Probably not. I keep a few cans of compressed air around for the occasional dusting. I have some of my raspberry Pi’s ‘naked’ , running piCore and moode , for years with no problem ( I know that I just now jinxed myself). I am counting on the other exposed components to be similarly immune to the occasional dust bunny. I like the exposed aspect of the set up. I can insert a new piece (pre-amp, amp etc.) as I’m building something and then I can easily test it for functionality etc. If not testing something new, it’s a great sounding platform for that listening space. Thanks for your question and interest!
Another ACA mini comes to life (in the UK).
For the past few years I’ve flip flopped between diy and vintage amps and don’t have anywhere near enough time these days for building or listening to music as I’d like :0) This kits been sat in a box for a year so I thought I’d better get on and build it! It was super straightforward apart from when I got tired and mixed up the Mosfets on one channel, no worries I’ll just quickly de solder them…..errrr ….de soldering those was an absolute pig as the board holes are soooo teeeny tiny. In the end my hot air re work gun did the job but not before I’d snapped a couple of pins and lifted a trace on one of the pin holes on the underside of the board.
I managed to use some thin solid core wire to re build a couple of pins and bridge the destroyed pin hole trace (Taken out when I had to drill out the remains of a broken pin leg that was stuck fast). Once I fixed my own stupid mistakes biasing was easy but I’d soldered in some wires to the test points (cos the holes are so tiny). The fact it biased ok was a relief although I did test the repaired Mosfets before re soldering.
The base is just something I had lying around from an old project. I also knocked up an L bracket for some “proper” speaker plugs from a piece of scrap aluminium.
How does it sound? REALLY nice ….to the point I’m surprised. I’m driving it with my ACP+ fed from a WiiM pro + streamer. The WiiM I’m really liking because of the parametric EQ (another story) but this combo drives my big old 15ohm Heathkit Cotswold speakers with ease.
I may install a power supply filter board and wire in some permenant test points for the bias…..or may not bother! Gonna have to dust off the old ACA for a shoot out. I’m listening with the jumpers out and It’s lush. This one is definitely a strong recommend from me.
Thx to mr Pass and Diy Audio for making it available For non-geniuses like me to knock up great sounding amps.
Mike
For the past few years I’ve flip flopped between diy and vintage amps and don’t have anywhere near enough time these days for building or listening to music as I’d like :0) This kits been sat in a box for a year so I thought I’d better get on and build it! It was super straightforward apart from when I got tired and mixed up the Mosfets on one channel, no worries I’ll just quickly de solder them…..errrr ….de soldering those was an absolute pig as the board holes are soooo teeeny tiny. In the end my hot air re work gun did the job but not before I’d snapped a couple of pins and lifted a trace on one of the pin holes on the underside of the board.
I managed to use some thin solid core wire to re build a couple of pins and bridge the destroyed pin hole trace (Taken out when I had to drill out the remains of a broken pin leg that was stuck fast). Once I fixed my own stupid mistakes biasing was easy but I’d soldered in some wires to the test points (cos the holes are so tiny). The fact it biased ok was a relief although I did test the repaired Mosfets before re soldering.
The base is just something I had lying around from an old project. I also knocked up an L bracket for some “proper” speaker plugs from a piece of scrap aluminium.
How does it sound? REALLY nice ….to the point I’m surprised. I’m driving it with my ACP+ fed from a WiiM pro + streamer. The WiiM I’m really liking because of the parametric EQ (another story) but this combo drives my big old 15ohm Heathkit Cotswold speakers with ease.
I may install a power supply filter board and wire in some permenant test points for the bias…..or may not bother! Gonna have to dust off the old ACA for a shoot out. I’m listening with the jumpers out and It’s lush. This one is definitely a strong recommend from me.
Thx to mr Pass and Diy Audio for making it available For non-geniuses like me to knock up great sounding amps.
Mike
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