[Wladimir]

Hello and welcome,

since there was no established thread about Lavricables brand, I decided to start one, where owners can share their experience and people looking for aftermarket cables can find more information to decide on.

So without further ado, let's kick this first post off with my first humble review here at Head-Fi!

Used gear & where I'm coming from

I'm auditioning Meze Empyreans for a third week already, they were my dream headphones ever since I found magic in my 99 Classics. After my initial "wow" effect had worn out and started to be actually critical about these beautifully mastercrafted headphones, I slowly became little disappointed by their tonality in upper registers - I was missing that sparkle I'm used to hear with my (heavily) modded 99C. Surely, mine 99's are tuned nowhere near neutral, but anyway I wanted to have more of that joyful spirit with Empyreans.

It could be that Empys deserve better than my RME ADI-2 DAC can deliver and they're known to scale tremendously with better gear, but on the other hand my current 99C are singing beautifully with this DAC/AMP and it's certainly the best system out of 9 others I tried so far (but they were cheaper as well), so there must be also something else holding the Empys back.

Few nice guys, who I'm in contact here at Head-Fi suggested that the stock cable isn't doing any justice to Empyreans, so I searched the internet and picked Lavricables Grand, 6N Multistrand litz version to try. I know from my own experience that good quality cable can make a positive audible difference (among other upgrades, I also bought Meze's own SPC cable for my 99C), so I was expecting to hear SOME difference, just didn't know how much. I also ordered a 100 hrs burn-in service, to be able to hear the (almost) "final sound" and all differences right away.

Sonic impressions

When I first plugged the new cable in and fired Empys up, I knew immediately that the change is there and it's not any subtle. And it's a very welcomed change indeed. I was little worried from the start, if I'd be able to pick up enough differences with my modest gear (relative to Empyreans), although enhanced with aftermarket power supply and quality USB cable, but my worries were quickly dissipated. Empys just came to life and became vivid I was expecting them to be from the start.

With the stock cable there was (for my taste) lacking clarity and sparkle in high-mids and treble region, to me it seemed like rolled-off, but that's probably not the right way to describe it. Anyway, when I tried to EQ them within my RME, that didn’t really help, actually it made sound little worse (harsh).

But with this cable, it seems (to me) like the whole frequency spectrum above 2-3 kHz is improved to a nicer, more natural and pleasing tonality. It's more vivid, more enjoyable, female vocals have more "soul", I confess that I even got emotionally touched by few songs now...
I also find the bass to be more textured, not compressed in a tight spectrum like with stock cable, but it has more layers/resolution and I would say that it also digs deeper into sub-bass region. Overall the Empyreans jumped at least one tier with their presentation and now I’m enjoying them very much.

Build, ergonomics & services

The cable is nice to touch, feels very rigid and robust. It doesn't coil like the stock cable and can be bent to all directions, just not in sharp angles, but that is expected, since it's quite thick. Aeco 6.3mm plug is surprisingly heavy, so that adds to overall quality feeling. I opted for less expensive Rean mini xlr-plugs, now I'm curious if Furutech wouldn't be even better, but I guess I'll never know The splitter is a transparent piece of isolation of some sort, it's makes the design overall simplistic and elegant.

Communication from Lavricables was excellent, they were replying to all my questions almost immediately and even offered me an individual, faster EU shipping. The cable was then made and shipped to my doors in about a week and that includes also that 100 hrs burn-in time! So really fast production.

My personal conclusion

To sum it up, before with the stock cable, I wasn’t REALLY enjoying Empyreans as I expected to, but with this cable, it changed for the better and more than I hoped it would. It doesn't only sound a lot better, but also looks and feels much more premium. A worthy upgrade to already beautiful headphones, as they deserve. Now I just simply wouldn't want Empyreans without this cable anymore.

Now some photos (I have no talent or solid equipment for this, so excuse this basic composition and quality )

 

[Yoram Diamand]

Hi, I have this same cable, the Litz Grand, and it was needed compared to the stock cable. My dacamp is the Feliks audio Euforia with the Ayre QB-9 Twenty. For my birthday I bought better tubes and I'll buy a Lavricables Grand RCA-RCA 50 cm cable, to finetune my expensive hobby. Lavricables is generous with the amount of good silver they offer for your money. Best wishes Yoram

 

[lnforno]

So I have actually been interested in Lavricables for a while, but been put off due to the price. Interested in the Grand Line for Focal headphones, but are these cables really worth it? Would cost around $700 for it.

 

[Yoram Diamand]

So I have actually been interested in Lavricables for a while, but been put off due to the price. Interested in the Grand Line for Focal headphones, but are these cables really worth it? Would cost around $700 for it.

