ACP+ (Amp Camp Pre-Amp + Headphone Amp)

I was impressed with this pre-amp from the get go. Both as a kit and as a component in my sun room. Intriguing visuals, really good sound and "I built it" as a bonus. One of the best quality kits I have done in the recent past, and easy assembly and support.

Great Job to the team for all their work

I’m thoroughly pleased with this kit. The package included everything that I needed and It went together with great ease. It sounds fantastic! This has given me the opportunity build on my soldering experience gained in building the 6-24 crossover. I actually combined both in the same enclosure. I now have the ability to drive the 6-24 crossover with the ACP+ and with the rotation of a selector knobs can route the output of the preamp to a full range amp /speaker set up. This has made for a super cool project, a great learning experience and quite a confidence booster. Thank you Nelson Pass for designing such wonderful audio equipment and diyaudio.com user 6L6 for creating such great and easy to follow build guides and all the other helpful members at diyaudio.com. I’m gearing up my next build, the Aleph J. I hope to be back with another review when I’m done that one.

Since one week I'm listening with the ACP to my favorite playlists of music and I am really fascinated of the musical flow of this Amp. I've build it with a Wolfson DAC together in one enclosure and a separate linear unregulated power supply 2x18V/50VA with main power filter, DC-Blocker and several smoothing capacitors in series. It's the best Preamp I've ever listen to, so thanks to Mr.
Pass and the DIY-store!

It’s a Pass design so it sounds great. No need to say more really. But the ‘go naked in the world’ concept is also brilliant. Not only does it keep the cost in the ‘no-brainer of a purchase’ category but, as someone else commented - this thing belongs in the MOMA.

Had some glitches with delivery - first time I’ve ever had any issue with the Store’s brilliant Delivered Duty Paid arrangement for non-US delivery. The Store was very responsive and helpful with putting this right. Thanks Jason.

There were two caps missing but luckily I had near-identical substitutes in the spares bin and, after all, this is DIY so two caps shouldn’t stop the build. Again the Store was prompt with sending the missing caps.

Another superb addition to the Store’s arsenal of great-sounding pieces at what amounts to a steal of a price for what you get.

No prior experience with electronics or soldering. First I built the kit. I wasn’t careful. I burnt myself along the way, made a hash of it, but it worked and sounded awesome. Loved it so much I wanted to try and build one with upgraded parts.

I got a second kit but replaced all the resistors and capacitors in the signal path based on some reading and experimentation. Takman metal film resistors, a couple of expensive “audiophile” resistors at the headphone output, Elna Silmic II capacitors, and Audio Note KAISEI 2200uf capacitors to replace the gold 1000uf caps in the kit. The new caps were too big, so I had to MacGruber them in. Designed a custom chassis for it with space for a raspberry pi and an OLED display.

Does it sound better? Maybe, maybe a bit sharper up top and more robust down low; the kit sounds awesome as it is, though. It runs all my headphones from 20 Ohms to 150 Ohms fantastically. The preamp out sounds great on a Mytek Brooklyn Amp+. I don’t have much experience with audiophile amps, but the ACP+ sounds amazing even with headphones I thought were lifeless (HD 660s). Planar or dynamic drivers, different DACs and phono stages, everything sounds great. There’s hiss at the far end of the volume pot, way beyond any volume I would dare listen. Normal to loud listening levels are dead quiet in the background.

I got suckered into buying a couple HPAs that were highly recommended by YouTubers, and this amp is better. If all you need is a single ended HPA with a couple inputs and a preamp out, I think you might be hard pressed to find anything that sounds better even at 3-4 times the price of the kit. Plus you get the satisfaction of knowing you built it.

Highly, highly recommend you get a soldering iron and the kit and build one yourself.

Just finished it. No issues, all went to together well, and tested well. I followed Nelson's guide and also looked at 6L6's guide and I am still going through the blog to see what adventures others are having building this. I am not an electronic engineer but I will give advice if I can, but most members beat me to it...

Ended up using a Meanwell 24v 2.2A internal smps for the power supply, and as I intend leaving it on most of the time, this is probably best best choice from a power bill point of view these days.
Although I may try a linear supply later to see if it makes any difference in the sound. My B1K uses a linear supply as does an AMB M3 I built as a headphone amp, both are truly great sounding devices. The ACP+ sounds good too, just different, not sure which I like more at this point . Still to try the ACP+ as a preamp yet into my DIY Akatika power amp, that's in a another room, just enjoying it as a headphone amp at the moment. Oh, and I should mention I'm not normally a classical music fan, but I accidentally came across a bit on DAB radio and it sounded very good, so I would suggest classical fans should defiantly check this amp out.

Next up, I will have to build a box for it... that gold knob has got me imagination think'in...

Two weeks later: Box is built as per photos, no gold knob yet, can't get the paint due to lock down, hoping to soon though, but I think it looks good as a piece of serious hi fi just for the moment.