On Sunday, I was able to solder the nice caps kit that Mr. @birdbox mentioned in this forum before. At first, I didn't hear that much difference, so I chalked it up to needing time to let the caps burn-in. I played with it on and off over the last few days, listening late at night as I always do. All of a sudden, the little mighty ACA MINI starts sounding more sublime than usual. It's getting late, and ACA MINI just keeps chugging along, telling me "Yeah its late, and you have to work early, just listen to one more song!"
S*&^! Mini, I have to go to bed!.... Mini says "shhhhh, here listen to Free Bird, then you can go!" I have no willpower, so I oblige....
If you own a mini, I think it's worthwhile to make this mini upgrade. It's 4 caps. It took me longer to find my solder and turn on the soldering Iron than to solder them in.
Best,
Jose
S*&^! Mini, I have to go to bed!.... Mini says "shhhhh, here listen to Free Bird, then you can go!" I have no willpower, so I oblige....
If you own a mini, I think it's worthwhile to make this mini upgrade. It's 4 caps. It took me longer to find my solder and turn on the soldering Iron than to solder them in.
Best,
Jose
Hi Jose,
At last an other feedback on these tweaks!
So glad you enjoyed Birdbox' excellent kit, offered at a steal price for the community!
Yes, these are additional caps and although a (small then) difference is IME noticeable from the first minute on, indeed caps usualy need some time to burn-in and we found they settle in -in that particular case- after say 10h upwards and make then quite an enjoyable difference on the Mini.
Have you fitted the PS filtering coil yet? That makes quite a difference aswell IME, from the start, and it adds up nicely withe caps to enhence even further the sound. Plus you could try to plug it in and out very easily as you fancy with just a conector to appreciate the difference - something admittely less easy with the caps... I was fortunate to have 2 identical Minis to compare the tweaks.
Enjoy music very much and thanks again for posting!
Claude
At last an other feedback on these tweaks!
So glad you enjoyed Birdbox' excellent kit, offered at a steal price for the community!
Yes, these are additional caps and although a (small then) difference is IME noticeable from the first minute on, indeed caps usualy need some time to burn-in and we found they settle in -in that particular case- after say 10h upwards and make then quite an enjoyable difference on the Mini.
Have you fitted the PS filtering coil yet? That makes quite a difference aswell IME, from the start, and it adds up nicely withe caps to enhence even further the sound. Plus you could try to plug it in and out very easily as you fancy with just a conector to appreciate the difference - something admittely less easy with the caps... I was fortunate to have 2 identical Minis to compare the tweaks.
Enjoy music very much and thanks again for posting!
Claude
Yeah I agree.
Not yet. @birdbox is 3D printing a small enclosure it. I will follow up once I get it done.
Yeah, Danny boy is a incredibly nice and generous person.
Best,
Jose
Absolutely, Dan is a true gent! Nice and friendly...
Of course the coil's improvement isn't directly comparable with the cap's, but the nice thing is IMHO these improvements add up and fit very well together.
In terms of improvement, I would say that the coil makes a similar step in terms of magnitude, so expect definitely an other "no so subtle" improvement once fitted!
Considering all tweaks together (4 caps and the coil), the modified Mini playing side by side with the standard one, the tweaked Mini is quite in another league soundwise, and that isn't subtle at all. It does though retain all the nice sonic signature of the original, so it is really a matter of IMHO enhencing the existing.
And all that for a few additional bucks, thanks to Dan...
Long live the Mini, mine is for friends to try!
Of course the coil's improvement isn't directly comparable with the cap's, but the nice thing is IMHO these improvements add up and fit very well together.
In terms of improvement, I would say that the coil makes a similar step in terms of magnitude, so expect definitely an other "no so subtle" improvement once fitted!
Considering all tweaks together (4 caps and the coil), the modified Mini playing side by side with the standard one, the tweaked Mini is quite in another league soundwise, and that isn't subtle at all. It does though retain all the nice sonic signature of the original, so it is really a matter of IMHO enhencing the existing.
And all that for a few additional bucks, thanks to Dan...
Long live the Mini, mine is for friends to try!
Hi Claude, Which post describes the changes you made for which Birbox provided the kit? I am not finding it. Thanks in advance.
Thanks for your interest!
Indeed not easy, as everything is posted over many posts... and it was all quite a while ago.
I believe post 2875 does summarise what you want quite well.
For more details on the findings and experiments, you have to go back in time, the search funtion is your friend. Posts 2805, 2837 and some more are good starting points, even if showing partial results (some tries that were sometimes bettered later). Regarding the SMPS itself, post 2967.
If you still have questions, it is probably best to simply post them here on this thread.
I hope this helps
Claude
EDIT : ah, e_fortier has been quicker while I was still searching my own posts LOL... Many thanks to him!
Indeed not easy, as everything is posted over many posts... and it was all quite a while ago.
I believe post 2875 does summarise what you want quite well.
For more details on the findings and experiments, you have to go back in time, the search funtion is your friend. Posts 2805, 2837 and some more are good starting points, even if showing partial results (some tries that were sometimes bettered later). Regarding the SMPS itself, post 2967.
If you still have questions, it is probably best to simply post them here on this thread.
I hope this helps
Claude
EDIT : ah, e_fortier has been quicker while I was still searching my own posts LOL... Many thanks to him!
Here is a 3D print design to house the Murata coil as a suggested mod by @ClaudeG for the ACA Mini dc line in.
Hi Dan
This is brilliant and very creative. Will you be selling these ? I’d love one if you do.
Edit: I just noticed you already provided a link. Which material would you recommend, JLCPCB has many choices.
Thanks
Eric
This is brilliant and very creative. Will you be selling these ? I’d love one if you do.
Edit: I just noticed you already provided a link. Which material would you recommend, JLCPCB has many choices.
Thanks
Eric
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Yeah, I plan to include them in the kits I've made with a barrel connector extension for folks who don't have access to a 3D printer. Works really well and super easy to add/remove for A/B comparisons.
I used good ol' standard PLA for the prints. The cost of the material can't be much more than a buck. Find a "Makerspace" nearby if you don't know anyone with a 3d printer, and you can whip the two parts up in a few hours.
I have ordered a aca mini kit yesterday to see if it fits my need as a tweeter amp for my 110db/w compression drivers in a four way active system.
Has anyone tried the aca-mini in a similar scenario? I was wondering if it would be an upgrade to replace the 15000uF output capacitor with a 10~20 uF film capacitor since I will only use the amp from 3kHz on up, or does this only screw things up?
Has anyone tried the aca-mini in a similar scenario? I was wondering if it would be an upgrade to replace the 15000uF output capacitor with a 10~20 uF film capacitor since I will only use the amp from 3kHz on up, or does this only screw things up?
A good practice is to use the input cap to determine the HP frequency, so change C1 to whatever your calculation tells you. Use R=100k in the formula.
Of course you can later reduce C2 to a more appropriate value, but remember the cut-off frequency there should always be lower than at the input.
The best practice would be to use an external Xover before the amp to determine the XO points and leave the amps alone.
Check the store for options.
Of course you can later reduce C2 to a more appropriate value, but remember the cut-off frequency there should always be lower than at the input.
The best practice would be to use an external Xover before the amp to determine the XO points and leave the amps alone.
Check the store for options.
Thanks for your answer. The question was not about a crossover point as I do have a four way dsp crossover in front of it. My thought was that since I do not need any bass or midrange from this amp is to ditch the electrolytic capacitor for a film capacitor.