A little over a year ago, I reviewed the Danacable Lazuli™ Voilà Headphone Cable, a unique cable designed to enhance a specific Headphone; the HIFIMAN SUSVARA, now Danacable has improved upon that cable with the Danacable Lazuli™ Voilà II Headphone Cable, designed to work with not only the HIFIMAN SUSVARA but with the HIFIMAN SUSVARA UNVEILED also. Per request by Vinh Vu of Danacable, this review will be a bit different than previous reviews in that it will involve several product comparisons. For this review, I have three Cables, three Headphones, and three Amplifiers that will be used. The Headphones will be an original HIFIMAN SUSVARA for which the ear cups were reterminated by Danacable, my HIFIMAN SUSVARA UNVEILED, and my HIFIMAN HE6se because I can. The cables will be the stock HIFIMAN SUSVARA UNVEILED cable, the Danacable Lazuli™ Rhapsody Headphone Cable, and the Danacable Lazuli™ Voilà II Headphone Cable. And for amplifiers, I’ll be using the FX-Audio- R07 Plus Headphone Amplifier with the Schiit Audio Gungnir 2 DAC (both of which will be subject of a future review), my HIFIMAN EF-600 R2R DAC/Headphone Amplifier, and my reference system, the LSA VT-70 Tube Integrated Amp, Audio-gd R2R-1 DAC, Black Dragon Cables, Core Power Technologies A/V Equi=Core 1000, Vera-Fi Audio VBH-1 (Vibration Black Hole) isolation feet, and  Vera-Fi Audio LLC Main Stream – Master Class Dynamic Parallel AC Line Conditioner.

In appearance, the Voilà II is similar to the Voilà except that you have two leads of four bundles for the entire length of the cable, separated by four 3D printed polymer bridges at equal distances along the cable, only coming together at the four-pin XLR termination.

As to the design of the Danacable Lazuli Voilà II Headphone Cable, I’ll once again quote Danacable themselves;

“Individually-handcrafted in the USA using copper and silver wires in a variety of attractive sheathing options, Danacable’s Lazuli™ headphone cables have long been known among headphone lovers as the go-to cables for many popular headphone models.

But just like speakers, Top-of-the-line (TOTL) headphones are designed with a certain sound signature that makes them especially suited to certain genres of music.  Danacable’s new line of custom Lazuli™ headphone cables is being designed and voiced to bring the most out of each TOTL headphone while retaining its sound signature.

The latest custom headphone cable under the Lazuli™ line, the Lazuli™ Voilà II, is designed and voiced for the Hifiman Susvara, arguably the best planar headphone in the market.  The Susvara is known for its naturalness, acoustically-accurate timber, and high resolution.  The Lazuli™ Voila cable will bring out the Susvara’s punchy dynamics and treble extension, making it shine with any music genre, from classical to pop to electronica and hard rock.

The combination of the Susvara headphone and the Lazuli™ Voilà II cable, driven by a powerful amplifier such as the DanaTone™ Head Space™,  a reference-level DAC, and quality interconnect cables is the last headphone setup one needs to own.”

Living with the Danacable Lazuli™ Voilà II Headphone Cable

Test 1: I burned in the Danacable Lazuli™ Voilà II Headphone Cable using the FX-Audio R07 Plus Headphone Amplifier so I decided to start my tests there, beginning with the standard SUSVARA and the Voilà II, the first track I pulled up on Qobuz was the new Stereolab album “Instant Holograms On Metal Film”, which sounded great but didn’t really tell me anything so I moved on to Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ and “Room On The Porch” (24-bit/48kHz – Qobuz), the opening acoustic bass was strong and powerful giving an in the room feel, the steel strings of the banjo crisp and musical, the fiddle sweet and mournful, and the vocals were natural and intimate.

On the second run through with the stock cable, the soundstage had collapsed completely, it sounded like all the singers were in the same space, it sounded a lot more like a recording rather than a performance. Switching from the stock cable to the Rhapsody, the sound was more relaxed, more laid back, with a little space between the listener and the performers.

Going back to the Voilà II, the sound was a little more intimate, with greater dynamics and an expanded soundstage. You could easily picture the three friends sitting together singing. I would describe the Voilà II as being more aggressive than the Rhaposdy, but not in a harsh way, but just in the sense that everything was more powerful, more dynamic, more space, more center stage.

