfi interference, not necessarily for neatness only or anything...although twisted wires look good...

having said this, i have since forgone using shielded wires....
 
I'll be getting my second ACA soon and this question came to mind.

Can these amps be stacked? I was thinking that if one removed the top cover from the bottom unit and the bottom cover from the top unit, it might work. I don't have the means to do thermal testing, so Im asking if anyone has experience with stacking these guys.

Thanks,

Chris
 
diyAudio Editor
Joined 2001
Paid Member
Well the issue is that the heatsinks are stacked. Leaving off a top and bottom won't help much. Tall heatsinks are quite a bit less efficient, and stacking them makes them quite tall! Of course depends what the temp is inside your house, but better to put one amp on top of your preamp and one on top of your crossover ;). Or get a wider shelf, or a second shelf. As I mentioned before, an open shelf is best. A shelf with sides and back is much worse. Maybe put one on top of each speaker?
 
I just put my ACA back in to my living room after some months in storage. The power brick browns out and resets every 30 seconds or so. LEDs on the brick and the amp go dim abruptly, then come back up a second later and the speakers make a mild pop. Same thing if nothing is connected to the amp.

Before I dig in with my DMM, has any one seen this before, or have any suggestions for what to check?
 
Dead spiders in the amp, partially broken cable from power supply brick to amp where it's been coiled up? Or maybe dodgy DC jack connection at the amp.

If the amp worked fine before storage it's got to be the power supply being shorted somewhere. If it was from mains plug to the power brick you'd have bigger problems. SMPS has self protection circuit that's working.
 
Hi, my ACA v1.8 chassis didn’t come with the hardware. It looks like I need 12 screws (looks like same size to attach the rails and front panel), 4 screws/nuts to attach the back panel (not threaded, so less important to get size exact), and 8 screws to attach the top and bottom panels. Does anyone know the specs for these three types? I tried searching but couldn’t find...

Thanks!
 
bughunt62 - sign back into the store and find the contact information. The emails I exchanged actually look like they are from contact at diyaudiostore.com. (substitute the @) When I inquired about the barrel size of the speaker posts they were quick to respond with some links. They may be able to get a hold of the chassis manufacturer and get the specs for you.

Incidentally, I am missing a single silver screw myself.
 
I'm looking at the 1.8 wiring diagram, specifically the incoming power to the power switch. Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to twist the V+ coming out of the power switch back onto the twisted incoming power wire? Just for clean wiring's sake? I could take a nice right angle off of there directly to each board's V+.

Likewise the accompanying ground lines from the rear panel. Seems like having that ground nicely twisted around part of the power wire would be a good thing.

Thanks!
 
Switches things on and off again
Joined 2000
Paid Member
Hi, since the ACA Kit is back in store i wonder why the pure PCB is not available. Is it just not being updated?

tnx,
stefan

It's back in stock now. Please note there is no such thing as an ACA V1.8 PCB (yet). The V1.8 kit uses the V1.6 PCB, there were no changes to the PCB. The V1.8 takes V1.6 and adds the new rear panel, new rear switch, and updated chassis rails. There is no change to the PCB. If we do another batch of PCBs in the future we may change the 6 to an 8 on there, just so there isn't any confusion.

Hi, my ACA v1.8 chassis didn’t come with the hardware.

If anyone is missing anything from their kits, please contact the store at contact@diyaudiostore.com and the helpdesk will take care of you.
 
I'm looking at the 1.8 wiring diagram, specifically the incoming power to the power switch. Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to twist the V+ coming out of the power switch back onto the twisted incoming power wire? Just for clean wiring's sake? I could take a nice right angle off of there directly to each board's V+.

Likewise the accompanying ground lines from the rear panel. Seems like having that ground nicely twisted around part of the power wire would be a good thing.

Thanks!

Here's my build, completed just it on Sunday....its pretty clean with respect to wiring, and you can see the V+ wires and ground wires are pretty tidy, too.

ACA-Top-View-Wired.jpg
 
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