June 25, 201610 yr comment_733657 so yesterday this showed up quoting alex... "In a nutshell, the Liquid Carbon is a fully-discrete, fully-balanced, transportable solid-state headphone amplifier that is capable of driving all but the most demanding of headphones - delivering satisfying levels and offering superb driver control for exceptional detail and linearity." lets run that thru fact check for a second. yep... "Liar Liar Pants on Fire" fully balanced? nope, not in the way that any truly differential amplifier would be. (like any of the super symmetry variants) and absolutely no common mode rejection. fully-discrete? nope not really, see the single ended to balanced converter in the schematic below http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/lc.pdf so much fail in one package... can the stax mafia do better, you betcha. board in progress now, will run up to +/-24V and bolt to a heatsink. So say a liquid gold clone for about $300 in parts. people, why do you buy poorly built crap like this. Buy Schiit, or Audio-GD or many other high quality brands for a lot less money. Edited June 25, 201610 yr by kevin gilmore Report
June 25, 201610 yr comment_733658 Not excactly Nelson Pass, is it..? Perhaps it wuz designed by Di Arrhoea.... Edited June 25, 201610 yr by wink Report
June 25, 201610 yr comment_733660 This really should be called Liquid Shit as two Schiit Modi amps are much better than this. Far cheaper too... Report
June 25, 201610 yr Author comment_733663 in progress Edited June 25, 201610 yr by kevin gilmore Report
June 25, 201610 yr comment_733674 3 hours ago, spritzer said: This really should be called Liquid Shit as two Schiit Modi amps are much better than this. Far cheaper too... Actually, there is a lot of carbon in poo. Report
June 25, 201610 yr comment_733676 Interesting work Kevin/Birgir (as always when something new comes out ) Can I start by making a passionate plea for enlarging the board a bit so that tombstoning the resistors isn't necessary? //UFN Report
June 25, 201610 yr Author comment_733682 But but but so tiny... the resistors are currently .4 inch and the verticals are .2 inch this is the first of many boards. Due to stuff in the middle, .4 resistors are going to make the board much bigger. almost liquid gold bigger. Oops what do you want for 6 hours total. and its schiit magni uber updated board picture above board is 3.85 x 2.5 inches definitely the .47 ohms have to be made bigger, because the current surface mount ones are blowing up Edited June 25, 201610 yr by kevin gilmore Report
June 26, 201610 yr comment_733736 9 hours ago, UFN said: Interesting work Kevin/Birgir (as always when something new comes out ) Can I start by making a passionate plea for enlarging the board a bit so that tombstoning the resistors isn't necessary? //UFN Or go surface mount if/where power handling requirements allow? I'm really impressed by the level of tininess and with GRLV singles, this would be a very compact amp. Report
June 26, 201610 yr Author comment_733744 and it will sound a whole bunch better due to the power supply input fets no longer available as to92, so they are now sot23 may be the reason the liquid gold was canceled as that used to92 input transistors. Report
June 26, 201610 yr Author comment_733760 bigger version, most resistors .5 inch and laying down 3.85 x 3 Report
June 26, 201610 yr comment_733770 3 minutes ago, UFN said: Excellent. Looks worth the extra 1/2" of board to me //UFN Okay then... Report
June 26, 201610 yr Author comment_733771 much more better version now above. fets on the back side. just about 100% groundplane its about $15 per channel could use the caddok resistors for the .47 ohm, and double the price of the amplifier Edited June 26, 201610 yr by kevin gilmore Report
June 27, 201610 yr comment_733849 Think about it, if Cavalli worked for Schiit, and Cavalli means horse...... Well, you make the connection.... (With sincere apologies to Jason Stoddard & Mike Moffat, and all the other denizens of Schiit Audio)..... Report
June 28, 201610 yr Author comment_733980 what is likely the final version posted including board file. actually performs better with bipolar outputs. Report
June 28, 201610 yr comment_733992 Do you think we should go for a move back to germanium transistors? I mean, if you want distortion in your amp, you want it to sound good. (Let's hope Cavalli doesn't find out about 'em) https://robertkeeley.com/2013/09/germanium-transistors/ Edited June 28, 201610 yr by wink Report
June 28, 201610 yr comment_734002 Don't forget to cryo the source too. Everyone knows that 1s and 0s only sound their best after they've been exposed to -190c temperatures. Report
June 29, 201610 yr comment_734070 15 hours ago, spritzer said: Of course it does, we don't need no stinkin' mosfets!! MOSFETs work great! As current sources. Report
June 29, 201610 yr comment_734071 I tried to cryo my ears, but I got a cold reception from the people who do it. So, I'm going with having my ear canals quantum tunnelled to cut out the different propagation delays at varying frequencies..... This is akin to reducing the jitter in your DAC, but a much better high tech solution....... It also helps eliminate the Josephson Junction noise in your synapses and the sound of quantum foam. Report
June 29, 201610 yr comment_734096 7 hours ago, JimL said: MOSFETs work great! As current sources. I know... Report
June 29, 201610 yr Author comment_734101 mosfet current sources are depletion mode. made a very different way from enhancement mode mosfets. Report
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