Lavricables Grand Series
The great cable debate
This is all about a custom cable. Before we start, there is a great deal of debate on this subject, and I won't be shying away from that. The elephant in the room is the custom cable that replaces the freely supplied stock cable that came with your already expensive headphones. The one function of the custom cable is to improve the sound quality of your headphones. There are a huge variety of opinions out there as to whether the cable alone can make any difference to the sound quality of a headphone, no matter how expensive it is. Hitherto, the most I have spent on a cable, of any description, is perhaps £40, and that was to get a certain type of balanced cable that I didn't already have. This means that I am by no means an instant convert to the principle of a cable making any real difference to the sound of a headphone, which means that Lavricables, having sent me their statement product for my latest review, have no guarantees that I'm going to be enthusiastic about this particular product. That being said, I keep an open mind, I will give anything (within reason) a try, and I know that many of you out there have already taken the plunge and have shiny stuff hanging from your headphones.
For this review, I have plugged the cable into the HE1000 v2 Stealth Edition, a rich sounding favourite, retailing at £2000 in all good stockists. Lavricables were especially interested in my thoughts on these with the HE1000 although of course they'll work with any headphones that have 3.5mm sockets, and aren't the fixed cable variety.
About Lavricables
The company, Lavricables, are from Latvia. They make some very fine looking cables and they believe in the purity of silver stranded cables to improve your stock options. The cable, depending on your options chosen, will range from €469 to €969. I will be reviewing a 4 pin XLR terminated 2 metre cable, I also had a XLR to 4.4 balanced adapter fitted, to try the cable out on several amps. If you like what you see, I am sure that such a cable with adapter could easily be arranged.
About Burn in
The concept of burn in has been around since I have been involved in HiFi. Many companies recommend a period of time in which their particular audio products, ranging from speakers to cables, are given a gentle dose of music over a considerable period of time before their product settles down and performs at it's best. In similar fashion, when buying a new car, the advise was to not put the car above a certain amount of revs for the first 1000 miles or so. I had a replacement engine that I managed to break by not following the guidance as per rpm and readjusting after a certain mileage. Undoubtedly, a car engine is a finely tuned device and will generate huge amounts of heat while in use, and has many parts which must all work together perfectly. Could the same thing apply to a mere cable? I've made you think now, haven't I? The cable I received came with a 150 hours burn in procedure.This will cost an additional fee should you choose that option. The burn in procedure rather stole my thunder of attempting to answer the question "does burning in make any difference?" I could have done a before and after test recording, as is my usual way of things, but due to my Latvian friends wanting to guarantee that I received the cable at what they think is the optimal, this particular controversy can be avoided for this review. Look on that as a positive. I am able to devote more time to the more important aspects of Lavri's Grand Series, which is, is it any good? It's that simple, and yet, that complicated too!
I am a reviewer, and am more than happy to offer you my subjective opinion on any product that comes my way. To explain what I mean by the word subjective, this is an opinion based on no science. It is essentially a "feeling" for the item, and it is based on several hours of listening between the review item and a similar product. In this case, it was easy, all I had to do was unplug 1 set of cables and replace them with another, over and over again, to several songs , in several genres of music, from Classical to Pop, as my tastes are diverse, and I am no longer interested in what is regarded as "cool". I just like what I like. Of course, as a reviewer, my opinion will be deemed extremely important by both yourselves and Lavricables. However, I am happy to tell you that, not only do I get the opportunity to rate these cables. You do too! Yes - it's true. I have 2 recordings for you. They are recorded in lossless format. They are recordings of the stock HiFiMan cable and the custom Lavricable. They have been recorded using a set of binaural in ear headphones, the Sennheiser Ambeo. The Ambeo has been placed at the entrance to my ear canals. The Ambeo is then plugged into an ipad. The ipad is duly prepped for an audio recording. I have then placed the HiFiMan HE1000 Stealth Edition Headphones
carefully onto my head, so as not to disturb the in ear mics. I press play to start the music, I press record on the iPad, and 7 minutes later, a binaural field recording of Peter Gabriel's SACD version of "Come Talk to Me" from the Album "Us" is ready to put into Dropbox. I repeat the same process using a different cable and recording 2 is done. Only the cables are different, the volume is not moved, the track is recorded in it's entirety, I am using the same head(mine) and the same equipment, in this case, a World Class R2R Dac, the Lampizator DAC4 which famously uses valves for the output stage, and a World Class Speaker/Headphone Amplifier, a McNeish Designs, which runs in pure class A and uses a no compromise separate power supply.
I have enclosed the 2 recordings for you to download, at no cost, with no ads or subscriptions etc. You will find them very strange sounding through speakers, as they have been recorded using headphones. This is therefore a headphones only moment. Before you read my opinion, take a listen:
The Stock Cable
Lavricables Grand Series
Have as many listens as you wish. Provided you use headphones, you should have a convincing experience. I'm hoping your brain will feed you yet more visual cues which will convince you that this is very close to demoing the cables yourself, in a shop, or a show, albeit without the pressure of having to make an instant decision as to whether there is any difference between the cables and, if there is, which cable is better, and, if so, how much better....
