[psy472]

That's what I'm getting at. I've seen $20k speaker cables, no doubt meant to go with your six figure speakers and $50k/pair mono blocks.

And perhaps there are some very unique people who would over invest in speaker cables knowing they're eventually upgrading their speakers.

Everything about this Susvara cable talk just screams "get the most expensive cable for the most expensive headphone". At least in the IEM world, $5k cables come with display cases which effectively indicates what the real priority is.

What I can't quite make heads or tails of is how proudly underwhelmed everyone seems to be by these $5k cables. The IEM cats will drum up superlatives just short of hearing hidden extra verses in songs, but here it's like "the cable is great! There's, like, a little more bass, and the soundstage might be a little wider, I dunno, I threw out the other cable".

But hey, don't mind me. Perhaps I'm just bitter/jealous as my setup is quite pedestrian compared to some of the rigs in this chat! Heck, some rigs are set up where the Susvara is the least expensive item in the chain (used prices, anyway)!

When Flux starts production again, just buy a Flux Mentor. It’s a huge upgrade to your current amp.

 

[Tubewin]

That's what I'm getting at. I've seen $20k speaker cables, no doubt meant to go with your six figure speakers and $50k/pair mono blocks.

And perhaps there are some very unique people who would over invest in speaker cables knowing they're eventually upgrading their speakers.

Everything about this Susvara cable talk just screams "get the most expensive cable for the most expensive headphone". At least in the IEM world, $5k cables come with display cases which effectively indicates what the real priority is.

What I can't quite make heads or tails of is how proudly underwhelmed everyone seems to be by these $5k cables. The IEM cats will drum up superlatives just short of hearing hidden extra verses in songs, but here it's like "the cable is great! There's, like, a little more bass, and the soundstage might be a little wider, I dunno, I threw out the other cable".

But hey, don't mind me. Perhaps I'm just bitter/jealous as my setup is quite pedestrian compared to some of the rigs in this chat! Heck, some rigs are set up where the Susvara is the least expensive item in the chain (used prices, anyway)!

What makes you think people are underwhelmed with the Voila? I think we should wait for people to have the Voila in their own systems before we can conclude it to be underwhelming or not. I for one think it's a great headphone cable worthy of a TOTL headphone.

 

[AnakChan]

I've been in/out of audio for the past few years (aside from moderating ), but on Saturday, I popped by my local shop (Addicted to Audio, probably the only store in Perth), and asked them about amps for the Susvara and the chap helped with 2 setups - the Fiio M17 & the Felix Envy. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised that the M17 could handle the Susvara rather nicely. Quite musical, decent soundstage, and seemed to have driven the Susvara rather semi-effortlessly. I guess portables have come a long way in the past few years that I've been out.

The Felix Envy OTOH was just another level (naturally) - overall more spacious, greater dimension, and great texturing to the reverberation as to be expected with tubes. Initially trying to drive at low gain, it lacked bass but switching to medium gain, the whole signature was more full-bodied. I don't think I'd go all the way out with the Felix, but the Fiio M17 (or more precisely for my kind of use) the Q7 vs the iFI Diablo 2 may be a worthy comparison.

 

[Ciggavelli]

What makes you think people are underwhelmed with the Voila? I think we should wait for people to have the Voila in their own systems before we can conclude it to be underwhelming or not. I for one think it's a great headphone cable worthy of a TOTL headphone.

Agreed. It is a great cable. If I had to do it again, I'd get the Voila over the Nirvana. The Nirvana is still great, but the Voila gives you that extra 10%. I'm still deciding if I'll purchase it or keep my Nirvanas.

 

[thefitz]

What makes you think people are underwhelmed with the Voila? I think we should wait for people to have the Voila in their own systems before we can conclude it to be underwhelming or not. I for one think it's a great headphone cable worthy of a TOTL headphone.

This is how I am inferring the sound impressions in this thread.

This is my point - it's as if the purchase is necessitated by the TOTL flag and not a whole lot else. I am trying to find an analog within the hifi space, absolutely anywhere, where one component cable would cost as much as/more than the component itself.

 

[Polygonhell]

where one component cable would cost as much as/more than the component itself.

It's relatively easy to do with speaker cables, there are quite a lot of those >$20K, and there is probably at least one that's 6 figures. Having said that most of those will be connected to $50K+ speakers.
The cable also goes between the Headphone and the Amp, and there are plenty of people in this thread with much more than twice the cost of the cable in their amps.

FWIW If you buy a used Utopia for say $2K which is about where they go ATM, then IMO the best cable for that is one of the Lazuli's, And if asked I'd probably suggest at least the Reference Plus which is getting very close to the cost of the headphone. Whether that's worth it to you is a personal decision.

Cables are one of those things you have to convince yourself are worth the cost, I don't own a single cable that cost over $2K, but I have several over $1K, and I had to creep up on that over several years often by borrowing cables from friends. On the plus side, discounts on used cables can be pretty extreme.

Now would I spend 5K on a cable, definitively not today, but I'd have said that about 1K cables a couple of years ago.

 

[Tubewin]

This is how I am inferring the sound impressions in this thread.

