[JimL11]

 
Don't forget the MSB stack, The select DAC II and electrostatic amp that requires the MSB select to run it. $84,500 for the DAC and $37,950 for the amp so a total of $122,450 to drive your E-stats!!!

Actually, I'd just as soon forget the MSB stack.  Take a look at the photo of the internals on the MSB website - there's a 20 ohm resistor just sticking out of nowhere below the ribbon cable in the lower right corner.  Now, I admit that some of my point-to-point builds look like that in places, but I'm not building anything for sale, and that is just dire.  If a Chinese junk amp selling for $40 has a nice neat circuit board without parts sticking out in the breeze, it is IMO completely unacceptable in an amp that costs a thousand times more.  And I don't care if it reproduces the voice of God in all its original splendor.

 

[bearFNF]

 
Actually, I'd just as soon forget the MSB stack.  Take a look at the photo of the internals on the MSB website - there's a 20 ohm resistor just sticking out of nowhere below the ribbon cable in the lower right corner.  Now, I admit that some of my point-to-point builds look like that in places, but I'm not building anything for sale, and that is just dire.  If a Chinese junk amp selling for $40 has a nice neat circuit board without parts sticking out in the breeze, it is IMO completely unacceptable in an amp that costs a thousand times more.  And I don't care if it reproduces the voice of God in all its original splendor.

LOL, looks like they had to add the cap and resistor as an after thought. Not good at all. I will stick to my BHSE and LL2 for my Stax....

 

[Neo Zuko]

I came to this thread looking for Cavalli Audio news. Apparently they are ending production of both the Liquid Carbon 2.0 and Liquid Gold. But I see only the Liquid Tungston as a replacement. Yet I don't really want to mess with tubes.

What is the best end game solid state headphone amp going forward?

 

[TSAVJason]

A Gold may be difficult but Carbons are still around. There is more than just the Tungsten coming down the pipeline very near the time the Tungsten hits the market. Before December you should see 4 products available from Cavalli ....yes, the Spark is one of them.

 

[Sound Eq]

A Gold may be difficult but Carbons are still around. There is more than just the Tungsten coming down the pipeline very near the time the Tungsten hits the market. Before December you should see 4 products available from Cavalli ....yes, the Spark is one of them.

any news when the spark will come out as I am very interested in it

 

[reeltime]

I came to this thread looking for Cavalli Audio news. Apparently they are ending production of both the Liquid Carbon 2.0 and Liquid Gold. But I see only the Liquid Tungston as a replacement. Yet I don't really want to mess with tubes.

What is the best end game solid state headphone amp going forward?

Cavalli makes gear of the absolute highest order. Every time I put a Cavalli amp between a source and my headphones, I get a very special experience. 
 
Cavalli also has the single worst marketing and sales team of any manufacturer in the entire audiophile universe. They are perpetually sold out, revamping product lines, and if you don't pick it up immediately, you're out of luck. They've been sold out of every single product for 8 months, at least. It's maddening. 
 
I cannot understand how they stay in business without readily available products to sell. As a consumer, it's extremely frustrating. 
 
I've spoken with nearly everyone on the team at every CanJam I've attended and each year they swear a huge change is coming-- then wait for another year. 
 
I SO appreciate their products. Their old products rival the best available today. But I'd plead with them to produce stuff that consumers can actually purchase. 
 
Edit: There are many quality solid state amps out there. CanJam was loaded with them. One of the best, in my opinion continues to be the GSXmk2. I've yet to hear a bad pairing with any TOTL headphone, and it's a bargain, comparatively. But I could name a bunch of other gear, too, in the solid state arena. That's the first amp that comes to my mind.

 

[Neo Zuko]

I did get the impression that buying a Cavalli Audio amp would be hard. Guess I'll just save and see what's happing when I'm ready.

 

[Neo Zuko]

A Gold may be difficult but Carbons are still around. There is more than just the Tungsten coming down the pipeline very near the time the Tungsten hits the market. Before December you should see 4 products available from Cavalli ....yes, the Spark is one of them.

Where can you buy a Carbon anyway?

 

[FranTBW]

Where can you buy a Carbon anyway?

Try AVExchange on reddit or those sites that sell at second hand, you might get lucky?

 

[AxelCloris]

Where can you buy a Carbon anyway?

 
There were several companies that placed bulk orders during the last production run, but I'm not sure which ones or how many they have left. The good news is that I believe it's still possible to get a new LC, the question is where.

 

[TSAVJason]

There were several companies that placed bulk orders during the last production run, but I'm not sure which ones or how many they have left. The good news is that I believe it's still possible to get a new LC, the question is where.

Cavalli - TSAV & MTME are the only access to the Carbon. Joe Saxon was a dealer for a time too.

 

[TSAVJason]

any news when the spark will come out as I am very interested in it

Right now it's being slightly redesigned. Features and SQ remain the same but its been decided by Alex & Warren Chi that the look of the chassis and the internal space within the chassis needed to be upgraded. So not later than September and targeted for July/August is my current understanding.

