[vanhiel]

Hey guys,
 
I was at my local shop the other day and on my way out the guy said they had a Cavalli Liquid Fire and I should check it out.  Now a few things don't match up with what I saw and what I found out about the amp afterwords.  So I'm hoping you guys might be able to help me figure out what the heck I heard cause it was absolutely amazing!
 
Now the guy that was manning the store is one of their installers so he may or may not have known exactly what he was talking about.  But he called it the Liquid Fire and said it was somewhere in the $6k range which is about double what it should have been.  I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since he's not normally in the store.
 
So the amp looked like the the Liquid Gold in shape and top panel perforations.  But I could swear I saw some tubes inside... Now the front panel had a 4 pin XLR and two 3 pin XLR/1/4" combo jacks labeled 1 and 2.  This doesn't match up with any pictures of any of the amps I've seen on the web.
 
 
So what the heck did I see there?  Thinking it was $6k I discounted it out of hand as that's just more than I'd ever spend.  Knowing that the price should be about half of that does make it more tempting though!  While your looking, any thoughts on how much one would need to spend on a dac or phono pre / cart to keep up with the amp properly?  They seemed to be running directly out of a McIntosh cd player.
 
 
Thanks for looking and your thoughts on the matter!

 

[Radio_head]

You saw the Liquid Gold.  
 
A) It is the only Cavalli amp with a 4 pin and two 3 pin combo jacks
B) It is the only Cavalli amp near 6K (used to be 6.5K, temporary special from Cavalli will be 4K until the summer though.)
C) The only other amp with that form that works for dynamics is the Glass which has prominent outer tubes
 
The Gold does have some muted LEDs inside the amp.  I could see a person seeing the hint of them and thinking there were tubes in it. 
 
The Liquid Fire was what put Cavalli on the map and it has sold in way higher numbers than his subsequent amp, so I could see the sales guy getting confused.

 

[vanhiel]

Thanks Radio_Head.  I had the feeling that's what I saw, but wanted to make sure.
 
My brain is currently struggling to comprehend how good it was with my LCD2s.  I've heard people talk about how gear increased their connection to the music and always thought they were exaggerating.