This is my point - it's as if the purchase is necessitated by the TOTL flag and not a whole lot else. I am trying to find an analog within the hifi space, absolutely anywhere, where one component cable would cost as much as/more than the component itself.

Yeah but, "how proudly underwhelmed everyone seems to be", is not accurate, in my opinion. So far, we have two people who did not like the pricing(completely understandable), one person who thought it sounded great but did not like the ergonomics, one person comparing it favorably to the Nirvana, and one person(me) who is very impressed with the cable. There is also another person in the Danacable Nirvana thread who was able to A/B the Nirvana and the Voila in a quiet environment and concluded that he preferred the Voila cable. I just don't see "everyone" being underwhelmed.

 

[BillinSF]

This is how I am inferring the sound impressions in this thread.

This is my point - it's as if the purchase is necessitated by the TOTL flag and not a whole lot else. I am trying to find an analog within the hifi space, absolutely anywhere, where one component cable would cost as much as/more than the component itself.

I mentioned car audio before. I was in a high-end car audio shop. They were installing audio into a car for massive sound - you know, like you hear them thumping from 2 blocks away.

They had lifted the entire body off the frame and had run massive speaker cables banded into the frame along the drive train. I'm betting that cabling and install cost dwarfed the actual cost of the components.

The heart wants what the heart wants!

 

[thefitz]

Yeah but, "how proudly underwhelmed everyone seems to be", is not accurate, in my opinion. So far, we have two people who did not like the pricing(completely understandable), one person who thought it sounded great but did not like the ergonomics, one person comparing it favorably to the Nirvana, and one person(me) who is very impressed with the cable. There is also another person in the Danacable Nirvana thread who was able to A/B the Nirvana and the Voila in a quiet environment and concluded that he preferred the Voila cable. I just don't see "everyone" being underwhelmed.

That's fair. "Proudly underwhelmed" was my perhaps deliberately provocative descriptor of how I interpreted the feedback about a cable that's 90%-175% the cost of the headphone. If I am adding an extra $5.5k to my chain, I am expecting performance increases better than what is described here. But given my chain, perhaps I am just out of my league here. Or missing the point, as there are HD800S cables that cost more than the unit, HD6__ cables that are multiple times the cost of the unit, and those goddamn IEM cables, hah.

The only reason I got out of my HE1000v2 and LCD-4 for the Susvara is because the HE1000v2 came with this absolutely bitchin' Arctic Cable, and I happened across a 3.5mm Susvara that I'd be able to use it with. So cables got me here indeed, but boy did I have no idea what I'd find!

 

[Tubewin]

That's fair. "Proudly underwhelmed" was my perhaps deliberately provocative descriptor of how I interpreted the feedback about a cable that's 90%-175% the cost of the headphone. If I am adding an extra $5.5k to my chain, I am expecting performance increases better than what is described here. But given my chain, perhaps I am just out of my league here. Or missing the point, as there are HD800S cables that cost more than the unit, HD6__ cables that are multiple times the cost of the unit, and those goddamn IEM cables, hah.

The only reason I got out of my HE1000v2 and LCD-4 for the Susvara is because the HE1000v2 came with this absolutely bitchin' Arctic Cable, and I happened across a 3.5mm Susvara that I'd be able to use it with. So cables got me here indeed, but boy did I have no idea what I'd find!

Arctic Cables are very good in my opinion. I still have their original Palladium series for a Utopia which I no longer have. I've also tried their opera 2 as well. Great cable, but I missed the copper blend with the Susvara. If I was to get another cable from AC to try with the Susvara, it would probably be the Ingens.

 

[AussieMick]

The old “10% of system cost on cables” idea is just that, old. For many who’ve kitted out their system, wall to transducers, it’s been found that a power and cable system is a worthwhile component in itself. 30% of other system cost isbt unreasonable or unusual.

 

[IanB52]

The old “10% of system cost on cables” idea is just that, old. For many who’ve kitted out their system, wall to transducers, it’s been found that a power and cable system is a worthwhile component in itself. 30% of other system cost isbt unreasonable or unusual.

Yeah. At this point I think about cabling etc as independent components that do a unique thing, and their value in a given system doesn't necessarily comport itself to a set percentage of the electronics or transducers value.

 

[AussieMick]

Yeah. At this point I think about cabling etc as independent components that do a unique thing, and their value in a given system doesn't necessarily comport itself to a set percentage of the electronics or transducers value.

Agreed.

 

[theveterans]

This is how I am inferring the sound impressions in this thread.

This is my point - it's as if the purchase is necessitated by the TOTL flag and not a whole lot else. I am trying to find an analog within the hifi space, absolutely anywhere, where one component cable would cost as much as/more than the component itself.

The quest is to find a system that can actually bottleneck the Susvara. So far, Susvara is proving to really scale infinitely hence you see discussions regarding cables, TOTL DACs/streamers, exotic tubes and others. Current topic of the month is cables and probably Sus is the only headphone that actually changes character as much as IEM cable swaps on an IEM.

 

[tjkohli]

I just purchased a Susvara from a fellow Head-Fi'er. Happy to join the club!
Actually just going to compare with my Utopia '22 and then keep whichever one I like most.

I'm gonna use my TT2 to drive it since I can't afford another DAC/Amp lol. Please don't banish me!