BS Cavalli LL Concerns

Old argument, I know, but I had a resistor on my liquid lightning erupt like a white blow torch a few years ago, so I think there was something to this. It did immediately shut itself off and I believe the headphones were spared, though.

 

Oh hi Spritzer. The donuts are the other way.

 

I'm not Spritzer. I only vaguely recall who he is. I mentioned my prior accounts in my intro post.

My LL was an early model bought from MF a million years ago.

 

I don’t care if I’m an MOT now. I have zero tolerance for any negative talk about Cavalli. There’s been way too much personal vendetta lead by KG and his followers leading to spin politics and lies about Cavalli over the years (not being respected on DIY forums? lol he did so much for the DIY community before going commercial, he was highly respected and as @purrin said his designs were loved by a lot of other respected people) and not nearly enough actual fact behind any of it. Someone has to just stand up for Alex and take a stand against the lies and KG kool aid and I’m happy to do that because even if this propaganda war feels like a horse that has been beaten to death, Alex is not only a real human being he is still alive and now completely disillusioned by a hobby he once loved and gave his life to because of all of this. And there are so many wonderful designs we will never see because of that. I will say it again, Alex is a real, genuine human being. He’s not a trash can or a dumpster bin. He’s a real human being.

I don’t know who you are but you should take it somewhere else because there is a long, long history of destroying a good man with posts like yours that are utter bullshit. And since you have no history here I will just assume bullshit and FOR ONCE just have Alex Cavalli’s back.

Even if what you say is true, then my response is this: Awww, you had a resistor blow. And Alex's design saved your headphones and likely the rest of the amp. Guess what? There are bum resistors out there. I have a Zana Deux Super that chews through 6SL7 tubes and won't light up the left rectifier tube. But that doesn't mean Craig is a scam artist piece of shit asshole trying to destroy the world. It just means there's something wrong with this one amp. I still love Craig. And THEREIN lies the difference between the way Alex was treated and the way every other amp designer was and is treated. Truth, respect, honesty, hell even some worship for someone who designs works of art. You see it with Donald North, you see it with Craig, you see it with Kevin Gilmore, you see it with Justin from Ampsandsound even. But because of KG, Alex was never treated that way. So I will always be a voice of respect and love and praise for Alex Cavalli. My SOHA1 will eat your Gilmore Lite for breakfast. It also eats pieces of shit by the way.

 

The first two sentences of that and this whole reaction are so unhinged I don't feel obliged to read the rest. I'm a liquid lightning owner whose amp exploded, and I read that and shared my experience because this was the third post on page one -- I didn't nefariously go digging for it or anything.

I'll offer Cavali some defense in that MF told me my unit was a prototype. Maybe production models didn't have potential for this issue.

 

That's unfortunate, if I had a one of a kind prototype amp that's probably close to 15 yrs old then I would be unhappy that it bit the dust as well. But realize that it is a prototype that is over 15 yrs old. Electronic shite goes bad over time when faced with years of micro-power surges, on/off cycles, etc. Just get it fixed and let it go. It's not worth it.

 

I didn't say anything more than I said, and I shared that it was a prototype, and that it was good enough to spare the headphones. Not sure what I'm supposed to "let go". I'll talk about experiences I've had with gear I've spent thousands of dollars on if I want to. I never got it fixed because I didn't like my SR009's and barely used them. I just got lazy and the money was spent so long ago it feels irrelevant.

"Not worth it" is unhinged given my tone and all these concessions I've offered. "Don't upset rhythmdevils saying a true thing in a relevant thread, dude! It's not worth it! (Running Peter jpeg) worst mistake of my life!"

 

It's not what you said, it is the long, horrible history that your complaint is suggestive of. My previous post, which @purr1n linked to when he resurrected this thread explained (briefly) that context and history and if you didn't read this thread before announcing your "truth" that is on you.

Yes, it is generally a good thing for the world to tell the truth no matter what and if everyone did that, your post would not be an issue. But they don't. There are a lot of lies that when they spread, and become opinion (rather than truth), they hurt other people. So unfortunately you can't just walk around dropping "truth bombs" in your life mindlessly and expect everyone to be ok with it in every circumstance. Because sometimes your truth, or your experience, is not universally true, it is an outlier, and once in a while that outlier is representative or suggestive of one of these lies that is much bigger than you and hurts other human beings. If your "truth" hurts another human being, it might be better left unsaid in some situations.

I'm going to reduce this to something anyone can relate to since no amount of reason seems to make people treat Alex like every other amp designer, or with a modicum of respect.

Let's say you have an Asian friend who is a bad driver. That may be true. There are bad drivers out there of all races and genders and sexual orientations and whatever else. But despite it being true, you don't walk into a bar with a bunch of Asian regulars and talk loudly about your Asian friend who can't drive. Because there might be a local at that bar who drives the shit out of a Toyota GR86 who might walk up and punch you in the face (I'm joking here, I'm not suggesting I want to punch you in the face). Not because your friend is truthfully a bad driver, but because what you said is suggestive of opinions that are not true, bigger than you and which hurt other human beings.

Your experience does not equate to universal truth, and your post, in this context reads that way.

 

You are reacting way too "emotionally" about this @rhythmdevils, so i disagree with that part but I do agree that things have to be put into proper context, because one can go into misleading speculations and, as @dasman66 said, we are talking about a 15y prototype.

That is the part where you were wrong @tatsugiri, when you went and said "so I think there was something to this." @tatsugiri ...a 15y prototype going boom can prove somethings but it's definitely not a irrefutable proof of bad design, implementation, qc, etc... at all. So that speculation was unnecessary imo.

So let's put the hatchet where it should be and move on everyone. I'll buy a cup of coffee or tea.

 

Alright, I'll agree I shouldn't have worded that so harsh.

 

Do you have a picture of it? I believe there were two original prototype LL around.

 

It was MF's for like 2 years before I bought it and I probably used it for ~80 hours before this happened. I doubt MF really used it a ton since he had so much gear and only two ears. He used another amp with the SR007's he preferred. It was sn:10, just ftr, and this happened in 2020, so it wasn't as old then. It was not labeled as a prototype and I believe MF paid that $4.8k for it. He just mentioned that to me because it had a different sound from the one Tyll disliked. Maybe Tyll's was the prototype and I misremembered?

It was 8y/o when this happened and only 11y/o now, actually. "Manufactured 6/12"

I didn't want to sperg, but y'all using some shit that ain't true to make it out like it should have been expected.

 

What “ain’t true” exactly about not being surprised an 8 year old prototype went boom? I don’t get it.

 

They were assuming 15, which tbf might be a fair assumption from me mentioning "prototype" at all, idk. I misrepresented how old it was on accident.

I think I had it powered off entirely for 3 years of those 8, and standby for 99% of the rest of that time. Freak accidents and bad component batches happen. Obviously it doesn't happen often, if to anyone else, but reading that old post I originally replied to was funny in retrospect, given my experience.

I dipped from these communities almost entirely from like 2014 to 2020 and really have no clue about a lot of this drama. I went broke right after, but not exclusively due to, whaling the f**k out on this stuff for a few years up to then, and only started dabbling again ~2019, feeling enthusiastic about it this year after getting the rs1x's and upgrading source stuff to get more out of the DAC's I've had forever. That's honestly my deal wrt having all this gear experience but still being so out of touch.