Opinion 1

Usually, due to capability restrictions, demand and economics, many smaller companies, being just the owner or employing just a few employees, restrict their catalog to one, or maybe two products, at least in their initial stages of existence. This is understandable, as in case the endeavor misfires, the losses are, let me put it diplomatically, acceptable. But when the recognizability of the brand grows bigger, when the number of clients increases, the demand for new/higher/lower models appears, then very quickly the portfolio grows to an almost “corporate” size. You could stay in your area of comfort, and stubbornly produce only those two initial models, but you need to understand, that this becomes a kind of “one shot”, when we can persuade a certain buyer to purchase only once, and that is it. And where is then the space for brand recognition, for the slow advancement on the steps of progress and refinement? Long things short, if in the beginning a small offering makes economical and logical sense, when you plan to stay on the market for longer, you should have a drawer of ready projects for future use, when things go well. And here we are dealing with a perfect example of this, in the form of practically the work of one person, who entered this enhanced stage of his company, as after our, very nice indeed, encounter with the Ruby Ethernet cable, we got for testing another, quite polarizing product in the audiophile community, the power cord David Laboga Custom Audio GR-AC-Connect.

The decision to mention the vastness, or lack thereof, of the company portfolio did not come to me by chance, as while the Wrocław based manufacturer, who does not even have a working web page, for what the owner sincerely apologises, and who’s distribution is mostly done through “whisper marketing”, it turns out, that David Laboga Custom Audio has quite a worked out catalog. And at that, one that encompasses all kinds of audio cabling, mostly in five different classes of technological advancement, with a choice between rhodium or gold plated confectioning.
Coming back at our dark product of desire, the DLCA (David Laboga Custom Audio) GR-AC-Connect, it is placed on the fourth level, counting from the bottom, or second from the top, with the DR series following it (with rhodium plated plugs), NR and QR. The top place is occupied by 3DR series. As appropriate for the silver medallist, it is supplied in an elegant, wooden box – you can see it in our unboxing session. The cable itself looks very attractive. The “snakelike”, grey-black-brown woven sheath (Viablue Stone?) supported by massive rectangular splitter boxes, which have also the function of anti-resonance isolators, with printing informing about the manufacturer, model, length and destination. The used plugs are very nicely looking 48 NCF from Furutech, coming from the Piezo Ceramic series, and the conductors are made from copper wires of different cross-section and construction. I could not get any more information about the technicalities from the manufacturer, as Mr. David is very sparse in sharing that info, being convinced, that the a product should defend itself based on sound, and the technical parameters do not say anything about its class. A nice surprise is the flexibility of the GR-AC-Connect, what is not so obvious giving its cross-section and weight. Maybe it is not really flabby, but a kind of inertia, that when placed in a certain position, it does not have the tendency of bouncing back, and it can be routed in, sometimes, very neck breaking ways. The situation is further helped by the thinner fragments, extending from the mentioned boxes to the plugs, which should allow to place our hero in any rack without too much ado.

Moving to listening, and as usual, when we do not know the history of a supplied product (and this one carried no signs of usage) I devoted the first few days to burn it in, and to try and get as much information as possible from the manufacturer about it. And while the cable reached full capacity fairly quickly, or if you like, stopped showing a tendency to make dramatic sound changes, the only information I was able to gather, is that it should fare best with big power amplifiers. This was a clear hint, that my Gargantua II would have some time off. Some quick gymnastics and the GR-AC-Connect ended up connected to the back of the 300W Bryston and … things started to become interesting. First of all, it was undisputed, that it is better than with the Acoustic Zen. Secondly, the changes for the better were in all aspects of the sound, not only in part of the key ones, and thirdly, the improvement was also to the volume of the sound, something, where the Acoustic Zen was not easily defeated. This was a clear sign, that the Polish cable must have a significant cross-section supplying the life-giving energy from the wall to the amplifier. A significant thing was, that together with the increased volume and mass of the sound generated with my system, there was no slowing down, no thickening of the contours of the lines delineating the virtual sound sources. Of course on synthetic and other material reaching down to the deepest areas of hell, in the likes of “Tina Snow” by Megan Thee Stallion, the loosening of the lowest notes was evident, but it was how this was recorded, and if this lowest bass would be kept in boundaries, then we would need to start being worried. The Laboga reached lower than the Acoustic Zen, so the bass murmurs were not only audible, but also pretty perceptible. On the much more audiophile “Khmer” by Nils Petter Molvaer, the effect of applying the Polish cable was even more readable. The precision of defining the natural instruments in space contrasted phenomenally with the synthetic, impressionistic blurs of ambient background. Interestingly, the trumpet of the leader did not lose anything of its “brass”, it was just slightly heavier and more golden in the middle of the sound spectrum it reproduces. This made it sound more mature, more noble, but still aggressive. But wait… I know this sound signature well. A quick change and … yes, precisely. A similar sound in my system is offered by the Furutech Nanoflux, with the difference being the GR-AC-Connect saturating the midrange more, what makes for example the “House of Gold & Bones, Part 2” by Stone Sour stings with more romantism, starting with the dark ballads and ending with the merciless banging and roaring of Corey Taylor. Half jokingly, half seriously one could say, that the mentioned album is seen by the Furutech from the industrial-metal perspective, while the Laboga stoner-metal perspective. Seemingly both points of view come from the same source, while the nuances allow to build a different perspective. The double kick on “Peckinpah” does maybe not have such a thin contours, but it compensates this nuance with bloody juiciness. On the other hand, the guitars in both versions, have the proper amount of “dirt” and granulation, and at the same time avoid artificial softening and becoming civilized. This should not be surprising in case of the Nanoflux, while with the GR-AC, it should be underlined and complimented, taking into account its saturating and thickening nature.
I made similar observations with classical music. The splendid „Paganini: Diabolus in Musica” by Salvatore Accardo with the London Philharmonic Orchestra sounded sweet, a bit facetiously, but indisputably splendid, as in this case, the emotional boost of the violin only improved its attractiveness, and to be clear – most virtual sources remained unchanged, and at the same time, they were extracted form the background of the orchestra more suggestively. This does not mean, that Accardo was enclosed in a glass box, as his interactions with the Londoners were as natural as they were obvious, the soloist just got an additional spotlight on him.

