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Mike Mercer review Cavalli Liquid gold


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Holy Crap...

I have a Cavalli Audio DIY called "BIJOU" and like it.
The sound is very good. Great with HD600/650. Has a little background noise. But it's a very good piece.

Impressed about the low potential of others Cavalli's amplifiers.

 

Damned hell... I almost forgot...

My another amp is a WOO WA6-SE.
:chair:

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On 3/15/2016 at 9:33 PM, DefQon said:

I'm surprised Cavalli is still around. Thought he was trying to sell the business?

I think he is doing well.  700 Grands for Liquid Carbon in 18 months aren't bad at all.

On 3/16/2016 at 1:07 AM, wink said:

He just got Warren Chi as his manager.

Correction.  CEO.

Edited by purk
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If you have minimal running costs then 700K at a decent markup (kinda on the excessive side for the LC...) but we know that this is really the third Cavalli Audio as he's run it into the ground two times.  He always needs new investment to stay afloat so the running costs clearly aren't low. 

Also how many of those units resulted in massive discounts on other items and thus last revenue? 

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4 hours ago, spritzer said:

If you have minimal running costs then 700K at a decent markup (kinda on the excessive side for the LC...) but we know that this is really the third Cavalli Audio as he's run it into the ground two times.  He always needs new investment to stay afloat so the running costs clearly aren't low. 

Also how many of those units resulted in massive discounts on other items and thus last revenue? 

Not the Liquid Carbon.  That amp sells very well.  The first 500 units priced at $599 took two to three weeks to sell out while the last 500 units priced at $799 + perks took about 1.5 months to sell out.

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On March 15, 2016 at 11:56 AM, kevin gilmore said:

jj (formerly tesla) tubes, no plate cap, so none of the NOS versions without modification sockets

and really, a pentode as an otl output? sounds similar to rkv

sure, why not.

Maybe he's got the EL509 triode strapped?  I think I saw somewhere that the rp for that is around 300 ohms. BTW sorry for the late comment, I just saw this.

Edited by JimL
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7 hours ago, purk said:

Not the Liquid Carbon.  That amp sells very well.  The first 500 units priced at $599 took two to three weeks to sell out while the last 500 units priced at $799 + perks took about 1.5 months to sell out.

Yeah but the LC was intended as a gateway drug so if you buy another amp then you get a discount, hence the numbers are much lower.  Also how many have or will be returned for servicing due to the crap design?  All of this adds massively to the cost. 

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5 hours ago, spritzer said:

Yeah but the LC was intended as a gateway drug so if you buy another amp then you get a discount, hence the numbers are much lower.  Also how many have or will be returned for servicing due to the crap design?  All of this adds massively to the cost. 

You should really follow that thread and you will see how much success they have on this product.  And like anything else, many on wish to own their upscale gears.   I still think it sounds good but not the same level as GS-1 or any Dynalo design good.  Sadly, people are such a prisoner of the moment and most newbies probably don't have a clue what a GS-1, (susy)dynalo, (susy)dynahi, M3, and Beta22 are.  The lifetime warranty on Carbon also added to the value on the second hand market.  

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I really don't get it....I've heard Cavalli amps 4 times @ 3 different shows.  Granted show conditions, but each time other amps at the same show sounded better to me.  Don't any of these people have access to other amps?!

The latest was at the recent Spring NY meet.  Dan (MrSpeakers) was displaying his prototype electrostatics with a BHSE, and one of his Ether's with a Cavalli amp.  One of the 2 stats sounded promising to me (the other sounded a bit glaring and congested).  I went over to listen to the Ether on Cavalli, and it was a bit dull & lifeless, with a frequency response that did not sound balanced at all.  I have heard the Ether sound a lot better....

Same thing happened with my own Senn 600's a few years back at the same NY meet.  They did not sound as good out of the Cavalli amp that Yikes had as with several other (cheaper) amps at the same show.  Heck, my own cheap setup, forgot exactly what it was at the time, sounded better to me.

I am no expert at the tech side, so I leave that critique to those who are.  But sometimes a lousy design can still SOUND half decent, at least for a period until something goes bad.  But to me, these just did not.  I haven't heard the LC so can't comment there, but jeez.....I just don't get the enthusiasm.....

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so here is what I think is going to happen.

up to 1000 of these things in the field. as already reported elsewhere, plug anything into both the se and balanced output and the source resistors and possibly the fets fry. may be ok for the first 500 which have a lifetime transferable warranty, but once any of the second batch show up used and someone does the thing some damage and its not covered under warranty, or the warranty repair is Mikhail class, people are going to get mad. The pictures posted show that cavalli cannot do decent repairs to his own stuff.

when this thing shows up on ebay as made in china kits for say $150, and are a better and more repairable product, the used price is going to fall thru the floor making even more people upset.

having my own web server  ( :D ) I know how many times the schematic has been looked at, and where the hits are coming from. More hits from china than I ever thought possible.

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4 hours ago, skullguise said:

I really don't get it....I've heard Cavalli amps 4 times @ 3 different shows.  Granted show conditions, but each time other amps at the same show sounded better to me.  Don't any of these people have access to other amps?!

The latest was at the recent Spring NY meet.  Dan (MrSpeakers) was displaying his prototype electrostatics with a BHSE, and one of his Ether's with a Cavalli amp.  One of the 2 stats sounded promising to me (the other sounded a bit glaring and congested).  I went over to listen to the Ether on Cavalli, and it was a bit dull & lifeless, with a frequency response that did not sound balanced at all.  I have heard the Ether sound a lot better....

Same thing happened with my own Senn 600's a few years back at the same NY meet.  They did not sound as good out of the Cavalli amp that Yikes had as with several other (cheaper) amps at the same show.  Heck, my own cheap setup, forgot exactly what it was at the time, sounded better to me.

I am no expert at the tech side, so I leave that critique to those who are.  But sometimes a lousy design can still SOUND half decent, at least for a period until something goes bad.  But to me, these just did not.  I haven't heard the LC so can't comment there, but jeez.....I just don't get the enthusiasm.....

Plus one can buy TOTL yesteryear amps in a used market for relatively the same price bracket with superior performance.  One thing that this thing have that others don't is the small footprint and all sort of different input configuration.  I have the Headroom Ultra Desktop amp with the DPS (power supply) unit and the combo can be had for around $500-$600...and of course superior sonic wise.  

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1 hour ago, kevin gilmore said:

Headroom designs were ahead of their time and infinitely better quality

i still think I can build something much better and still get it all inside the same size box

I found this out recently when I bought a used 2007(?) Balanced Home with Max Module.  This amp is really good especially with the HD800.  I wasn't that impressed with the earlier Max but their last full-size amp offerings were really superb.  We would love that KG...no doubt.

Edited by purk
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