richieb Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Right at a week since receiving Justin's massaged Pass Amp Camp single ended Class A monoblocks with dual regulated power supplies. Safe to say that these amps perform Way above their price point and would easily compete at twice their price point. Graveyard quiet through the Big 402 horn, Class A articulate, far more bottom than 6 watts of typical solid state generally provides. Not only the simple genius of a Pass single ended design but incorporating dual power supplies which I believe put Justin's signature to these. In fact he said it required a fair amount work to find the right balance of amp and power supply for proper operation. Apparently the kit amps alone leave something on the table until proper regulated power is supplied. And they are as cute as a bug! The damn power supplies are twice their size and weight. Very little heat for Class A, easy to live with. As I have found with other Class A designs they do not put as much meat on the bone as my full bodied Dennis Had KT66 single ended nor the total lite up nature of a Wright 2a3 DHT but damn close to both, somewhere in between. A closer tilt to the 2a3 than Had's more gentle, extremely pleasant KT66, following the sonic footsteps from his years with Cary. Thanks to Justin for his assurance these are good match with my Jubes and Klipsch in general and a more than far value to sound ratio. And they play on ---- 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 The original power supplies provided with the kit are a switching variety commonly found used to power lap tops. Justin measured the amps output and found it under spec. These power supplies bring it up to snuff. If I can ever get my bedroom remodel done and my Lascalas back in there, I'll use my ACA's in there. One of those power supplies will actually drive both amps to max power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwc Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 Are these what was sold in the Garage section? What preamp are you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richieb Posted February 23, 2017 Author Share Posted February 23, 2017 ^^^^^ Yep I'm finding my best results with a George Wright tube preamp set to low impedence. As compared to Nelson's own First Watt B1 buffered passive it provides more drive and additional bottom end. The Wright/ACA combo is extremely quiet but the B1/ACA is graveyard quiet. The B1 provides a softer presentation taking it to more of a tube level sound, surprisingly. Carl is right about the power supplies in that one would suffice but they are monoblocks so why not supply each amp with its own power? No different than a traditional monoblock with its own internal power supply these just happen to be separate. Glad he did it this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justinsweber Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 They were the same units. I can't claim to have done a lot... the stock power supply has serious issues, and the amp performed just as it should with my bench top power supply. We found linear and regulated power supplies on eBay for 19V and poof the ACA became a reference level amp with ideal power for Heritage speakers. It would be fantastic to see Vox/Klipsch use to demo... and offer a 5watt pin with Pauls name on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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