Switching to the HIFIMAN EF-600 R2R DAC/Headphone Amplifier, I pulled up my regular test track list and selected “Can-utility And The Coastliners” (“Foxtrot” – Genesis – DSD), this time starting with the stock cable. As one would expect, the tonal balance was excellent with a slight emphasis to the high frequencies. The triangle came through loud and clear, while the cymbals appeared to be recessed with great shimmer, the sub bass was respectable but not particularly deep, again as one would expect from an open back headphone. All in all, a pleasant but not exciting presentation, though slightly fatiguing. Next up to bat was the Rhapsody, clarity and dynamics were greatly increased while the top end was tamed and the soundstage expanded, but most noticeable was the depth and texture of the bottom end, being significantly better controlled. The cymbals came out of hiding while exhibiting an increased musicality. Moving to the Voilà II, Peter’s voice was more intimate, more immediate, more natural, and once again there was a huge bump in dynamic range, increased authority on the bottom end, and a major increase in excitement, in a massive soundstage. The decay on the cymbals was expanded, and the detail was through the roof, with the ringing of the drumstick tips becoming readily apparent. I felt it was time to break out the SUSVARA UNVEILED, which I keep stowed away in their storage box with their ear covers and socks applied.

These proved to be significantly more efficient, causing me to actually turn down the volume. The low midrange presence was more robust, and everything just sounded more real. The delineation between the high-hat and the crash cymbal was more pronounced, and the congestion in the crescendos was totally eliminated. The tonality of the bass guitar was suddenly apparent, bringing out the harmonic complexity of the instrument, while the bass pedal revealed deep resonance. The attack of the drum strikes unveiling Phil’s blistering speed, while for the first time, the beads of the snare came to the fore as individual entities.

Flipping over to my reference system I brought up my 24-bit/96kHz vinyl rip of Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performing Stravinsky’s “The Firebird Suite” (“Stravinsky: The Firebird; Borodin: Music from Prince Igor”), listening to the SUSVARA UNVEILED with the Voilà II the soundstage during the opening rumble of the celli and tympani, for the first time I realized that the pulsating rhythm was produce by delicate tympani wacks in perfect time to the cello bowing. The dynamics were incredible, and you could hear the string plucks bounce off the distant walls. You could easily picture the placement of each instrument in three-dimensional space, even noting that the flute and oboe sat adjacent to each other. The tonal balance and timbre were such that there was no problem differentiating the 2 piccolos from the 2 flutes, from the 3 oboes, from the English horn, from the 3 clarinets, from the bass clarinet. Rotating in the stock cable was like switching venues to a smaller hall. While I now knew them to be tympani strikes, they were indecipherable from the celli, losing the clear sound of the drum heads flexing except on rare occasion. The musicality dropped significantly, with a slight bright edge being lent to the woodwinds, often blurring the trills. 

Just for fun, as a final test, I switched over to my HIFIMAN HE6se using the Voilà II, and the drumhead strikes were back. While not quite as musical or etched as the SUSVARA UNVEILED, the sound was magical.

Conclusions on the Danacable Lazuli™ Voilà II Headphone Cable

I truly enjoyed my time with the Danacable Lazuli™ Voilà II Headphone Cable, like all Danacables, they give you more without changing the character of your headphone. While quite pricy, it is money well spent on a headphone of this caliber. The extra separation provided by the use of two distinct separate cables is well appreciated, and the use of bridges to both keep the cables apart and together greatly facilitated this upgrade. There was a clear difference in dynamic range, detail, resolution, timbre quality, and soundstage with the Lazuli™ Rhapsody Headphone Cable versus the stock cable, there was an equal improvement with the Voilà II versus the Rhapsody. The phase linearity and current capacity of the Voilà II bring the SUSVARA to a whole new level of performance, especially when it comes to the low frequencies where control is so difficult.

While it requires serious listening, you will discover that the Voilà II will reveal things in music of any audio complexity that you have not heard before, without noticeably altering the music itself.

I fully endorse the Danacable Lazuli™ Voilà II Headphone Cable and would recommend it to any SUSVARA owner, more so to those with the SUSVARA UNVEILED, as they are more capable of showing the shortcomings of the audio supply chain.

As a side note, Vinh had asked me to comment on the mods to his SUSVARA, and indeed, they did make the connection more secure, especially when compared to my HE6ses, as my UNVEILED are relatively new.

Price: Introductory price of $4,995 for a 2m length until July 31.

The MSRP for the Voila 2 will be $5,495 after July 31.

Manufacturer’s Website: https://danacables.com/product-category/headphone-cables/voiced-lazulis/