Cavalli Audio Liquid Lightning

[The Monkey]

Now that data mining has become so sophisticated, I would think there'd be a way to measure influence of a given poster on a forum.  I know Klout purports to do this across social media, but it seems pretty rudimentary at best.  I'd like to see something more sophisticated applied at the forum level.  But whatever, I have beaten this horse to death and well beyond.  Sorry for the tangential rant. 

[roadtonowhere08]

Now that data mining has become so sophisticated, I would think there'd be a way to measure influence of a given poster on a forum.  I know Klout purports to do this across social media, but it seems pretty rudimentary at best.  I'd like to see something more sophisticated applied at the forum level.  But whatever, I have beaten this horse to death and well beyond.  Sorry for the tangential rant. 

 

You bring up an interesting point, but I have a question:  even if there was a really good way to assign a quantifiable "influence" of a poster, would that really be an indicator of whether the person knew what they were talking about?  There are some pretty influential shills over there.

 

As far as a rep system is concerned, I think it works well for places like slickdeals and such; however, for a place like Head-Fi, the cliques would just rep and upvote each other into oblivion because they have more free time than normal and/or knowledgeable people.

 

Finally, and perhaps most obvious, it would be hard to build up a good influence or reputation if all the intellectual or revealing (spritzer exposing shoddy work et all) posts are either deleted or buried with rhetoric and puffery.  It's damn near impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff for the average person just wanting honest advice with what goes on over there.

[Leonardo Drummond]

I guess it would also be extremely difficult to implement such a reputation system now because the bullshit has been built up to such a level that it would be nigh on impossible to get rid of it, don't you think? I mean, like this Cavalli issue... I see that his produts are actually very well regarded over there, so if, say, Birgir comes along and posts the problemas (considering it doesn't get banned) it's still a one man's opinion going against what is pretty much common knowledge nowadays, even if it's a joke. And I don't think that the average Joe there will have a clue about what's going on and would probably just vote it down.

Edited October 27, 2013 by Leonardo Drummond

[spritzer]

Here's the thing though, they aren't well regarded.  It's just the same people (who don't pay full retail for the product) who hype it up.  They will sure look like idiots when we post what the Liquid Gold really is like.  Ultra high end it is not... 

 

The LF is a dud now, nobody will touch one and they are worthless on the used market.  That was well before this thread. 

[forbigger]

birgir, just curious and would like your opinion, what would be top 5 dud desktop amp post Mikhail in your opinion ? thanks

[spritzer]

I don't like lists or care at all about dynamic stuff but here are a few:

 

Woo WES, took a good circuit and utterly fucked it up.  Basically a quad single ended amp with no option for adjusting anything so everything drifts like mad

 

Any of the Rudistor SS amps.  All based on the same circuit and again, a quad of single ended amps that drift all over the place. 

 

All of the Rudistor electrostatic amps, all based on the Egmont circuit.  Fine 500$ amp but 5K€?  Terrible build quality and a bias supply that will destroy your headphones as a bonus.

 

Alo Studio Six.  Joke of a circuit and they think using a TKD volume control and 20cent Koa SPR2 resistors (aka Kiwame) makes up for the crappy transformers.  Rule one for tube amps, budget everything for the transformers. 

 

Anything RSA though the A-10 and the Darkstar are the standout performers.  The A-10 has to be witnessed by anybody looking for the ultimate "how is this crap possible!!??" 

 

EC Electra is utterly fucked but then again everybody knew that.  Zane Deux also gets an honorable mention.  Stock it is nothing special but then he did a "low impedance" version which simply takes the cake. 

 

Probably missed a few as I've been up for way too long...

 

The Zana Deux

[Leonardo Drummond]

Here's the thing though, they aren't well regarded.  It's just the same people (who don't pay full retail for the product) who hype it up.  They will sure look like idiots when we post what the Liquid Gold really is like.  Ultra high end it is not... 

 

The LF is a dud now, nobody will touch one and they are worthless on the used market.  That was well before this thread. 

 

Oh, really? I saw some posts about meets that were showing the Cavalli amps as the next big thing since sliced bread, so I probably took this and some comments afterwards as the norm, but then I didn't notice who were the authors of the posts. And actually, now that you mentioned it, I can't even remember the last time I read anything about the Liquid Fire!

[kevin gilmore]

Mikhail...

 

All singlepower extremes burned up their transformers. Once you put a real transformer on it, sounds great.

