Its a big hit...and definitely overly hyped.  I still take my Headroom Ultra Desktop over it...

53 minutes ago, spritzer said:

 I'm also testing some ESP950 earpads off ebay.  They are certainly a step up from the stock ones which are crappy as all hell. 

Are you talking about those protein leather pads from China? I saw those a while back and was wondering if they were any good.

Has anyone heard the liquid carbon and the liquid gold side by side?

 

I may have that opportunity in couple of weeks.  Sadly, I'm sure how long I will keep my Liquid Carbon.

^^^ Don't be sad   Addition by subtraction! 

I am sad because I won't have the LC to directly compared to the LG when that time come.  I have been wanting to sell it for several months now but keep forgetting to do it.  

Sooner than later is the modus operandi here......  

15 hours ago, Arthrimus said:

Are you talking about those protein leather pads from China? I saw those a while back and was wondering if they were any good.

Yup, those.  They are well worth the low cost. 

Heard one of these at a meet on a few different setups, sonically didn't do anything that I liked. The owners however were smitten with them even with the harder to drive headphones, it seems these are really popular.

1 hour ago, Mr.Sneis said:

Heard one of these at a meet on a few different setups, sonically didn't do anything that I liked. The owners however were smitten with them even with the harder to drive headphones, it seems these are really popular.

They are indeed very popular.  I share your feeling about the LC but many thinks that they do sound great given its form factor (most have not listened of better sounding amps).  Then again it is better sounding than a more expensive gear such as the Questyle CMA600i.  Not saying much I know but I will take my HR Ultra Desktop & GS-1 w/ Dynalo + over the Carbon anytime.  I also like the sound of the Senn HDVD-800 as well as the OPPO HA-1 better than the Liquid Carbon.

Edited July 29, 20169 yr by purk

Carbon turns to liquid at 3823 K (3550°C or 6422°F). Boiling Point: 4098 K (3825°C or 6917°F).

It's obvious that the Liquid Carbon really requires a greater input of energy to get it to it's working temp.   

An acetylene/oxygen flame burns at about 3,773 K (3,500 °C; 6,332 °F), so even that positioned under the amp cannot bring it up to operating temperature.

Industrial electric arc furnace temperatures can be up to 1,800 °C (3,272 °F), while laboratory units can exceed 3,000 °C (5,432 °F), so that's out.

I guess, the only real option would be to put the amp in two coalescing white dwarves to make certain of the temp being reached,   

In fact here we could boil the carbon for that super fluidic sound whilst the carbon also evaporates, thus reducing the life of the smp considerably

This is a good outcome.    

For more on this check put the following link. The temp graphs start at page 21....    

http://snap.lbl.gov/pubdocs/talk1.pdf

 

Sold mine earlier today.  Quite sought after by many people with 5 people wanting to purchase it.  I'm just glad that I didn't loose any money and get to keep the GS-1 instead. 

  - 

Edited August 15, 20169 yr by astrostar59

"Cavalli Liquid Carbon…well what can I say about this amp.  It was bought to simply test out this “wonder amp” and well it didn’t disappoint.  Typical Cavalli so their claims about the design are full of lies and the performance is pretty sucktacular.  Way too warm and mushy to be considered anything but low end stuff.  What this is, is an opamp phase splitter running into a quad of single ended amps with quite possibly the worst power supply I’ve ever tested.  There are so many things wrong with this that I didn’t know where to start fixing so I just said “fuck it” and screwed it together again.  I did add some feet to it so maybe an upgrade in some way?    I’m just going to sell this thing so I can buy some more over-hyped garbage to take apart.  It comes with the original box and I believe it has lifetime warranty from Cavalli which people will need if they plug in more than one headphone at the same time.

Price:  400$ plus shipping"

I love your sales policy @spritzer It made my day.

Thanks. 

Has anyone taken a look at the newest rendition of the Carbon, with the supposed new power supply? That's not the only thing you guys have found wrong with it so I guess no one bothered to continue looking into this amp. Wish I'd read all this before I grabbed mine. I think I'll sell it and buy a mojo - I don't want to damage my headphones with bad gear. Thanks for the insight!

I certainly have no wish to ever see one of these again, let alone hear one, but if anybody has pics of the new version it would be simple enough to see if anything has changed.  This is Cavalli though, any claims of improvements should be taken with a container load of salt.  They just lie...flat out lie.. to the consumer so why would this time be any different.  

Please take you Cavalli Audio inquiries elsewhere. There's no love for the "Thought Leader" here.

No no Steve... some of us might like to see what kind of fucked up shit he is up to these days

Edited February 18, 20179 yr by Pars

Oh, pardon me. Carry on then. 

Do wonder if he's finally cased up that latest tubed monstrosity.  It's only been about two years on the meet circuit and never in a box... 

I think it is coming.  Wonder how much they will charge for it.  6.5k?

I am really hoping he puts a price tag of US$165K. on the rubbish.

That way, nobody in their right mind would buy one.................     

maybe it will look like this.

makes the rsa stuff look ok.

3 hours ago, kevin gilmore said:

maybe it will look like this.

makes the rsa stuff look ok.

Well...I had the LG in house for a week and the build quality (chassis wise) is better than that or RSA.  RSA use very thin gauge metal and just happen to photograph well.  I agree with you completely that the engraving is definitely way over done.  That thing thing runs way hotter than even the Dynahi.