You cannot deny it, this must be said openly, that the David Laboga Custom Audio GR-AC-Connect is a cable, that fully earns the high-end tag. Despite a delicate signature, it does not only fully convey the information about the music played by the system powered by it, but it also does not limit the dynamics of even high powered amplification, what sometimes is a burden of people owning such amps. We can easily claim, that it combines the finesse, refinement and high energy throughput, what puts it in a very strong position compared to the competition. And at the same time, it only heightens the appetite for the top 3DR, although seeing the price tag, over two times higher, compared to the tested cable, the threshold of expectations for the Wrocław made flagship cable really runs high now.

Marcin Olszewski

System used in this test:
– CD/DAC: Ayon CD-35 (Preamp + Signature) + Finite Elemente Cerabase compact
– Network player: Lumin U1 Mini + I-O Data Soundgenic HDL-RA4TB
– Digital source selector: Audio Authority 1177
– Turntable: Kuzma Stabi S + Kuzma Stogi + Dynavector DV-10X5
– Phonostage: Tellurium Q Iridium MM/MC Phono Pre Amp
– Power amplifier: Bryston 4B³ + Graphite Audio IC-35 Isolation Cones
– Loudspeakers: Dynaudio Contour 30 + Brass Spike Receptacle Acoustic Revive SPU-8 + Base Audio Quartz platforms
– IC RCA: Tellurium Q Silver Diamond
– IC XLR: Organic Audio; Vermöuth Audio Reference; Acrolink 7N-A2070 Leggenda
– Digital IC: Fadel art DigiLitz; Harmonic Technology Cyberlink Copper; Apogee Wyde Eye; Monster Cable Interlink LightSpeed 200
– USB cables: Wireworld Starlight; Goldenote Firenze Silver; Fidata HFU2; Vermöuth Audio Reference
– Speaker cables: Signal Projects Hydra; Vermöuth Audio Reference Loudspeaker Cable
– Power cables: Furutech FP-3TS762 / FI-28R / FI-E38R; Organic Audio Power + Furutech CF-080 Damping Ring; Acoustic Zen Gargantua II; Furutech Nanoflux Power NCF
– Power distribution board: Furutech e-TP60ER + Furutech FP-3TS762 / Fi-50 NCF(R) /FI-50M NCF(R)
– Wall power socket: Furutech FT-SWS(R)
– Anti-vibration platform: Franc Audio Accessories Wood Block Slim Platform
– Switch: Silent Angel Bonn N8 + Silent Angel S28 + Silent Angel Forester F1 + Luna Cables Gris DC; Innuos PhoenixNet
– Ethernet cables: Neyton CAT7+; Audiomica Anort Consequence + Artoc Ultra Reference + Arago Excellence; Furutech LAN-8 NCF
– Table: Solid Tech Radius Duo 3
– Acoustic panels: Vicoustic Flat Panels VMT

Opinion 2

As most of you know, trying to avoid repeating the same statements over and over in our descriptions, we try to use synonyms wherever possible. An ideal example are verbs like “company” or “manufacturer”. You cannot use them over and over, hence the usage of terms like “brand”, “stable”, “maker”. It is true, the meaning of all those is not exactly the same, there are minute differences, but you know immediately what we mean. And when it seems, that everything fits perfectly in its place, it happens, that some synonym, that saves us from repetition, becomes a much more adequate, or prestigious, description. In this time of globalization, I am thinking about “manufacture”. It not only reveals what we mean in terms of size, as it is small entity, but also it describes the pietist approach of this entity to its products. So what am I aiming at? Let me explain. Once again, in today’s text, you will have the opportunity to meet again, the Polish family endeavor David Laboga Custom Audio, a company that fulfils all the characteristics of a manufacture, yet sells its products to customers all around the world. However this time, after the surprisingly good reception of the Ruby Ethernet, enclosed in natural leather, we have another example of attention to all visual and sonic details from the Laboga brand, the GR-AC-Connect, which occupies the second highest spot in the price list.

