Just had a chance to hear the Liquid Glass last night for a couple hours.  No suspense here- this amp is killer, with a terrific balance of clarity and with just a hint of that tube sound we've come to love - less than the BA but way more than the Liquid Fire.  It crushed every headphone paired with it (LCD-3 and Don's pick-your-poison of modded ortho goodness) and legitimately contends with the Balancing Act for the best sound I've heard yet in a dynamic rig.  Side by side with my KGSSHV and 007MK1's/4070's (which got less and less head time as the meet progressed) I found the Liquid Glass rendered some of the genres that I found previously limited to Stax as well or better than stats in some cases.   I've demoed every Cavalli product yet and found them to be great, but this is the first one that I'm utterly convinced I'm going to buy. 

Full disclosure: I've been told that the amp changes completely with different tube complements.  I should mention that I was listening with my matched pair of Mullard ECC32's which are my favorite BA input tube.  It makes a whole lot of sense that I'd love a tube I already enjoyed.  Also, I'm not sure what to ascribe to the amp and what to give credit to the tubes, Don's modding skills, or Luis' remastering prowess.  Frankly, I don't really care as I just really enjoyed myself on this setup.

Yep... enjoyed the previous Cavalli offerings but this is something else entirely.  Spent three hours listening, maybe 15 minutes total on my stat setup as I really didn't want to stop listening to the Liquid Glass.  Now to get the Paradox and hear this pairing everyone is talking about...

you know that you might be disappointed after hearing my orthos  ( and yes, in case this does not transcend to web content , I am only teasing LFF ) ..dB

 

A few pictures from last night





One thing we never got to do was roll a few tubes as Tari mentioned. I took a stash with me and had in mind to compare the new CV181's to the Mullard's but we were both so involved with the music that it never became a focus to swap tubes. That and we knew we didn't have much time to get a real feel for the offerings.

So these are the tubes that stole center stage.




I was very glad to hear the 4070 , I have been curious about them for a very long time. It was also the first time I got to see/hear Tari's stat amp as well as the Resolution Audio Cantata. Luckily ( for me ) I got to hear music I was familiar with and this gave me a solid base to compare many of these newer components in the audio chain. I realised once again that stats do certain things very well but I don't feel the music like I do with my orthos. Not a critique on the system at all, it was very good for all the reasons that have been mentioned when people speak about stats. The 4070 was more "open" sounding than I had expected from a closed monitor and although tonally different from my wharfedale's I could hear many similarities. Nothing does a cymbal rasp like a stat , it was a little distracting initially.  The one thing that struck me while listening was that I could hear the sound of the Mullard's  - I have had a variety of tubes in the amp for the past week, Philco black gates, I didn't realise I actually had a set of "3 hole " T plate Sylvanias - ( my date code was 1954 - this begs the question as to when they stopped making them ) , new prod CV181's and a slew of noval tubes. I would love to do a close comparison but the Mullards seemed to have a very "expansive , full sound" bass was not as tight as for eg the sylvanias but overall , the Mullard's gave me that sense of letting yourself go in the music. I know this is pathetic subjective waffling but it was a treasurable moment.

..dB