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Massdrop x Alex Cavalli Liquid Carbon X Amp

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Massdrop x Alex Cavalli Liquid Carbon X Amp

Name: Massdrop x Alex Cavalli Liquid Carbon X Amp
Brand: Drop
SKU: massdrop-x-alex-cavalli-liquid-carbon-x-amp
Price: 149 USD
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 4.616279 (86 reviews)

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Product Description

Made in collaboration with Alex Cavalli, a legend in the world of headphone amps, the Liquid Carbon X is a solid-state, fully balanced, bridged amp with a clear, transparent, non-fatiguing sound. It has the same topology as the celebrated Liquid Carbon, along with updates to the form factor, switching power supply, and input and output jacks Read More

Customer Reviews

4.6

(86 reviews)

(61)

(18)

(6)

(1)

(0)

98% would recommend to a friend

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jlsolorio5746

Mar 2, 2024

Verified Buyer

clean sounding

great when I A-B test my headphones

Recommends this product? Yes

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Sam_Hunny

May 21, 2022

Verified Buyer

Something Sturdy

It's weird how much the quality of products can vary despite identical materials. This amp is flat, and plenty powerful for Hi-fi cans. The metal is so nice to the touch and looks smart yet interesting. Edit: I have been using these with a Soncoz QXD1 and Focal Elegia for over a year. It's had a glass bottle smashed over it, driven around to my University a couple times, and still looks pristine and sounds amazing.

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

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Czyze

Nov 9, 2021

Verified Buyer

Clean and very powerful

I use both Massdrop x Sennheiser HD 6XX Headphones and Massdrop x Beyerdynamic DT 177X GO Headphones for more than a year with this AMP now and I still admire its high quality, smooth controllers and clean sound.

Recommends this product? Yes

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HedleyLamarr

Jul 19, 2021

Verified Buyer

Go to amp

I use this amp generally with the Drop SDAC and I love it. It's my go to, every day headphone amp with fantastic detail and power. I really like the Drop form factor and simple design. At the time I bought it the price was great, and very competitive. At this time there are probably better buys at least in terms of the original price but I still love it.

Recommends this product? Yes

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AngryPersian

113

Mar 2, 2021

Verified Buyer

Pretty situational for me, but not bad

It’s not that bad. Plays well with my Focal Clears but it left me wanting more using the 6xx and the Drop+Grace SDAC. Problem is it mainly plays nice with my low impedance “efficient” over-ear headphones.

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

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brandonwhm

Jan 13, 2021

Verified Buyer

Overall a solid amp choice for the money

Sounds the best in balanced so anyone looking for a decent balanced amp around this price range, its a fantastic choice. Plenty of power to drive planars like the Arya or the Edition XX

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brandonwhm

Jan 24, 2021

I bought mine off Amazon (new fantasia I think?) It's reasonably cheap and does the job but is pretty microphonic. Or you can get some from known companies like hart audio cables or periapt and so on. Jus take sure you get the correct cable for your headphone (newer hifiman use 3.5mm connectors and some older one side 2.5)

Hankho

Jan 24, 2021

brandonwhmAwesome and thank you :) ya I was looking at the same cable from Amazon and wondering if it's any good. Guess I'll look at more options now.

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SilverFolfy

Dec 9, 2020

Verified Buyer

Great powerhouse with a unique sound

I recently upgraded from a small single-ended Objective2 Amp to this here, and it was immediately clear that this thing really got power! Initially I used it only in single-ended input and output mode (balanced cables were still in transit), and while it sounded great to my relatively "untrained" ears it wasn't that much of a difference to my old O2 Amp, but I expected as much. Now that my new balanced output cables for my HD6XX have arrived from CustomCans UK I can say that the sound quality has improved drastically. This could very well be because I use my headphones in an environment with high EM levels. I have quite a lot of active "tech" around me. The sound really expanded on the lower end sounds, which (for me at least) makes for a unique sound that is just much more *fun* to listen to, without compromising the details of the mid- and highrange. Granted, I still input to the Amp from a single-ended source (Grace Standard DAC - unbalanced) just because the balanced SDAC has not arrived yet, but I am really liking it already! I only have to turn up the volume to about 20% on 1x gain and it gets pretty loud, and that's already with the volume in the software at 50%, so yes, much power to drive basically anything. I also paired the upgrade with some new velour pads for my HD6XX, I'll be reviewing them separately here on Drop. These also added some more "umpf" to the low end sound, but had some impact in the midrange clarity. In summary, I can fully recommend the Liquid Carbon X! Footnote for non-US customers: You will need a fitting power adapter, since this ships with a polarized US plug only. One of my adapters did not fit as one of the prongs is "thicker" than the other (hence polarized plug), so make sure you get an adapter that fits the plug type where one hole is slightly "longer" than the other. Oh and also get some duct tape to affix the plug to the adapter, those US plugs are extremely loose and therefore quite frankly seem somewhat dangerous, but that's just my 2 cents. EDIT: Now with Grace SDAC Balanced there was still some improvement over the single-ended DAC, but not that radical, which was expected. Improving the signal chain to EM-resistant balanced connections has overall improved the sound quality a lot, however.

(Edited)

Recommends this product? Yes

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fendrix

Dec 5, 2020

Verified Buyer

Met or Exceeded All Expectations

SE or Balanced out, 2 gain settings, nice clean/undistorted power and powers everything I have easily. What's not to like? This is a fantastic buy at $200 and I have no regrets.

Recommends this product? Yes

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Helpbot

310

Nov 29, 2020

Verified Buyer

Just buy the CTH

Try the thx or Jot if you really want SS

Recommends this product? No

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Rboggyz

Nov 22, 2020

Verified Buyer

Plenty of power for all your needs

Firstly, I would like to point out that the build of this amp is great. A bit industrial, a bit elegant. You've got a choice of inputs and outputs, both balanced and unbalanced, and if you want, you can stack it with the CTH as it has an unbalanced passthrough. It has plenty of power to drive anything you want and plays well with the headphones I've owned and tested (DT 770 Pro, HD580 Precision, HD650, Sundara, Elegia, Elear, HD800). Would definitely recommend.

Recommends this product? Yes

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