I've now owned my Noir cable for a couple of weeks and have allowed the cable plenty of time to burn in. I decided to write my impressions after trying the cable with my LCD 2 headphones.
As a bit of background I had not heard of Forza Audioworks until I visited my friend - we occasionally demo our systems and headphones at each others homes. This time it was my turn to visit him with my setup. I have a Flux VOLOT amplifier, Chord Hugo 2, Mscaler, Innuos Server with good quality power cables and interconnects. I took my HD800, Hifiman Sundara, Modded HD650 headphones. My friend has an amazing set of equipment - too much to mention all of it but including ZMF, Audeze, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic headphones, Chord Hugo TT2, Mscaler, IFI iCan Pro, Violectric V550, Metrum DAC, Benchmark DAC plus many many others. I always say it's better visiting him than our local hifi shop
After a morning trying my headphones with a couple of his setups I asked him to say which was his preferred Headphone and Source setup - he mentioned that he loved his ZMF closed back headphones with the Forza Noir cable. I listened to them and was very impressed with the depth in the sound but felt they were too tonally dark for my tastes. We then moved onto my setup and I demoed a few headphones before stumbling onto a magic combination...
My friend had a pair of LCD 2 rev 2 headphones that we both decided to purchase many many years ago. I had sold mine but he had kept his set. I tried them with my VOLOT and was impressed. He then suggested that I tried the Forza Noir cable he had on his ZMF headphones. I can only describe the result as audio magic. The LCD headphones were sounding great with the original cable but the addition of the Forza Noir lifted them in so many ways. We agreed that my setup together with his LCD headphones and the Noir cable was the highlight of our demo session and the best that my setup has ever sounded. I ordered a Noir cable while I was still at his house.
When my cable arrived a few weeks ago I was a bit surprised to find the sound to be compressed and 'clunky' (see previous post in this forum). I am delighted to say that after many hours of use the audio magic is back. One of the things that stands out is that the noir brings the music to life musically. Other cables (custom cables, ZMF cable) offer slightly different tonal characteristics and sound fine, but swapping to the Noir is musical. I'm currently listening to the 2021 remix of Let it Be by The Beatles and my feet have a life of their own. I'm very grateful to my friend for giving me his LCD 2 (I'd sold my one a few years ago) and for his suggestion of trying the noir cable. With my system it elevates the music. He says that it does something similar for his ZMF headphones too which is why he wouldn't lend me his cable
Honest impressions. Feeling extremely positive about the Forza Audioworks Noir cable.