I do not have Focal cans. The Utopia are called bright, so perhaps silver is a risk. The Meze with cupper are muddy, so they need the siver clarity. The improvement with the Meze is very much worth the money

 

[Wladimir]

So I have actually been interested in Lavricables for a while, but been put off due to the price. Interested in the Grand Line for Focal headphones, but are these cables really worth it? Would cost around $700 for it.

If it's worth it, it depends only on your ears. For me and Empyreans, definitely. How will Focal react to silver cable, I can't tell. But I don't think that added silver will somehow ruin otherwise quality headphone. Thin silver cable might cause some problems for bottom end, but thick cable as this one should provide enough headroom for as much bass as you like. I'm now feeding Empys from GS-X mini and I can EQ them even +10dB at 50 Hz, yet headphones respond with thunder on this silver cable

Maybe you can try to arrange a trial period for it, so if you won't like it, you can always send it back. For a standard sized (2m) cable it should be possible with no questions asked, but you can always ask the seller for any specifics, that is priceless

 

[omega1990]

Hello, I wanted to provide others with my own review of the Master Silver Ultrasone edition 5, 8 m upgrade cable. I got mine with 4 pin neutrik xlr 4 pin with Multistrand litz awg22 (4 cores) and 150hrs of burn in. The version of the edition 5 I own is the unlimited one.

My general feelings about the edition 5 are very positive, but I felt the E5 could do alot more than what the stock cable would allow. Initial sound impressions of this headphone with the stock cable would be neutral, lite on bass, smooth mids and treble with clean vocals. Soundstage is big for a closed back with a dynamic impact that is less of a punch and more of a hard slap.

The stock cable I have is a 3.5mm and personally while I enjoyed the headphones lightweight, easy to drive smooth neutral sound, the stock cable has issues that are noted in reviews of this headphone. The connector type is MMCX and it is known to have issues staying properly connected to this headphone. At times the connection would loosen or move in a way that would for just a second cut off sound from one side or the other. So upgrading this cable for me was a must.

I received my cable in a small box. I ordered my cable with a black sleeve and it was stored in nice looking black bag. The cable itself is very lightweight and does not easily tangle. When I tried connecting them to the E5 I had to push a little harder then when I connected the stock cable, but once connected the fit is tight which assures me that it won't loosen like the stock cable did.

Now I use 2 amps to power most of my headphones. The Klipsch heritage amp and the THX AAA 789. I like to go back and forth between them as the klipsch adds some warmth and the 789 brings a more clinical transparent sound. For the E5, I mostly used the klipsch amp and attached a 1/4 inch adapter for the single ended output to get a boost in the bass. The 789 when using the stock cable did make it a little more punchy but it provided less bass.

So when I attached the lavricable to the E5, I instinctively connected it to the klipsch amp. The website said the cable "Will dramatically improve full potential of your setup by revealing pleasant transparency, wider soundstage and crystal clarity!" I can confirm the following. Transparency noticeably improved and actually helped the Soundstage and imaging. Certain songs when conveying instruments that would be placed furthest to to the left and right could be heard with increased clarity. Instruments within the soundfield could be better located, another small but noticeable improvement.

Treble and mids gained small welcoming improvements in detail and clarity. However, while the headphone maintained a smooth sound, something else happened that I did not see coming. The bass increased by quite alot when using this cable on the klipsch amp. When listening to rap or Latin acoustics the bass was boosted enough on the klipsch amp that it was starting to overpower the mids and treble. It sounded very much like a different headphone. It was fun but not ideal. So since I go back and forth between amps, I connected it to the 789 and that's when everything came together.

The 789's punchy clear sound, coupled with the bass boost and other previously mentioned technical improvements from the cable led to a potential being realized. Now I can enjoy the E5 with a bass presence that has more weight than what the stock cable provided. The hard slap is much more like a pleasing strong punch and even though the bass is boosted more to my preferences for this specific headphone I've not lost but only gained better mids and treble. Vocals can be heard with excellent clarity. The boosted bass did not protrude on the mids and treble as it did on the klipsch amp.

Overall I was very impressed and will be considering this brand when I'm ready to upgrade cables for my other headphones.

 

[Sunset1982]

Hey guys! I want to share my impressions of my new Lavricables Grand 20 core cable for my Meze Empyrean.

I ordered the cable form the lavricables online shop for a price of 529 € (with the 150 hours burn in service). I contacted lavricables before I send my order. All my questions were answered fast and they were kind an helpful. All in all, a very good expirience. Because of the bought burn in service, my order took of course about a week to be send.
I choose Lavricables, because it ships from europe and so I don't have to pay additional custom fees for the import here in Germany. There a sure some nice cable munfacturers out there, but in europe there are not much possibilities.

