Cavalli Audio Liquid Carbon

[kevin gilmore]

the massdrop is a liquid carbon. not a liquid gold. lower voltage power supplies, less heat, less power etc

a correctly built liquid gold is at least 50 watts of heat.

but hey its cheap

Edited November 3, 2017 by kevin gilmore

[wink]

... and, it has a lifetime warranty worth zip......  

[kevin gilmore]

the only one with a lifetime warranty was the liquid carbon version 1.

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.20141003.7.4edb00b7muYKyQ&scm=1007.10011.70203.100200300000001&id=560442101039&pvid=d455e4ef-3a60-417c-9653-9dc0aea4d782

this guy will repair your piece of shit for you, the shipping both ways is going to be more than a liquid carbon is actually worth.

my offer to ONE and only ONE person, send me your liquid crimson (the only one I don't have schematics of) and I will fix it for free. (plus parts and shipping)

options can include turning the output stage into bipolar.

 

 

Edited November 4, 2017 by kevin gilmore

[Thai Tao]

On 3/11/2017 at 10:53 PM, kevin gilmore said:

the massdrop is a liquid carbon. not a liquid gold. lower voltage power supplies, less heat, less power etc

a correctly built liquid gold is at least 50 watts of heat.

but hey its cheap

Yeah, i know it's liquid carbon, not liquid gold but as you stated that liquid carbon is mini liquid gold, i assume that the topology is the same, may be the liquid gold has better PS, transistor, ... etc.

1 hour ago, kevin gilmore said:

the only one with a lifetime warranty was the liquid carbon version 1.

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.20141003.7.4edb00b7muYKyQ&scm=1007.10011.70203.100200300000001&id=560442101039&pvid=d455e4ef-3a60-417c-9653-9dc0aea4d782

this guy will repair your piece of shit for you, the shipping both ways is going to be more than a liquid carbon is actually worth.

my offer to ONE and only ONE person, send me your liquid crimson (the only one I don't have schematics of) and I will fix it for free. (plus parts and shipping)

options can include turning the output stage into bipolar.

 

 

You seem to surf taobao a lot . I don't understand why you always want to reserve engineering cavalli product while you always call their product shitty? I'm also very curious about cavalli designs because i have heard the ehha, it sound very good and i really like reading detail his diy document. I guess the Liquid Crimson is like Schiit Jotunheim with input swap by tubes? I don't know other way then that you can make a balanced amp with only 2 tubes. Anyway, can't wait until you publish other cavalli design 

[kevin gilmore]

A 4 pin plug does not mean it's balanced

the liquid Crimson is not balanced

[kmanshaman]

I own a Liquid Fire. Thank you!! What is the lowdown on this KG? Am I still high from the Mason Proffit concert at UW in 71'? Can I drop this off at NW and you can fix it to make it sound purty?

[penmarker]

11 hours ago, kevin gilmore said:

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.20141003.7.4edb00b7muYKyQ&scm=1007.10011.70203.100200300000001&id=560442101039&pvid=d455e4ef-3a60-417c-9653-9dc0aea4d782

this guy will repair your piece of shit for you, the shipping both ways is going to be more than a liquid carbon is actually worth.

Dude even sells an RK50
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=555379677261

Perfect for when you want your volume pot to cost more than the whole build.

Edited November 5, 2017 by penmarker

[HemiSam]

is it me or did the short bus show up this weekend?

HS

[Rossliew]

On 11/5/2017 at 12:37 AM, kevin gilmore said:

the only one with a lifetime warranty was the liquid carbon version 1.

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.20141003.7.4edb00b7muYKyQ&scm=1007.10011.70203.100200300000001&id=560442101039&pvid=d455e4ef-3a60-417c-9653-9dc0aea4d782

this guy will repair your piece of shit for you, the shipping both ways is going to be more than a liquid carbon is actually worth.

my offer to ONE and only ONE person, send me your liquid crimson (the only one I don't have schematics of) and I will fix it for free. (plus parts and shipping)

options can include turning the output stage into bipolar.

 

 

I see this chap also builds and sells KG electrostatic amps - are these reliable? The price seems pretty competitive.

[kevin gilmore]

no idea, evidently lots of stax mafia stuff on taobao. The one guy took my power supply layout, copied it 100% then added stuff and changed the form factor and holes...

[Rossliew]

Well them Chinese are well known for copying stuff lock stock and barrel...reliability is anybody’s guess.

[mypasswordis]

Didn't realize just how ugly Cavalli amps were, not that I paid any attention to his products after hearing the Exstata at CJ'10 with the purple heatsinks. 

[Laowei]

Shit, there’s even a faked Kerry built T2! 

[spritzer]

Nope, those are his pics.  It's a fake listing...

[Laowei]

The fake goes deep on Taobao.  

[dcpoor]

Their dynalo mk2 is tempting for the price. lol

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.1-c.w4004-2626060199.28.362e04f1hau2JY&id=548593598961

 

how does the power supply in this thing look?

[kevin gilmore]

Those are a clone of my older boards, but a different power supply.  For the price looks like a great deal. Looks well built

sanded off chips in the power supply a nice touch

Edited November 6, 2017 by kevin gilmore

[skullguise]

Browsing the site, finding some interesting things.  Thanks to Google Translate, I now have a new build level to always shoot for:

 

[mwl168]

"gall bladder" level? WTF?

[penmarker]

37 minutes ago, mwl168 said:

"gall bladder" level? WTF?

Its the Google Translate doing its magic. IIRC transformers are translated into "cows".

I've bought a Naim NAP200 assembled board once. They replaced all polystyrene caps with mica and the 2922 are fakes - among others. In retrospect, for the amount of work needed to redo the thing I should've started with a blank board.

[Pars]

3 hours ago, kevin gilmore said:

Those are a clone of my older boards, but a different power supply.  For the price looks like a great deal. Looks well built

sanded off chips in the power supply a nice touch

The power supply looks like it could be a goldenreference clone? Different layout, and nice touch with the chips as you noted. Makes me long for the beautiful beautiful music!

[kevin gilmore]

yes its a goldenreference clone, but without the lt1010 reference chips. So they went with something a bunch cheaper for the reference.

also they turned the tantalum into electrolytic which adds a bit more noise.

still for the price, I can't even buy all the parts the way I build them for what they are selling it for.

 

Edited November 7, 2017 by kevin gilmore

[mwl168]

4 hours ago, skullguise said:

Browsing the site, finding some interesting things.  Thanks to Google Translate, I now have a new build level to always shoot for:

 

All joke aside, although I could not find the original ad at TaoBao, I bet the "gall bladder" translation comes from that Chinese often refer to vacuum tube as "gall bladder",akin to what we sometimes refer to vacuum tube as "valve".  Has been the case as long as I could remember.

Edited November 7, 2017 by mwl168

[joehpj]

Yes. Chinese often call tubes as "gall bladder". It's just one word in Chinese. As an abbreviation.

[Pars]

Why all the fawning here over the Cavalli crap anyway?