 

[Jalo]

[quote name="reeltime" url="/t/843727/canjam-socal-2017-impressions-thread/435#post_13430762

Cavalli also has the single worst marketing and sales team of any manufacturer in the entire audiophile universe. They are perpetually sold out, revamping product lines, and if you don't pick it up immediately, you're out of luck. They've been sold out of every single product for 8 months, at least. It's maddening. 

I cannot understand how they stay in business without readily available products to sell. As a consumer, it's extremely frustrating. 

I've spoken with nearly everyone on the team at every CanJam I've attended and each year they swear a huge change is coming-- then wait for another year.
[/quote]

I was at the SoCal Can Jam and was talking to another dealer about Cavalli amps. We were shaking our head and could not believe what we are seeing. Cavalli at best can only be said it is a hobby and not a business. Every business that has a product works very hard to sell them. But Cavalli would stop selling a successful product one after another when they are all hot and in demand. You just don't do business that way. At least if they don't have the business skill should partner with someone that do.

 

[TSAVJason]

[quote name="reeltime" url="/t/843727/canjam-socal-2017-impressions-thread/435#post_13430762

Cavalli also has the single worst marketing and sales team of any manufacturer in the entire audiophile universe. They are perpetually sold out, revamping product lines, and if you don't pick it up immediately, you're out of luck. They've been sold out of every single product for 8 months, at least. It's maddening. 

I cannot understand how they stay in business without readily available products to sell. As a consumer, it's extremely frustrating. 

I've spoken with nearly everyone on the team at every CanJam I've attended and each year they swear a huge change is coming-- then wait for another year.

I was at the SoCal Can Jam and was talking to another dealer about Cavalli amps. We were shaking our head and could not believe what we are seeing. Cavalli at best can only be said it is a hobby and not a business. Every business that has a product works very hard to sell them. But Cavalli would stop selling a successful product one after another when they are all hot and in demand. You just don't do business that way. At least if they don't have the business skill should partner with someone that do.[/quote]




Facts or alt facts? Carbons & Golds have been available easily for almost a year now. Golds have just recently gone extinct in terms of availability and Carbons are about gone but there are still a few. Our last Gold was sold at CanJam NY. Our most recent Carbon sale completed was this morning.

 

[Stillhart]

[quote name="reeltime" url="/t/843727/canjam-socal-2017-impressions-thread/435#post_13430762

Cavalli also has the single worst marketing and sales team of any manufacturer in the entire audiophile universe. They are perpetually sold out, revamping product lines, and if you don't pick it up immediately, you're out of luck. They've been sold out of every single product for 8 months, at least. It's maddening. 

I cannot understand how they stay in business without readily available products to sell. As a consumer, it's extremely frustrating. 

I've spoken with nearly everyone on the team at every CanJam I've attended and each year they swear a huge change is coming-- then wait for another year.

I was at the SoCal Can Jam and was talking to another dealer about Cavalli amps. We were shaking our head and could not believe what we are seeing. Cavalli at best can only be said it is a hobby and not a business. Every business that has a product works very hard to sell them. But Cavalli would stop selling a successful product one after another when they are all hot and in demand. You just don't do business that way. At least if they don't have the business skill should partner with someone that do.[/quote]

 
Cavalli Audio WAS a hobby for a time.  Don't forget, he started as a DIY'er who was convinced to make a commercial product because his designs sounded so good.  He made them in small batches because they were extremely expensive to produce and had to be priced accordingly and the market for that kind of item is simply much smaller than something like a Schiit Magni.  
 
Cavalli has been working on scaling up in recent years.  I'm fairly certain that the first LC run of 500 units was bigger than all the previous Cavalli amps that had been produced put together.  The Liquid Spark is planning on an even bigger initial run and they're hoping to have the Liquid Tungsten just be a product that will not be built in batches but available to order whenever.
 
So yeah, nothing you guys are saying is a surprise to anyone at Cavalli.  They actually ARE working on it.  But clearly it's not as easy as you might think to mass produce products with same quality standards as one man hand-building them.  And from my discussions with Alex, I know that he really cares about preserving the level of quality.
 
It's easy to look in from the outside and shake your head.  But it's not like Cavalli is the only manufacturer who builds things in small batches with high quality.  What's the lead time on a Blue Hawaii these days?  How about a DNA Stratus?  How many Wells Headtrip Reference amps do you think get built (or sold) in a month?  On the flip side, how many manufacturers sell things for thousands of dollars that have horrible sample variance?  Do you want to roll the dice on a HE-6 hoping for a good one?  How bout an SR-007 mk 1?  Maybe Audeze is done doing stealth driver updates to their LCD line?  
 
There are pros and cons to Cavalli's business model and I agree that I'd love to see them scale up and have a more conventional business model.  But if that's the only way to keep getting that Cavalli sound that I love, I'll deal with it.