So I bought my Meze Empyrean 8 weeks ago together with the Meze silver upgraded copper cable. That cable had a nice look and feel. I liked the silver finish with a litte copper shimmer. Soundwise it was good, but had the feeling, that there could be more clarity. The Empyrean seemed to play a litte to dark and muddy I would say. I have no compairison to the Empyreans stock cable, because I bought it with the upgraded Meze cable and never had my hands on the original cable.

The Lavricabeles Grand 20 came in a nice little black cloth bag. I ordered a 2m long Multistrand litz 6n awg20 cryo (4 cores) cable, with Aeco XLR 4 Gold (copper) and Rean headphone jacks.

First thing i noticed was, that it is lighter an thinner than the Meze cable. It really feels good and doesn't put much additional weight to your headphones. Look with the silver cable is nice, but the Meze cooper shimmer was just a bit more beautiful. One negative thing I noticed: the cable had a bit of a bad smell, like something smoked. I think this could come from the manufactoring process. It almost gone after some days of use, but maybe Lavricables can find a way to get rid of this smell in future cable sells.

Sound:
Soundwise I can clearly here a difference. Even it is not night and day, it is noticeable. My Empyrean lost that bit of muddy bass. It seems to be a bit better contolled in the lower end. In the upper range it plays also to be a bit clearer and with a tight bit more air. I would say a little more open and transparent.

I can't tell if burn in is a thing for this cable, because of the used burn in service.

All in all, I like my Empyreans sound signature more with the new cable. For me it was a good investion. If it is worth 500 € for everyone? I don't know, but if you want the least bit of performance out of your headphone, together with a nice look and premium feel, I would highly recommend buying this cable.

 

[Andricop]

Hi, I had several Ultimate silver AWG24 cables for my IEM in 2.5, 4.4, 2 pins and MMCX and I liked them very very much!
Built quality and mainly the comfort are top notch.
I remember swapping my Sony Kimber Kable with the Ultimate Silver to pair my Sony IER-Z1R with a WM-1Z and it was a revelation, like if a veil was removed, soundstage was wider, layering was better, and it brought a welcome brightness to the sound.

 

[mammal]

Guys at @lavricables are criminally underrated, they are willing to work with you on ANY project imaginable and finish your cable in 2-3 days, reply on the weekend, just wonderful customer experience. Here are my 2x 3-Pin female XLRs to 4-Pin female XLRs that I plan to use for my Chord Hugo TT2 with Abyss AB-1266 TC. It is from their Grand line, with upgraded AECO plugs, what a nice quality.

 

[sp33ls]

I also just picked up some @lavricables and agree with the above statement. Totally underrated. The materials and construction punch way above its price range.

I'm using the Litz, 4 conductor "master" grade silver conductor with my ZMF Verité Open. The combination is superb. While I'm not a big believer in cables making "night and day" differences, there's definitely something here, albeit subtle. The Verite is known for being fast and detailed, yet musical. Comparing this to the stock, copper cable, results in the lavricable allowing the Verite to be... well, just more of the itself.

Personally, I wouldn't invest in any cables with the expectation of major sonic improvements. Instead, I feel it's best to focus on the quality of the construction and components, as well as the aesthetic. The fact that I noticed subtle, sonic improvements is the icing on the cake and only substantiates the quality of this cable.

Highly recommend checking lavricables out next time you're looking for premium cables.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Did anyone try the grand 30 core Power cable?

 

[simorag]

Did anyone try the grand 30 core Power cable?

GRAND 30 CORE SILVER MAINS EU US POWER CABLE IMPRESSIONS

During the last month I had the chance of trying the Lavricables Grand power cable in my system.

I started the testing expecting some relatively easy A/B sessions in order to get the idea of where the cable fits in between the characteristics of the other cables I selected for my gear, but it quickly turned out that the evaluation was going to take longer than expected.

Basically, I wasn't able to identify meaningful differences with quick A/B switching from the start, so I decided to move to longer listening sessions (days), which allowed me to grasp the pairing of the Grand with the various pieces of my setup in a more consistent way, thus making subsequent comparisons easier.

In my cable loom, which I refined after a few iterations, I now use an old Shunyata Alpha HC with my DAC (Chord DAVE), Audioquest NRG-1000 for the amp, Hurricane HC for power conditioner, and Hurricane Source for my music server.

I started with the amplifier. The first impression I had it was of a more controlled, quick and tight low end, with no loss of extension. A cleaner sound with fast rise and shorter decay of notes, but still with a very satisfying roundness. Tonality was overall unchanged, where the overall snappiness / bounciness of the amp response the most peculiar modification. Rhythmic drive and PrAT were consequently improved as it was the liveliness of the presentation.

Transparency is another area where I found a benefit, which, together with the improved articulation of the notes, provided a nice sense of ease of reading into the score.

Midrange bloom and weight were comparatively a bit reduced. Overall effect on my amp was similar to what I get (although to a lesser degree) when I roll my Mullard CV491 NOS tube to my Fivre: a more dynamic and sculpted sound with more agility and less lushness.

