After I have already made very good experiences with this cable in my last review (
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/lavricables-grand-silver-iem-baltic-grey.26512/reviews#review-30893) of the Grand Line IEM, I had to try it out for my Hifiman Susvara.
The Grand Line is the top cable from Lavricables. Again briefly to the cable structure. It is a 4 core pure silver cable with 6N purity, which is 99.9999% silver. The 6 stands for the number of digits. The conductor cross section is AWG 20.
For my review I use the Grand Line in the version "baltic grey" with 3.5mm connector on the headphone side and 4 Pin XLR on the amplifier side. As a 4 pin XLR connector is used here a very high quality version of Aeco instead of a usual Neutrik connector. The cable costs in the tested variant about 650 € and includes the burn in service of 150 hours. This saves you the time to burn it in yourself.
The workmanship is fantastic as I already reported in my last review. The feel, look of the cable, connectors used all contribute to the very high quality overall look. It is very soft and does not cause any twisting or microphonics effects.
In addition to the actual cable, I had an adapter made from 4 pin XLR to 4.4mm Pentaconn from the identical cable so that I could also use the Susvara portable with my iBasso DX320 MAX Ti as well as FiiO M17. Because these DAPs can! Although my stationary setup consisting of Topping D90SE and Niimbus US4 is of course not to be topped by the DAPs. Still, it's amazing what's possible these days with the more potent DAPs and the hard to drive headphones. The distance to the stationary amps is getting smaller and smaller.
For the Susvara, in addition to the delivery cable, I also own a Forza Noir HPC MK2 and an Invictus Palladium/Gold/Silver cable in the 8 Core version. Very quickly I moved away from Hifiman's own cable to After market cable, since the Hifiman cable is on the one hand very uncomfortable (I call it spaghetti rubber cable) and on the other hand it does not exhaust the sonic capabilities of the Susvara by far. It makes the Susvara sound too romantic, with too little attack and an overall too soft presentation with little bass.
All three aftermarket cables clearly beat the Hifiman cable!
The Forza Noir HPC MK2 puts a decent bump in the bass and eliminates the too-soft attacks of the Hifiman cable. It sounds much more lively and virtually comes to life.
The Invictus Palladium cable is mostly silver as well as gold and palladium. It was the first cable with a high silver content that gave me enough power even in the bass on the Susvara. So far, pure silver cables for the Susvara have disappointed me. My new findings with the Grand Line IEM have moved me to try this also for the Susvara and I was not disappointed, as you will read in the course of the review. The Invictus cable clearly improves on the Forza in terms of stage presentation. The stage is larger and the instrument separation is even sharper. Overall, the resolution increases. Above all, the coherence of the tonality is once again a class above that of the Forza. The Invictus simply sounds more natural, without having to forgo the bass impact. Quantitatively, both are on par, but you can feel the midbass more strongly in the Forza, since it sounds smoother and warmer overall. However, the Invictus costs almost twice as much as the Forza cable.
So how does the Grand Line fit in with my existing cables? Well, for one thing, there's that naturalness in tonality that neither the Hifiman cable nor the Forza offers. It sounds so round, as one would expect for this price range.
In terms of bass, it plays in the same league as the Invictus. With rock & metal, however, I hear an even more powerful bass impact. No one who has ever been with me and heard the Susvara on the Niimbus US4 has ended up saying the headphones had too little bass. That's exactly the amount of bass that a fantastic tuning needs to have in order to come across as neither anemic nor too emphatically exaggerated. Madness, as with the Grand Line IEM that drives my IEMs downrum properly does the same with the Susvara! Impact, audibility all present.
The stage imaging is in terms of size clearly above the Hifiman and Forza cable on par with the Invictus cable. In terms of instrument separation, it's even a bit better. I think it is due to a slightly higher resolution compared to the Invictus cable, which makes individual sound elements even easier to locate.
Mids as natural as can be. I have never heard the Susvara as well as with the Grand Line. The voice reproduction, acoustic instruments everything seems so real and authentic. The last veil is lifted, that too smoothe of the Hifiman delivery cable has completely disappeared. I still don't know what Hifiman was thinking with this cable. It does not harmonize at all with the Susvara in my opinion.
In conclusion, I can say that I am once again thrilled with what Lavricables has conjured up with the Grand Line. Is it really the purity 6N that leads to this result or what is the reason that many pure silver cables sound too thin? I don't really care either. After all, I now know a manufacturer who simply has it in him to design outstanding pure silver cables. Certainly, the cable is not exactly cheap for about 650€. With the Forza you get for half a very good cable that does a lot right. But if you want to go all the way to the top, you simply have to dig deeper into your pocket. By the way, there is an 8 core version of the Grand Line for the Susvara. I do not even want to know what this still tickles out of the Susvara in terms of sound quality