 

ES1 and ES2, output tubes deliberately biased at -160 volts causing maximum VPSS voltage swing to be

800v. Very grim.

 

all high voltage versions of the dynamic amps. major stupidity.

 

singlepower squarewave. no heatsinks, burns up. But the fixed version is kickass for cheap.

 

Rudistor

silver plated copper wire reinforcement of hand etched circuit boards. major clusterfuck

 

boxes of boxes of boxes. one of which is a resistor (current source) in a box with a fan

 

headroom

all the early stuff was built well and sounded like crap. very poor performance.

(sorry tyll)

 

sennheiser

hev60  what a horrible design

and their new $2k thing is a poor sounding piece of crap

 

cavalli

liquid fire, take a standard circuit, replace front end with tubes, output stage with mosfets.

Then deliberately limit the available output current.  Major clusterfuck

 

liquid gold

take a standard circuit and shrink both power supply voltages and number of output devices.

and claim that it is true balanced. but to make sure, add real piece of crap buf634 driving

drv134 to make unbalanced into balanced to drive it.

Edited October 29, 2013 by kevin gilmore

[Jon L]

EC Electra is utterly fucked but then again everybody knew that.

What exactly is wrong with it? I thought it sounded nice in a brief listen.

Since I'm trying to be glass-is-half-full this year, how about a list of *GOOD* Electrostat Amps?

[kevin gilmore]

no matter how well the input tube sections are matched to each other, over a period of time, usually

less than 6 weeks, the thing drifts so much there is significant distortion.  stupid fucking design.

and the output tapped inductor is not sufficient for wide band audio reproduction. Too small a core

and not enough wire.

[FrankCooter]

Yo, Birgir! Me and the bro's are ABSOLUTELY, TOTALLY, AWSOMELY, STOKED, PUMPED, and JACKED that you've become a reviewer dude!!!!!!

 

On a more serious note, I think the $10k Woo mono blocks (cheap, generic tubes included) deserve a place on your list.

[obiwan]

no matter how well the input tube sections are matched to each other, over a period of time, usually

less than 6 weeks, the thing drifts so much there is significant distortion.  stupid fucking design.

and the output tapped inductor is not sufficient for wide band audio reproduction. Too small a core

and not enough wire.

 

Would any of these issues break your headphones and can the issues be fixed easily?

[oldies]

Don't forget to mention the gilmore designs such as the GS-X Mk2. It's bright sound and lack of balls only works on headphones with no top end, not even listenable on HD800's.

[blubliss]

utter rubbish, my dynahi sounds superb with the HD800.

[roadtonowhere08]

Are we keeping oldies around for giggles?  Or did his insignificance allow him to fall off of the shovel's radar?  His presence brings a certain "I have no idea what the fuck I am talking about, because I am a Cavalli shill/whore" flavor to this place.  Both entertaining and pathetic.

[grawk]

so far he's not worth the minute it'd take me to ban him.

[oldies]

You've got me wrong, it's not just Cavalli. Just so happens this thread is where all the attitudes and design opinions suck the most. If you read your own posts, you sound like a bunch of kids bitching about everything that's not your own. Piss poor and immature criticisms IMO.

[The Monkey]

You've got me wrong, it's not just Cavalli. Just so happens this thread is where all the attitudes and design opinions suck the most. If you read your own posts, you sound like a bunch of kids bitching about everything that's not your own. Piss poor and immature criticisms IMO.

 

Nah, you're just a dipshit.

[Audiojunkie]

Maybe he just prefers an amp with lots of plankton? 

[oldies]

Head-Case doesn't delete posts.

Head-fi does. Its tireless moderators won't stop until they delete something deemed politically incorrect..

Here, any stupid comments you make, will remain for posterity.

Unfortunately.

Just as I thought, hypocrites.

[n3rdling]

where does his ip trace to?

[grawk]

Just as I thought, hypocrites.

classic attempt at manipulation. Now you can fuck off.

where does his ip trace to?

buffalo

[roadtonowhere08]

Just as I thought, hypocrites.

 

Nope, your posts will, in fact, remain.  You?  Not so much.

[grawk]

anyway, for the record, yes, head-case does sometimes delete posts.  Mostly spam, sometimes by mistake, etc.  Once someone deleted an entire thread with some number of thousand posts.  It happens.  We also ban people, because fuck off.

[roadtonowhere08]

Is the official banned custom title going to be "plankton" from now on?