[bflat]

I'm thrilled with my amp. No issues. That said, there's no improvement in my amp after burn in, which is fine, I loved it after 24 hours... The manual recommends in BOLD to "disconnect your headphones" when not listening during burn in. I didn't do this, but if Cavalli followed its own guidelines and burned in on site, it wouldn't have cost hardly anything, much less a ton.

cost hardly anything? I bet setting up the physical space, testing stations, commercial wiring, hiring technicians for burning in 100 amps at a time would cost something north of $50K. I don't know about the audio business, but in commercial real estate, just wiring power and ethernet for an office of 50 cubes will run you $10K. If my estimate is accurate, you just added $100 overhead cost to each of our LC amps. Sure, they can use the initial investment over again, but when do you expect the next run of LC amps to happen?

 

[defbear]

Keeping 500 amps burning in, plugged in with music playing and headphones attached, for 150 hours would take forever and cost a ton. People were already about to burn Alex at the stake for any and all delays. Not realistic IMO. And my guess is that the imbalance has nothing to do with the burn-in, but rather the amps themselves, as he was having a bunch of issues with the manufacturer. And to my engineering mind I simply don't see a way that burning in an amp could affect the balance between channels. Cheers 

Really? (sorry to editorialize) The purpose, I am told, of burning in an amp is to change it quickly. I goes both ways. Channel imbalance may well be a by product of the amp suffering through "The Burning". And the amp is not being used in the normal manner. It is being put under duress. Go drive the car at 120 mph, even in Texas, and something just might go wrong. Bah!

 

[coastal1]

cost hardly anything? I bet setting up the physical space, testing stations, commercial wiring, hiring technicians for burning in 100 amps at a time would cost something north of $50K. I don't know about the audio business, but in commercial real estate, just wiring power and ethernet for an office of 50 cubes will run you $10K. If my estimate is accurate, you just added $100 overhead cost to each of our LC amps. Sure, they can use the initial investment over again, but when do you expect the next run of LC amps to happen?

That's crazy talk. Those estimates are extremely exaggerated and more importantly sunk costs. The physical space was already needed and paid for to manufacture the amps. According to the burn in instructions, you don't only not need to listen during burn in, but you're supposed to disconnect headphones when not listening... Any Ethernet needed wouldn't be needed for burn in.

 

[bflat]

That's crazy talk. Those estimates are extremely exaggerated and more importantly sunk costs. The physical space was already needed and paid for to manufacture the amps. According to the burn in instructions, you don't only not need to listen during burn in, but you're supposed to disconnect headphones when not listening... Any Ethernet needed wouldn't be needed for burn in.

We are both making speculative statements. So to keep this conversation relevant to LC, how about we change the question? I believe that you agree it will cost something more to add in 150 hours of pre burn in at manufacture. What are you willing to pay on top of $599 for pre burn in versus doing it yourself. I think that would be useful information for Cavalli to consider if it's feasible or not.
 
My vote would be under $50.
 
BTW the office build out cost is accurate since I just signed the invoice for it.

 

[defbear]

And don't forget. They would need power cords.

 

[zachawry]

 
@zachawry what headphones are you using?  

 
I'm using the Alpha Primes and the Ethers. The Alpha Primes are harder to drive, and they benefit more from the LC compared to the Hugo alone. 
 
The Hugo alone offers incredible clarity, while the LC sacrifices some of this clarity for punch and a more holographic soundstage. I'm imagining that the Crimson or Gold would take back some of this loss in clarity. Of course I'm just hypothesizing. s

 

[grizzlybeast]

@bflat Sorry if you have already covered this somewhere but I see in your sig you have the Mjolnir 2. Would you care to compare it to the LC. Im sure Im not the only one curious. 
 
Thanks!

 

[jarnopp]

I'm using the Alpha Primes and the Ethers. The Alpha Primes are harder to drive, and they benefit more from the LC compared to the Hugo alone. 

The Hugo alone offers incredible clarity, while the LC sacrifices some of this clarity for punch and a more holographic soundstage. I'm imagining that the Crimson or Gold would take back some of this loss in clarity. Of course I'm just hypothesizing. s

Yes, I would love to hear those too. Somewhere it has to end, though (doesn't it?)...

 

[doctorjazz]

Who says?
Audiophilia Nervosa strikes again!

 

[bflat]

@bflat
 Sorry if you have already covered this somewhere but I see in your sig you have the Mjolnir 2. Would you care to compare it to the LC. Im sure Im not the only one curious. 

Thanks!

Will do! LC is currently burning in and will continue while I am out of town next week so it will be next weekend for a comparison. I will most likely use Mojo or Gumby in SE output so that I can have both LC and MJ2 connected simultaneously for easy switching back and forth. I will compare the Ether C and Layla in balanced mode.

 

[UnknownOperator]

Peridot and Flashcolor, did you contact Cavalli about the issues you are having with the SE output? 
 
