New Cavalli Audio Liquid Glass Amplifier - Fall Release - Page 20

I love the pile of glass! Congrats!

Thanks! It sounds great so far (as a preamp too). I'm not quite sure yet if it will beat my Modwright SWL9.0se as a preamp or not. I'll hopefully have time to eventually set up a shoot-out with my other preamps and headphone amps. I think I'll be able to get some more intensive time in this weekend.

Dave are those the medications you had for the waiting on the LG?

Ha! No, I'd like to think I stayed pretty even-keeled and patient with the wait. I've started to collect pill bottles from anyone who I know who's on regular prescriptions (I rarely take any medication myself). They make great replacements for tube boxes that break down.

I just received my LG last night (black front panel version) and it's one solid piece of amp. Build quality wise it completely blows away anything that Cavalli has put out to date, and I absolutely love the minimalist approach they took with case design and lettering. Santa also called and wanted his Christmas tree back, so the LG is refreshingly free of blinkenlights, with only three LED indicators (two of which are multi-color to provide startup feedback) which are all white once the amp is fully on. Even these LEDs are tastefully concealed behind the front panel, something which I love. What I don't particularly care for is their brightness, and, while they're not intense enough to blind a pilot on final approach a mile away, I still feel like I have to look away when in front of the unit. This, so far, is the only thing I can take away from the LG, which, being the nitpicker that I am, is speaking volumes - once again, I am enthralled by this new amp.

 

Sound wise, I had very little time to listen, and so I can't offer any competent impressions yet. To follow at some point.

Congrats Nick.

 

Would you mind posting some pictures of the black one when you get a chance?  I was thinking of going with that color but haven't yet seen photos of it.

Oh, so you're still thinking of going with a dynamic amp? I guess you can ignore my PM then.

 

I'll take some photos tonight or tomorrow.

 

The black unit is gorgeous. I imagine it'd look even better with some black glass sexiness.

 

I can tell you that Alex did everything he could to make those LEDs less bright. :D

So far I've listened with my Mr Speakers Mad Dogs and the HE-6 (using the LG as a headphone amp and as a preamp for my speaker amp).  I have done too much rolling, but here's the list of tubes that have graced the amp so far: stock EH 6SN7, Kenrad NOS 6SN7, Psvane CV181, and a pair of Siemens E288CC (the E288CC is essentially a tall-bottle 6DJ8). 

 

The Siemens were a little too bright for the HE-6, but sounded absolutely stunning with the Mad Dogs.

 

The Psvane CV181 (definitely different from the Shuguang treasures) sounded really good with the HE-6.  I'm probably going to continue to burn these in after I have some general tube-rolling fun this weekend.

Congrats Nick! BTW, what cans are you using with the LG?

LCD-3. Sorry for the belated response, been trying to avoid going online over the last few days.

 

 

I just received my unit on 12/24 but because of the holiday and work, I have not even unboxed it yet.  For those of you who might have this issue, does it seem to be tube or headphone dependent?  When I get home tonight I will unbox and give the LG a listen, but I am hoping the hum won't be there.

I talked to Alex about this hum, it was present on both my 6sn7, stock EH and Mullard ECC32.  But it was not present on Siemens 12au7 silver plate or Marconi B36.  Gonna test some more, could have been a burn-in issue?  Enjoying my LG immensely with the Marconis.  Just hope when the Mullards go back they dont exhibit the hum anymore.  Right now not using my regular system since I left for the holidays and had Alex deliver it to my family in NY where Im staying.  Using my cellphone with a crappy cable 1/8" to rca from monoprice. 

This is a update in my case only.  The hum is no more with the LG.  Tried it with the stock EH and ECC32 again and now I can say without a doubt there is no hum

like when I first used them.  It was likely burn-in in my case. 

 

So if Alex you are reading this now the hum that first exhibited with my LG now is gone.  Maybe this is a isolated incident to those couple of new owners? 

I also had this hum with stock and 7308. Adds a bit of hum to my speakers. And some with lcd3 and he-6.

It also kept tripping to safe mode when using as preamp. I shipped it back to Alex to check ir out while on vacation. Hopefully everything is fine and I get it back quickly after vacation.