The results are in
I am, of course, anxious to hear your opinions, but I am equally sure you want my expert(!) take on this. Look; when push comes to shove, and in all seriousness, the Lavricables are an upgrade to the Stock Cable. I have used a headphone, costing around £2000, a DAC originally retailing at £5500, a headphone amplifier worth probably more than the DAC4 and a DSD track to highlight said differences. Arguably, such equipment is typical of the kind of clients that use custom cables, so I make no excuses for using such high end kit.
My impressions, for this field test are that the Grand Master adds more detail, a faster bass response and a cleaner sound when compared to the Stock Cables. I say this not knowing what you, my assistant reviewers, make of the experience. As is often the case in field tests like this, when I first put on the Lavricables, having listened to the Stock cables beforeheand, the differences grabbed me fairly immediately. I have deliberately used the word "fairly" in this context, because, honestly, I get the feeling of whether I prefer the sound before I can describe why I feel that way. Are you the same? Of course, detailed back to back listening over a course of time can alter those initial impressions, and I take great care and time over trying to keep a open mind, constantly looking for differences in vocal clarity, bass depth, overall balance of sound, the type of signature being produced, how close the instrumentation is to my ears, any harsh peaks. I can only do this by listening over and over again and giving my brain the task of picking up these differences without pressure. Only then am I prepared to reveal what I think to the World!
This was my impression for the top set up I have, and I used the Lavricable as was, without the supplied adapter. I next set myself the task of trying a cheaper DacAmp. The results on said Amp were a different story. Read on as to why......
Using the HiFiMan EF400
Did not give the results I was expecting. I am aware that there can sometimes be interference when using high grade silver cable, but I was not expecting it to be so noticeable with the EF400. The EF400 has 2 gain and 2 sample settings. High gain is not needed for the HE1000. I used it, of course I did! The interference was heavily amplified, and there was none with the stock cable. In low gain mode, the NOS setting caused twice the level of white noise as compared to the Over Sampling switch. Once the music was in full swing, the effect of the cable was less noticeable, but in the quiestest moments the white noise still clung on. Therefore, if you seek the Grand Master as an upgrade and you wish to use it on the EF400 in conjunction with your HE1000, I could not recommend this as an upgrade. The EF400 seems to prefer OFC cables and simply doesn't have the stomach to be able to digest the purity of a Lavricable.
My next test was on SMSL's Dac and Amp range, thus giving me the chance to check out the adapter.
Using the SMSL DO/HO100 Combo
What a delicious combo! I was relieved that, on first switching on, there was no white noise apparent. Nothing. strange... But good. The cables where still well ahead of the stock, even on such a humble setup. That wasn't quite what I was expecting. I moved the DO100(which is the DAC part of this little stack system) and the sound cut out completely on my Macbook. I then plugged it back in. No output. I unplugged, switched off, plugged back in and switched on. There was that white noise again! Hang on...have I made a horrible mistake? Is this the
same cable I was using for the EF400? If so, would swapping the USB cable for a different one achieve different results? I may well be needing to eat a huge slice of humble pie at this rate....
With profuse apologies to the EF400.....
Replacing the cable eliminated the white noise interference problem. Instantly, immediately and totally. It was all about the
cable! It just wasn't the Lavricable, or the EF400 not being able to take a silver cable, it was just a cheap usb cable that was on it's way out. Cables DO make a difference! Who'd have thought? The EF400, swinging away quite happily now, shows the SMSL stack a clean pair of heels and NOS is once more my weapon of choice on this R2R DacAmp.
Conclusion
The question I set myself before I started on this review was : "is there a difference between the audible sound quality of this cable over the stock one, and, if so, is the difference worth the money?" That is the problem that lies at the heart of the great cable debate. Can I hear the difference and should I be spending lots of money on a cable when I can upgrade the headphone instead? The answer I have arrived at is, yes, there is a difference between the Grand Master series and the HiFiMan stock. The cable is an upgrade. This particular upgrade will cost somewhere in the region of £600. Let us have a think about this and do some rough sums and see where that leads us. The HE1000v2 Stealth retails at £2000. The custom upgrade here will make them £2600. Is there an upgrade path to the HE1000 at that price point? I would say the next clear upgrade for the HE1000 lies with the HE1000SE. This retails at £3500. Maybe there is something in this, when one comes in at this market level..... Would £600 spent anywhere else in the chain improve the sound quality to the level the Lavricables give out? I'm assuming that anyone with the HE1000 has a decent source and headphone amplifier. If not, perhaps replacing an ageing source with something like the HiFiMan EF400 would probably make a better investment. However, if the average Lavricables customer base are already happy with their source and amp and want to squeeze that last % from the HE1000, without taking a risk and breaking the bank with ever more expensive headphones, notwithstanding the hassle of selling the beloved HE1000s for much less than their worth, then one can see how this custom cable rabbit hole might be worth falling into. Have I changed your mind?