It appears that I am having the same issue. SE output only (the balanced output appears to be clean and quiet). I have the Carbon installed alongside a Violectric V181. Both are fed by balanced outputs from my Toft ATB console. Everything in my studio is dead silent. I have installed dedicated circuits and power isolation equipment to pull this off. I work with a lot of "vintage" gear like Eventide harmonizers, tape echo machines and spring reverb units. The noise I am experiencing at the Carbon's SE output sounds exactly like the transformer buzz that I get with my old Furman spring reverb unit. Taking the Carbon out of the loop of my Furman AR1215 and powering it from a Tripp Lite power isolation brick, the noise is attenuated some, but not completely gone. I also connected SE headphones to the Carbon without the Carbon connected to anything at the input stage and the buzz persists.
 
The balanced output sounds pretty great with my ZMF Omni and HE-500, but the SE output noise/buzz is apparent enough at 1x power that I have been hesitant to use my Grado headphones to check mixes. I am going to contact Cavalli today. Will let you know what I find out unless you beat me to it.

 

[musiclvr]

Peridot and Flashcolor, did you contact Cavalli about the issues you are having with the SE output? 

It appears that I am having the same issue. SE output only (the balanced output appears to be clean and quiet). I have the Carbon installed alongside a Violectric V181. Both are fed by balanced outputs from my Toft ATB console. Everything in my studio is dead silent. I have installed dedicated circuits and power isolation equipment to pull this off. I work with a lot of "vintage" gear like Eventide harmonizers, tape echo machines and spring reverb units. The noise I am experiencing at the Carbon's SE output sounds exactly like the transformer buzz that I get with my old Furman spring reverb unit. Taking the Carbon out of the loop of my Furman AR1215 and powering it from a Tripp Lite power isolation brick, the noise is attenuated some, but not completely gone. I also connected SE headphones to the Carbon without the Carbon connected to anything at the input stage and the buzz persists.

The balanced output sounds pretty great with my ZMF Omni and HE-500, but the SE output noise/buzz is apparent enough at 1x power that I have been hesitant to use my Grado headphones to check mixes. I am going to contact Cavalli today. Will let you know what I find out unless you beat me to it.

@UnknownOperator I look forward to any response you receive as I have the same issue. It seems that any headphone I have that is <32ohms I hear said noise/buzz through the SE output. On a side note, I tried swapping out the cable I am currently using (the supplied power cord from my Asgard 2 amp) with the beefier cable supplied with the the Airist Audio Heron 5; and I found that the noise/buzz didn't increase or decrease in level but became more defined! The noise/buzz level also didn't change when I turned the volume pot up either, it is just a constant. This test was done with nothing else connected to the LC other than the power cord.

 

[Audio Addict]

I decided to try the LC balanced from my Meridian 808.2i. It is plugged into a PS Audio P3 now. Wow, what a total transformation. The Meridian is old school and strictly CD player. Much more warmth / analog presentation. Much more air around the music like a more intimate setting. The depth of the soundstage is deeper as well. Overall just more of everything to pull you into the music.

 

[Peridot]

When I originally checked mine with no input cables attached, I'm sure it was completely quiet so I had put the noise issue down to my Emotiva DAC.
 
I've just checked it again however and I'm getting a different result. With no input cables attached and fairly sensitive headphones (TP51s) connected to the SE output, there's a constant low level 'drone' almost like an aircraft engine noise.
 
This is audible at all volume levels from zero upwards. At high volume levels (past 2 o'clock in x3, almost full volume in x1) there's a louder interference that is clearly 50Hz 'transformer' noise.
 
The noise is the same at both settings of the input switch.
 
The balanced output remains quiet in all circumstances.
 
It would be helpful if Cavalli could shed some light on what might be causing the interference in SE output mode.

 

[CrispyWonton]

  When I originally checked mine with no input cables attached, I'm sure it was completely quiet so I had put the noise issue down to my Emotiva DAC.
 
I've just checked it again however and I'm getting a different result. With no input cables attached and fairly sensitive headphones (TP51s) connected to the SE output, there's a constant low level 'drone' almost like an aircraft engine noise.
 
This is audible at all volume levels from zero upwards. At high volume levels (past 2 o'clock in x3, almost full volume in x1) there's a louder interference that is clearly 50Hz 'transformer' noise.
 
The noise is the same at both settings of the input switch.
 
The balanced output remains quiet in all circumstances.
 
It would be helpful if Cavalli could shed some light on what might be causing the interference in SE output mode.

 
I have to say I am also getting a low hum on my LC. This is with no source connected and with sensitive IEMs connected to the SE output as well. The hum is not affected by the volume control. It does increase in level after some minutes, though. If I do have a source connected, the low hum increases after some time to a level that is distracting to the music currently playing.
 
Am still waiting on balanced cables to compare balanced output, but it seems like we may be observing the same issue.
 
For what it's worth, I tried using a cheater plug with my power cord to test if the hum would go away but I still observe the same behavior.