[Mullet]

This amp looks cool. Can't wait to hear it at the upcoming NYC area meet. It reminds me of Alex's DIY amp offering the EHHA. That amp is an embedded hybrid design and is DC coupled. It uses 2 6GM8s (you can use 6DJ8 though). Is that 150mA per channel or 75mA? The EHHA is 100mA per channel. Also, do other 6v tubes like the 6CG7 work as well? or is it 6DJ8 family only? (E88CC, 7308, etc.)

 

[runeight]

  This amp looks cool. Can't wait to hear it at the upcoming NYC area meet. It reminds me of Alex's DIY amp offering the EHHA. That amp is an embedded hybrid design and is DC coupled. It uses 2 6GM8s (you can use 6DJ8 though). Is that 150mA per channel or 75mA? The EHHA is 100mA per channel. Also, do other 6v tubes like the 6CG7 work as well? or is it 6DJ8 family only? (E88CC, 7308, etc.)

 
Thanks. I do love the EHHA amp. The LF was more like the EHHA than the LC is though. And, in both LF and LC the 6922 is running close to 100V plate voltage instead of the the 30V in the EHHA. This is the right operating point for it.
 
Outputs are biased at 150mA each. This is standard now for all CA headphone amps.
 
The LC has a small hatch in the top to make it easy to roll the single tube, but any tube that's used has to come to a real 6922 operating condition (no 6N1Ps for example). Production amps will come with Genalex 6922s. These are excellent new production tubes.
 
This is really a very cool amp, both inside and out.

 

[preproman]

What's the early bird special?

 

[dBel84]

You get to be the first to own a very cool piece of gear

..dB

 

[mikemercer]

  Congratulations on the new amp. You really outdid yourself, Alex.
I love the aesthetic of every Cavalli amp, but this is perhaps the most beautiful of all

and its got the sonic goods to match!!!!
 
We were VERY lucky to get a chance to audition the Liquid Crimson in our hotel room before Canjam at RMAF kicked-off - and Warren and I were FLOORED!
Thankfully I came armed w/ a terabyte of music on one of my Seagate drives and my MacBook Pro/Amarra rig - and the Crimson + my LCD-XCs and Double Helix Cables Molecule SE 4-pin XLR cable produced a sound that was captivating, enrapturing, and just plain FUN! It's like the LAu's little brother or first-cousin (what I told Alex Cavalli):
It has the magically transparent, window-like midrange of the LAu, the sparkle factor, and the soul. The difference I experienced was that it didn't have the same gestalt at the frequency extremes of the LAu - and it shouldn't for the money - but boy was it a sincere pleasure to listen to!

 
I loved it so much I dragged it back up to my room on Friday and Saturday nights just to experience its magic! And it was worth humping it back down in the mornings!
At 2K, I can't think of another hybrid headphone amp that gets close in terms of pure musicality - I was affixed to the system! Thanks to the Crimson, I MAY have managed 4-6 hours of sleep from Friday to Sunday!! WHOAH!
 
I'll be reviewing the Liquid Crimson for Headphone.Guru ASAP!! And I plan on throwing all sorts of cans at the amp: low and high impedance, open-back, closed-back, dynamic and planar cans!! I'm psyched to dig into this review!!
 
Hearing it with the Alpha Prime & Nordost Heimdall 2 headphone cable at Dans booth was one of my favorite listening experiences of Canjam 2014!! Considering I had just reviewed the Alpha Prime at Headphone.Guru before Canjam - my ears were ready for a new experience with the Prime - and the music was rich, colorful, dynamic, hell: Just toss all the audiophily buzzwords together - and that sums up my feelings of that combo!

 
More to come in the review! I'll also review it here at Head-Fi.
 
I think you'd really enjoy it @MuppetFace

 

[drgajet]

and its got the sonic goods to match!!!!

We were VERY lucky to get a chance to audition the Liquid Crimson in our hotel room before Canjam at RMAF kicked-off - and Warren and I were FLOORED!
Thankfully I came armed w/ a terabyte of music on one of my Seagate drives and my MacBook Pro/Amarra rig - and the Crimson + my LCD-XCs and Double Helix Cables Molecule SE 4-pin XLR cable produced a sound that was captivating, enrapturing, and just plain FUN! It's like the LAu's little brother or first-cousin (what I told Alex Cavalli):
It has the magically transparent, window-like midrange of the LAu, the sparkle factor, and the soul. The difference I experienced was that it didn't have the same gestalt at the frequency extremes of the LAu - and it shouldn't for the money - but boy was it a sincere pleasure to listen to!



