Cavalli Audio Liquid Gold User Manual

Liquid Gold

Balanced Differential

Solid State Dynamic

Headphone Amplifier

Cavalli audio

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Congratulations! You’re now the proud owner of the Cavalli Audio Liquid Gold® Solid State Headphone Amplifier!

Amplifier Break-In

Most amplifiers need at least 150 hours of continuous use, playing music, to reach their full sound signatures. We recommend at least 200 hours for the Liquid Gold.

Your Liquid Gold® Amplifier has been playing music for at least ____________ hours at near full volume. Confirmed by _______________________________.

If this number is less than 200 hours we recommend that, when you’re not listening, you leave the amp on continuously with your CD player in loop mode for enough hours to reach the 200 hour point. It is not necessary to leave headphones attached. In fact, we recommend that you disconnect your headphones when not listening during this break-in period.

At this point - and not before this point – will the amplifier reach the level of performance enabling you to accurately judge its sound quality and to determine whether it meets your critical listening standard.

Before you judge the sound quality of the amp please follow this procedure!

Return Policy

You may return your Liquid Gold® amplifier within 30 days of delivery. Returning the amp within this time period will incur a 30% restocking fee.

Important points to remember about the Cavalli Audio Liquid Gold® Solid State headphone amplifier

The Liquid Gold® is a fully differential, balanced solid state Solid State headphone amplifier. It is especially designed with very high power levels for today’s hard-to-drive planar magnetic headphones, but it does well with almost any dynamic headphone. Its fully differential topology takes advantage of all the benefits of differential operation, including high common mode noise rejection. The differential circuit design of the Liquid Gold distinguishes it from some other balanced amplifiers which operate two separate channels connected together (bridged) at their outputs.

The amp has both single ended (RCA) and two fully balanced (XLR) stereo inputs. The input type is selectable with a 3-position front panel toggle switch. The single ended input has an internal solid state buffered phase splitter to create a balanced signal to drive the amp fully balanced.

The amp has two gain settings to help with the wide range of dynamic headphone impedances and sensitivities. The high gain is 8X and the low gain is 4X. The Liquid Gold® circuit allows you to hot switch the gain using the front panel toggle switch.

Liquid Gold® has 4 outputs: 4 Pin XLR, Pair (L/R) of 3 Pin XLR, and two TRS (standard ¼” phone plug). One of the TRS jacks (Low) has gain reduction resistors for situations where the headphone sensitivity is very high. These resistors should help in many instances of low impedance, high sensitivity headphones, but may not satisfy all conditions.

Power is controlled by a standby power circuit activated by a custom made Piezo power switch. Operation during power up is indicated by two LEDs below the power switch button. The power supply has a controlled startup sequence to protect the output devices and their drivers from high startup transient currents.

Operation

Your Liquid Gold® amplifier has been operated for at least 50 hours for quality control and to give the components an opportunity to break in. However, most amplifiers don’t fully settle, open up, and “relax” until they are played for at least 100 to 150 hours of operation. The Liquid Gold® also follows this timeline up to 200 hours (see page 3). Your new amp will continue to improve with regard to bass impact, more open sound, warmth, and “sweetness,” so we strongly recommend that you accumulate these important hours on your Liquid Gold® Solid State headphone amplifier by playing it as much as possible so that you may fully enjoy its performance as soon as possible.

Your power inlet has been set for the voltage you specified.

1) Insert the power cord.

2) Flip the standby switch on the power inlet at the rear of the amplifier. The power switch

on the front panel should light white.

3) Pushing the power switch turns the amp on (see notes below about “The Power Switch”).

The white LED to the left and under the power switch will light red indicating that the amp is on. This LED is marked “W” for “Wait.”

4) The power circuit will delay anywhere from 1-2 minutes depending on your line/mains

voltage before enabling the outputs. When the first delay is finished the “W” LED will turn from red to white.

5) The second LED, labeled “H” for Headphones will light red.

6) During this time the various sensing circuits will wait until the DC offsets at the outputs have

stabilized to the point where no damage to your headphones can occur.

7) When these sensing circuits are ready, the “H” LED will light white. At this point the amp is

ready to use.

8) We recommend that you let the amp warm up for about 15-30 minutes before connecting

headphones and listening (although this is not required).

9) You can leave the amp in standby mode (power switch lit) for any length of time.

Important - Power Supply Internal Protection

The Liquid Gold’s power supply has an automatic shutdown feature. The power supply monitors the line/mains voltage. If it drops too low for satisfactory operation of the amp the PS disconnects the headphones. When it does this the “H” LED will go from white to red indicating the disconnect.

+ 11 hidden pages

Cavalli Audio Liquid Gold User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual