Well there is music ( of course )! Feeling a little "black & blue 😉" and also a lot chagrined. Managed to populate the pcb's properly but majorly fouled up wiring the pcb's to the rca inputs and the speaker outs ( this should have been the easy part ). Only playing out of my phone now but this amp is resolving and delicate with the mids and highs. It is a good match with my OB Hestias as I figured it would be.
Of course many thanks to 6L6 who has put a lot of heart and soul into the ACA project and helped me with my mistakes. Thinking my pre amp will have lots more gain than my phone. Will report further once I get my whole system going in the main ACA thread.
Of course many thanks to 6L6 who has put a lot of heart and soul into the ACA project and helped me with my mistakes. Thinking my pre amp will have lots more gain than my phone. Will report further once I get my whole system going in the main ACA thread.
Fantastic news!! Well done, enjoy your amplifier!
🙂 🙂 🙂
So... what's the next project?
😎
🙂 🙂 🙂
So... what's the next project?
😎
Liking the amp very much. Works nicely with the new Emotiva PT2 pre. Given my architectural realities I am shifting to near field listening and the ACA seems well suited to that. Want to add a musical sealed 8" sub so that may be my next project. To tell you the truth I would like to build another ACA to gift or loan and share the Class A experience.
Build an ACAmini. Has a different sound signature, I prefer it to standard ACA, although both are fantastic!
Hi! Just finished an ACA. Not getting any sound. LEDs both work but they stay on no matter which direction the front switch is set. I did think the switch was upside down as it was not as shown in the guide, and also had significant trouble soldering the swtich, which resulted in one of the tags being a tad looser than it was at the start. Not sure what to check first to troubleshoot, any help would be greatly appreciated!
Please post a series of well-lit, in focus photos so we can see the connections and wiring and all that kind of thing.
Sounds like you melted the switch into the ON position, which is better than off, of course…. 🙂
Sounds like you melted the switch into the ON position, which is better than off, of course…. 🙂
Yeah I figured as much with the switch, doh! Here's some pics, let m eknow if you need more...
Nothing glaringly obvious at first look… hmmm…
Have you done any of the step 56 troubleshooting? https://guides.diyaudio.com/Guide/Amp+Camp+Amp+V1.6+Build+Guide/5?lang=en
Have you done any of the step 56 troubleshooting? https://guides.diyaudio.com/Guide/Amp+Camp+Amp+V1.6+Build+Guide/5?lang=en
Not yet but will jump onto that and report back. Ordered a couple new switches to fix that as well!
So, I just recently received my case for the ACA parts kit I had. Everything was going well until I went to screw the heat sink into the face plate. The holes didn’t line up. And the be honest the faceplate looks a lot bigger that I remembered. See attached. I Rotated the heat sink about 10 degrees so you can see it doesn’t line up. Am I missing something? I looked and looked and couldn’t see where I messed it up?
Attachments
looks there's something wrong with the brackets you are using/they gave you 😕
they should be...
also the faceplate holes you are using are the wrong ones: those closer to the slightly larger one (for LED) are the ones
they should be...
also the faceplate holes you are using are the wrong ones: those closer to the slightly larger one (for LED) are the ones
just unwrapped the still unbuilt kit I have here and... yes, brackets are definitely different now
though... holes are perfectly aligned in the kit I have
or at least... looks they are
wait... let me check...
though... holes are perfectly aligned in the kit I have
or at least... looks they are
wait... let me check...
wait... no need I do check: you are trying to connect the faceplate using the backside plate threaded holes, that's why!
just turn everything 180° 😉
just turn everything 180° 😉
Ohhhhh..duh. Thank you! I can’t believe I missed that.
Well, I learned some valuable lessons in tinkering and frustration management through the Amp Camp build.
I guess sometimes you just have to sit on a problem... occasionally for 8 months, it turns out.
After putting the ACA on a shelf for a while, I came back to it. With help from folks like Mooly and 6L6, and maybe 40 hours of troubleshooting the circuits, swapping out JFETs, etc under my belt, I finally realized that no matter what position the paddle switch was in, I was getting the same output (with the same left channel distortion) from stereo RCA input.
Because I had only been testing in stereo mode with RCA inputs, it just never really occurred to me that the issue might be a $2 switch. I must have overdone a solder connection or something on those little pins.
I took 5 minutes to unsolder the the switch, 39K resistor and the XLR connector, and BAM! Channel imbalance was gone, ACA is up and running! I'm going to get a fresh paddle switch and XLR jack and rebuild the back panel for completeness, but it's finally working as I hoped to use it. What a journey! Truly appreciate all the help from the forum and community, and boy am I glad to have completion in sight!
I guess sometimes you just have to sit on a problem... occasionally for 8 months, it turns out.
After putting the ACA on a shelf for a while, I came back to it. With help from folks like Mooly and 6L6, and maybe 40 hours of troubleshooting the circuits, swapping out JFETs, etc under my belt, I finally realized that no matter what position the paddle switch was in, I was getting the same output (with the same left channel distortion) from stereo RCA input.
Because I had only been testing in stereo mode with RCA inputs, it just never really occurred to me that the issue might be a $2 switch. I must have overdone a solder connection or something on those little pins.
I took 5 minutes to unsolder the the switch, 39K resistor and the XLR connector, and BAM! Channel imbalance was gone, ACA is up and running! I'm going to get a fresh paddle switch and XLR jack and rebuild the back panel for completeness, but it's finally working as I hoped to use it. What a journey! Truly appreciate all the help from the forum and community, and boy am I glad to have completion in sight!