I loved it so much I dragged it back up to my room on Friday and Saturday nights just to experience its magic! And it was worth humping it back down in the mornings!
At 2K, I can't think of another hybrid headphone amp that gets close in terms of pure musicality - I was affixed to the system! Thanks to the Crimson, I MAY have managed 4-6 hours of sleep from Friday to Sunday!! WHOAH!

I'll be reviewing the Liquid Crimson for Headphone.Guru ASAP!! And I plan on throwing all sorts of cans at the amp: low and high impedance, open-back, closed-back, dynamic and planar cans!! I'm psyched to dig into this review!!

Hearing it with the Alpha Prime & Nordost Heimdall 2 headphone cable at Dans booth was one of my favorite listening experiences of Canjam 2014!! Considering I had just reviewed the Alpha Prime at Headphone.Guru before Canjam - my ears were ready for a new experience with the Prime - and the music was rich, colorful, dynamic, hell: Just toss all the audiophily buzzwords together - and that sums up my feelings of that combo!



More to come in the review! I'll also review it here at Head-Fi.

I think you'd really enjoy it @MuppetFace

John and I spent time with it in Warrens room after lunch Thursday. Listened with lcd-x, lcd-xc, and thunderpants, all sounded great. What a wonderful piece of gear, top of my TO BUY list.

Jim

 

[mikemercer]

John and I spent time with it in Warrens room after lunch Thursday. Listened with lcd-x, lcd-xc, and thunderpants, all sounded great. What a wonderful piece of gear, top of my TO BUY list.

Jim

hey Jim!!
 
The same Jim that we hung out with a bunch at Canjam????
 
Looking forward to your contributions to our 360 Canjam report!
 
and the Crimson is amazing

 

[drgajet]

That be me!

Jim

 

[mikemercer]

That be me!

Jim

AWESOME!
 
It was great kickin' with you Jim - and I'm really looking forward to including your impressions in our Audio360.org Canjam Report!!
Especially your impressions of the Cavalli Liquid Crimson!!
 
We had some FUN didn't we??
 

 

[drgajet]

Best time I've had in a while, thanks for being a part of it.

Jim

 

[smitty1110]

Wow, this looks really nice. Subbed.

 

[punit]

To anyone who has heard both,
 
How would you describe the difference in sound between this & Liq Glass ?

 

[runeight]

  To anyone who has heard both,
 
How would you describe the difference in sound between this & Liq Glass ?

 
Good question. I have, obviously, heard both, but there are several answers to this.
 
The Liquid Glass is designed to deliver the sound of whatever tube is in the front end. The SS output buffer is, basically, transparent to the tube in use. Thus, the LG sound can be changed dramatically by changing tubes. And, the LG can support many different tube types for a wide variety of sounds. The LG is what I would call a classic hybrid amp with a tube stage connected to a solid state stage through a capacitor.
 
The Liquid Crimson is what I call an embedded hybrid. This means that the tube and SS components are blended together in the circuit such that everything is DC coupled (no caps) from input to output. This style of circuit tends to blend the tube and SS sounds into a single sound. This was the design of the Liquid Fire and the LC follows in this embedded design. The LC only takes 6922s and equivalents. It is not meant for tube rolling, although you can easily roll various 6922 tube types. There won't be large changes in sound.
 
If you like the pure sound of a triode that's what the Glass sounds like for whatever triode is used. It can sound remarkably ethereal, but never has that tube gooey sound.
 
The LC gives a lively, crisp. solid, articulate, clean sound with flavor of both its SS and tube components.
 
Both still retain the CA sound signature.

 

[mikemercer]

Well:
 
This is just sounding TOO DAMN GOOD right now!
 
Rockin' Stevie Wonders' Talking Book in hi-rez via Amarra (192/24 - and these are direct from the masters - no trickery) and "Big Brother" sounds so alive, there's a magical spacial presence, much like I get w/ my LAu! It's so engrossing and downright FUN to listen to music through this magnificent hybrid!
 
Though, comparatively, the LAu goes to the frequency extremes more-so than the Crimson (and it should, for the $$) this definitely sounds like its little brother!!
 
Havin' a BLAST right now w/ this rig:

 

[runeight]

Say, gents, if anyone wants to hear a Liquid Crimson, one of our units should be traveling with Mr. Speakers. If Dan is at your event, then the LC is likely to be there too. Stop by and have a look and listen.