[Currawong]

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Very cool.
 
Having owned and loved the Agent Orange Stacker myself (now owned by Curra), I look forward to this amp! (I miss that little orange fellow)
 
Congrats on becoming a new head-fi sponsor!

 
Aha, one of the Orange Stacker owners. That amp seems to have traveled around some. One of the few living Stackers. The LG is better and more stable in every respect, but I believe that the sound dynamics are the same or better.

 
Unfortunately the wiring didn't hold up in it, so it is in pieces in a box atm, along with a bunch of Stacker II parts. I have been lazy resurrecting it. At the moment I'm using one of dbel84's other builds. IMO if you have improved upon the Stacker II I reckon that will be a good thing as with my Sony XBA3 IEMs, which have a really off-the-wall impedance curve, the Stacker II doesn't sound right. It is true to its design of sounding like the tubes though.

 

[runeight]

Yes, the DIY stackers were, I think, not quite ready for prime time and that's why there are so few of them. The LG, OTOH, seems to be. Perhaps dbel will have time to comment.

 

[Equus]

Looking forward to it!  My relationship with the Stacker wasn't always very smooth, but I am mostly left with fond memories of it.

 

[runeight]

Gents, pics of the LL are now available here:
 
http://www.cavalliaudio.com/products/liquid-lightning-headphone-amp

 

[mwilson]

Love the innards.

 

[dBel84]

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Yes, the DIY stackers were, I think, not quite ready for prime time and that's why there are so few of them. The LG, OTOH, seems to be. Perhaps dbel will have time to comment.

 
Just a few words  
 
Alex has worked really hard on this design to get it to where it has finally evolved. It has always been the design that I have been biased towards and eventhough some of the builds suffered minor inconsistencies, it just has a way of presenting music that is hard to resist. Very strong and punchy bass, neutral vocals and instrument detail with "microambience" ( the only word I think to adequately describe this ) , that subtle tonal decay and sense of time between notes. I am an orthohead and this amp has always just sounded so very good with any of my orthodynamic headphones. The Class A  FET output has more than enough current to handle any of the tough contenders , it drivers the legendary Wharfedales with ease. When the LF came along, I had a hard time as the early predecessors did not have any of these sonic characteristics and it was always an easy distinction for me. There is definitely much more tube variation with the Liquid Glass and I was a non-believer in intrinsic tube sound until I had spent as much time tube rolling with this amp design. There are folk who feel that an amp should be optimised around a single tube and the beauty of this amp is that it can be adjusted enough to allow several tube types to operate within their linear operating range. This amp is not a "tubey" amp with compressed high distortion , it is everything one would want in a solid state amp but with a whole lot of soul. 
 
..dB

 

[sachu]

Quote:

 
Just a few words  
 
Alex has worked really hard on this design to get it to where it has finally evolved. It has always been the design that I have been biased towards and eventhough some of the builds suffered minor inconsistencies, it just has a way of presenting music that is hard to resist. Very strong and punchy bass, neutral vocals and instrument detail with "microambience" ( the only word I think to adequately describe this ) , that subtle tonal decay and sense of time between notes. I am an orthohead and this amp has always just sounded so very good with any of my orthodynamic headphones. The Class A  FET output has more than enough current to handle any of the tough contenders , it drivers the legendary Wharfedales with ease. When the LF came along, I had a hard time as the early predecessors did not have any of these sonic characteristics and it was always an easy distinction for me. There is definitely much more tube variation with the Liquid Glass and I was a non-believer in intrinsic tube sound until I had spent as much time tube rolling with this amp design. There are folk who feel that an amp should be optimised around a single tube and the beauty of this amp is that it can be adjusted enough to allow several tube types to operate within their linear operating range. This amp is not a "tubey" amp with compressed high distortion , it is everything one would want in a solid state amp but with a whole lot of soul. 
 
..dB

indeed!! will always be my person favorite of an amp..well until the LF came around. I would love to listen to this newest iteration which is supposedly several orders of magnitude better in terms of noise figures and a big increase in output drive capability from the DIY stackers. 
 
Oh, and thanks Alex for supporting the community by becoming a sponsor. Wish you and Cavalli Audio the very best of success.

 

[arnaud]

Hello Alex,
 
I did not find the LL sponsor thread yet so I will ask here. Can you provide the final (production) specs for the LL (P/P voltage and "bias" current on the output stage)?
 
Really looking forward to listen to the amp at some point!
 
arnaud

 

[runeight]

Hi Arnaud. The LL has 400V rails so by the standard measure that seems to applied to stat amps it is a 1600Vpp amplifier. The bias on the output follower stages is 13mA set by the CCSs that are loading the followers.
 
I'm getting an amp ready to send to Japan. I just need to fulfil all current orders and then one will be coming your way, wired for 100V mains.

 

[arnaud]

Promising specs and awesome news!

 

[sridhar3]

How many LLs are left unspoken for?  I'd like to grab one up, but that might only happen in early July.

 

[runeight]

There are still some left. Please email me.

 

[sridhar3]

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There are still some left. Please email me.

 
Done and done.  Thanks!

 

[takezo]

the liquid glass sounds very interesting indeed. heard a diy stacker II a while back and was
very impressed with the sound it put out (kinda reminded me of a singlepower mpx3 w/ 6bl7gt
tubes for output) but it had a high noise floor which was a deal breaker. i'm also very excited
to hear it will have both the 6.3 and 12.6v heater options. i have so many 12sn7 and 14n7
that's been in boxes crying for some attention. i will be awaiting in anticipation!

 

[runeight]

The LG is many leagues past the stacker. The diy stackers never really performed quite right, although they impressed a lot of listeners.
 
The LG is stable, has low noise, and more power. The stackers used 18V rails. The LG uses 30V rails and can make about 6W into 50R.
 
I've just completed the pre-production board (one proto has been built to verify the design). I hope to make a formal announcement in a couple of weeks and bring the pre-production amp to LA in August.