Cavali Audio Liquid Lightning Electrostatic Headphone Amplifier (Playback 60)

The Truth Shall Make You Free

The inherently quiet backgrounds afforded by the Liquid Lightning are part of the secret to its resolution, as you’ll quickly discover if you play a recording whose output levels have been mastered toward the lower end of the spectrum. Some good examples would be most any track on Professor Johnson’s 30^th Anniversary Sampler disc [Reference Recordings, HDCD], which is rightly regarded as something of an audiophile classic. On first playing, it becomes obvious that signal levels on the disc are much, much lower than for typical pop recordings, so that you may feel the need to dial up amplifier gain levels considerably higher than you would with run-of-the-mill records. But with some amps this can be a tricky proposition, because as gain levels come up so, too, do noise floor levels, which inevitably robs listeners of some measure of low-level resolution. Happily, this doesn’t happen with the Liquid Lightning; even with gain levels turned up quite high the noise floor remains very low, so that you can have the gain you need without paying a sonic penalty. The reward, as you’ll discover if you listen, for example, to the excerpt from the angular, modernistic, and at times quite percussive Skrowaczewski Concerto Nicolò from the 30^th Anniversary Sampler disc is a Tour de’ force in tonal colors, transient attack, dynamic expression, and inner detail. It’s a breathtaking recording made even more enjoyable and intelligible by the Cavalli amp’s low noise, an amp that proves the truth of the old adage that, “less noise = more usable sound.”

CONCLUSION:

Consider this electrostatic headphone amp if:

• If you want what is arguably the most accurate, neutral, agile, and transparent-sounding electrostatic headphone amp there is—one that perfectly complements the capabilities of the Stax SR-009 headphone.
• You delight in hearing exactly what’s in your favorite recordings, right down to the most minute of details. With the Cavalli, you have the eerie sense of looking, figuratively speaking, over the record producer’s shoulders to learn how recordings are put together.
• You find it thrilling to hear subtle textural variations, transient sounds, dynamic modulation, and inner details that other amps either miss or exaggerate. The Cavalli simply tells it like it is.

Look elsewhere if:

• “You can’t handle the truth,” as Jack Nicholson famously snarled in the film A Few Good Men. Some folks love getting all the information; others find it a burden (or even a source of irritation).
• You want a more relaxed or perhaps more romantic sonic presentation than the Liquid Lightning provides. The Cavalli’s “just-the-facts-Ma’am” honesty isn’t for everyone.

Ratings (relative to other cost-no-object electrostatic amps):

• Tonal Balance: 10
• Clarity: 10
• Dynamics: 9.5
• Input/Output Flexibility: 9.5
• Value: 10 (while undeniably expensive, the Liquid Lightning is actually the least costly of all the world-class headphone amps we’ve tried).

BOTTOM LINE

The Cavalli Liquid Lightning electrostatic headphone amplifier is arguably the most honest and revealing amplifier that money can buy for purposes of powering electrostatic headphones in general and in particular for driving the state-of-art Stax SR-009 headphones.