Dear Viggen, I was outa town.
I can't remember which Nixon. It was tubed and in a black plastic case. Incidently, Pierre Sprey of Mapleshade would insist that it would sound much better in a maple wood box. He's very strong about the negative qualities of plastic as a dialectric. I just was discussing the ack and the cap mod with him and he suggested that the extra 5 microfarad on each channel was most likely unnecessary, stating that the DynamiCap and particularly the bypass might have been the real poiint here. I don't remeber whether I added the second 5 or the bypass first. I'll revisit it.
I did the Nixon/ack comparison with stock units of both. The Nixon was softer, grundgier, not as clear, not as silent a background. I didn't take alot of time with it because it was pretty clear to me which I prefered. It's not suprising to me given the battery and simpler circuit of the ack.
My system consists of the above mentioned transport and dac into a modified Cary SEI LX20 giving 20 watts single ended into modified Gallo references using all Mapleshade/Insound cables and power cords; pretty tweeked and well set up, halfway into the long length of the room with the listening position fairly nearfield at the apex of a right triangle in a 13x24x9 room with roomtunes.