I would say that the Lavricables Grand is a very good match for my Riviera AIC-10 amplifier.

When I moved to my Music Server, the differences were somewhat easier to identify. In this case the Grand precision provided to the server an almost mechanical character, which I did not particularly enjoyed. Also, some dryness creeped in, sucking out a bit too much of resonance tail and complexity, thus making for example piano listening a less relaxing and enveloping experience.

On the other hand, the additional background blackness made electronic music sound spectacular, thanks to an almost holographic display of very distinct sound sources popping out of nowhere.

Finally, I tried the Grand on my DAVE and I found these two go very well together, meaning that they do very well similar things. The DAVE seemed even more three-dimensional sounding and resolving, providing an almost tactile feeling to sound images. Timing was especially compelling, toe tapping assured. For example, momentum produced by double bass sections in a jazz band, or drums kicks, or brass blasting out were exciting and involving.

Notes were lighter, and clarity improved, reminding of a sunny winter day where everything seems easy to detect and even things far away seem at an arm's length.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with the Grand, it is extremely well built and pleasing to the eye without being flashy or intrusive, and sonically like a stream of pristine water springing from a high mountain. It is energetic, pure, transparent and refreshing, all virtues that can be exploited with synergy and personal taste in mind, as always with audio gear.

 

[ThanatosVI]

GRAND 30 CORE SILVER MAINS EU US POWER CABLE IMPRESSIONS

During the last month I had the chance of trying the Lavricables Grand power cable in my system.

I started the testing expecting some relatively easy A/B sessions in order to get the idea of where the cable fits in between the characteristics of the other cables I selected for my gear, but it quickly turned out that the evaluation was going to take longer than expected.

Basically, I wasn't able to identify meaningful differences with quick A/B switching from the start, so I decided to move to longer listening sessions (days), which allowed me to grasp the pairing of the Grand with the various pieces of my setup in a more consistent way, thus making subsequent comparisons easier.

In my cable loom, which I refined after a few iterations, I now use an old Shunyata Alpha HC with my DAC (Chord DAVE), Audioquest NRG-1000 for the amp, Hurricane HC for power conditioner, and Hurricane Source for my music server.

I started with the amplifier. The first impression I had it was of a more controlled, quick and tight low end, with no loss of extension. A cleaner sound with fast rise and shorter decay of notes, but still with a very satisfying roundness. Tonality was overall unchanged, where the overall snappiness / bounciness of the amp response the most peculiar modification. Rhythmic drive and PrAT were consequently improved as it was the liveliness of the presentation.

Transparency is another area where I found a benefit, which, together with the improved articulation of the notes, provided a nice sense of ease of reading into the score.

Midrange bloom and weight were comparatively a bit reduced. Overall effect on my amp was similar to what I get (although to a lesser degree) when I roll my Mullard CV491 NOS tube to my Fivre: a more dynamic and sculpted sound with more agility and less lushness.

I would say that the Lavricables Grand is a very good match for my Riviera AIC-10 amplifier.

​

When I moved to my Music Server, the differences were somewhat easier to identify. In this case the Grand precision provided to the server an almost mechanical character, which I did not particularly enjoyed. Also, some dryness creeped in, sucking out a bit too much of resonance tail and complexity, thus making for example piano listening a less relaxing and enveloping experience.

On the other hand, the additional background blackness made electronic music sound spectacular, thanks to an almost holographic display of very distinct sound sources popping out of nowhere.

Finally, I tried the Grand on my DAVE and I found these two go very well together, meaning that they do very well similar things. The DAVE seemed even more three-dimensional sounding and resolving, providing an almost tactile feeling to sound images. Timing was especially compelling, toe tapping assured. For example, momentum produced by double bass sections in a jazz band, or drums kicks, or brass blasting out were exciting and involving.

Notes were lighter, and clarity improved, reminding of a sunny winter day where everything seems easy to detect and even things far away seem at an arm's length.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with the Grand, it is extremely well built and pleasing to the eye without being flashy or intrusive, and sonically like a stream of pristine water springing from a high mountain. It is energetic, pure, transparent and refreshing, all virtues that can be exploited with synergy and personal taste in mind, as always with audio gear.

Thank you for that review

 

[Sajid Amit]

Hello everyone. I recently received a Lavricables Grand Line Silver awg20 cable and reviewed it as follows, paired with the HIFIMAN Susvara.

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/lavricables-reference-headphone-cable.22678/reviews#review-25907

Hope you get a chance to read!

 

[MadScience]

Wonderful Cables!
I have several Ultimate Silver Balanced Cables for Audeze, Focal, Hifiman and the detail in Vocal Delay trails are so much better even compared to another brand of Silver Cables that I have