So after all the recommendations for the Lazuli Ref cable, I finally bit the bullet. I never imagined spending so much on a cable, and felt very dumb doing it. But with all the strong impressions on the audio benefit it provides to the Utopia, I felt compelled to hear it for myself. I had been using the Forza Noir HPC and stock cable (which to me doesn't sound terrible, its just too long of a cable for me).
Welp, sorry to Lazuli fans but the Ref cable was a big, comprehensive disappointment to me. I'm baffled really that this cable is so highly regarded for the Utopia, or even at all justified by many for its high price tag. Baffled. I don't usually talk bad about products, and am very careful and do a lot of research before buying something. So me writing this feels weird, but I feel like I need to provide a data point for others in my position of curiosity.
Firstly, the cable is built nicely and feels solid and expensive. Particularly, the Y-splitter and headphone connectors look shiny and feel expensive. The sheathing was a little mixed for me. It's a mix of brown and black threads. The brown was fine, but the black looked and felt like cheap shiny plastic. I ran my fingernail across the threads and could move them easily. I guess at the price I'd expect the sheathing to be more tightly wound, but don't think it's going to come undone or anything. That said, there were points throughout the cable that I could see brown fibers sticking up. I know it's a minor thing, but this is a $1k cable. For comparison, I've had three Forza cables in the past, wrapped in their Noir material. Theirs is much more tightly wrapped and feels better in the hand too, with zero imperfections on all three cables I've had. Bear in mind that this is ~ $200-$300.
I'll give that the Danacable felt more meaty and substantial, like a serious piece of equipment. But then you realize that that comes at quite an ergonomic cost. It is heavy and much too stiff. Like, for what it was, I knew it would be stiff and I was willing to accept that. But this was much worse than I thought. With the headphone on, I could feel the cable pressing on my shoulders, and my head movement dug them into me. So I felt constrained to keeping my face forward. Next, despite me getting the shorter 2m version, I could not fit the cable into the Focal headphone case (this is how I like to store the headphones). I couldn't believe it. I could even fit the Utopia's 3m stock cable in the case. Both the stiffness and thickness of the Lazuli are an ergonomic nightmare.
But surely the sound improvement will make up for all that? I'm sorry guys, I was baffled again. On a positive, I did notice that the mids (particularly male vocals) were meatier/more forward than the other cables. But that was about it. My first What with the sound was that I was getting bored. I remember on my first listen that I was really paying attention for differences, as we all do with new gear. But then I just laid back and continued to listen for a longer session to allow my brain to adjust to the new sound. Without even thinking about it, within a few minutes I pulled out my phone and started messing with it. After I realized it, I put the phone down and tried to devote 100% attention to listening (note that this is not common behavior for me, I'm usually engaged with the Utopia). I switch among my favorite tracks to see what I hear. After an hour, I'm like okay...something's off. I felt nothing. It was just...nice. But "nice" in this case was actually not a good thing, because the Utopia usually sounds "awesome" to me.
So maybe I thought I was just off that day, dunno. I tried again the next night, and same thing. I have to keep myself from getting bored and pulling out my phone or thinking about something else. It was so weird! I've never ever been bored with the Utopia. So then I start a/b'ing with the Forza cable to see what was causing this. A couple things were immediate with the a/b. The top end on the Lazuli is neutered. It was such a big difference with the Forza cable, despite them both using 100% copper. It suggested why people liked this cable so much, for the same reason Focal tuned the new 2022 version to be less bright. Except in my case, I don't find my OG Utopia peaky. Yes, it's treble prominent, but not peaky (or shouty) to me. It's realistic. So unfortunately in my case, what this cable does is suck the life out of the upper end. I could immediately hear the difference when switching to the Forza cable (and stock cable too). The airiness/clarity in the treble region would come back. This is why I felt like something was missing and kept getting bored with the Lazuli. The only thing to me the Lazuli did better was the meatier mids, but the neutered treble much overshadowed it.
I really couldn't believe that a $1K sounded worse, that I was in denial and keep putting more time with the Lazuli to make sure. I just kept getting bored, over and over again. Eventually I reached out to Danacable and they allowed me to return it. I have to say props to them for letting you try it and return within 30 days of receiving the product. They were great, didn't push back, didn't make me pay a restocking fee, and understood the points I made on why it wasn't for me. No bad feelings at all on their interaction. I only had to pay the shipping costs, which was a fair deal to me, because I got to put this curiosity to bed.
Suffice to say, you won't catch me spending anywhere near $1K for a cable again. The thoughts I'm left with on the matter is that, if the Utopia is too bright for you, it probably isn't the right headphone for you (or now that there's a warmer 2022 version, only look to that). Don't look at a super expensive cable to "fix" it so you can enjoy it, it just isn't the right headphone for you. If you are like me and love the Utopia's sound through-and-through, then I would tread with caution on this cable.