Trying to put something together something about the construction of this cable, but due to the protection of the know-how by the manufacturer, we know only, that the conductor is based on a proprietary weave of copper wires of different purity and cross-section. Unfortunately we do not have any knowledge about the used products for shielding and isolation of these conductors. What we do know, is, that the visible boxes are not covers for any kind of more or less worked out filters, but a necessity to change the diameter of the cable before the plugs, and are filled with ballast to stabilize the cable, combatting vibrations. The last proper bit of information is the termination of the cable with plugs made by the Japanese Furutech and the covering of the thicker and thinner cable section in sheaths with a dark-yellow theme. In terms of logistics – the GR is provided to the potential buyer in a plywood box, covered inside with a graphite foam, and the company logo burned on the top lid.

What can I tell about our hero? For many of you it will be great news, as the main characteristic is the energy of the middle of the midrange. But reaching it happens in a somewhat specific way, as despite putting the sound this way, there is no trace of any kind of averaging. So what is all this about? After plugging the GR-AC-Connect into the system, we have the impression, that the expression of music is slightly pushed back, what seems at first, like less light is being shone on the virtual stage. There is no mud or brutal switching off the lights, but it is like for its projection less varnish was used, and hence it sparkless less. But after a few minutes it turns out, that this is a wrong interpretation of what is really happening. It turns out, that the sound is slightly darker, but it does not lose any transparency, the amount of information provided is really like before the change of cabling. However it is not completely the same, as it is directed towards an increase of pulse and energy of the music. It is still full of breath and spice in the upper registers, but with the difference, that we should not search for any kind of ultra-performance, what translates proportionally into a change of priorities towards energy of the events on the stage. Everything becomes more noble, but we still have an abundance of strong, multicolored lower registers, vivid and essential, yet fully informative midrange. Interestingly, this is such a natural presentation, that when after accommodation I returned to the pre-test configuration, in some aspects I needed to get accustomed again to the presentation, that was a master for me. I do not know how this is happening, but I caught myself on this at least twice. I like the taste of uncompromised vitality of music, but it turned out, that when it is skillfully civilized, it was also to my taste. So where is the catch? Truly? I do not know and frankly, I do not care. What is important, is how the Polish manufacturer fared in the end. As you can see from what I wrote, it did very positively. But what about music?
Let me put it this way. It does not make sense to write much about the individual genres, as each one of them, and every time, it will take advantage of all the assets of the tested cable. In effect, only their timbral priorities changed, which never ended in the music being too heavy. It was a bit more essential, but never with an overweight. This made rock music, but also all kinds of contemplative one, had a very good freedom of presentation, but with more perceived energy. Energy, that upped its palpability, and thus the feeling of integration with the musicians. This is seemingly not much, but in terms of coming as close as possible to the musician in our room, this really means a lot.

Is this power cord for everyone? If you are not trying to save your “shaky” systems, but are just looking for a more energetic look at the music, then I would say yes. This is a product, which has the center of gravity placed closer to the saturation of the sound, but never crosses the border of good taste. My system is proof of that. Like I mentioned before, the product from David Laboga Custom Audio changed the “G” spot, but in such an interesting way, that the return to the standard setup did not end with a sigh of relief, but with a moment of accommodation to a different way of sounding, not better, but maybe just ideally hitting my expectations of how it should sound. Are you surprised? If yes – they you probably know what to do, don’t you?

Jacek Pazio

System used in this test:
Source:
– transport: CEC TL 0 3.0
– streamer: Melco N1A/2EX + switch Silent Angel Bonn N8
– DAC: dCS Vivaldi DAC 2.0
– Master clock: Mutec REF 10 SE-120
– reclocker: Mutec MC-3+USB
– Shunyata Research Omega Clock
– Shunyata Sigma V2 NR
– Preamplifier: Gryphon Audio Pandora
– Power amplifier: Gryphon Audio Mephisto Stereo
– Loudspeakers: Gauder Akustik Berlina RC-11 Black Edition
– Speaker Cables: Synergistic Research Galileo SX SC
– IC RCA: Hijiri Million „Kiwami”, Vermouth Audio Reference
– IC XLR: Tellurium Q Silver Diamond, Hijiri Milion „Kiwami”
– Digital IC: Hijiri HDG-X Milion
– Power cables: Hijiri Takumi Maestro, Furutech NanoFlux NCF, Furutech DPS-4.1 + FI-E50 NCF(R)/ FI-50(R), Hijiri Nagomi, Vermouth Audio Reference Power Cord, Acrolink 8N-PC8100 Performante
– Table: SOLID BASE VI
– Accessories: Harmonix TU 505EX MK II, Stillpoints ULTRA SS, Stillpoints ULTRA MINI, antivibration platform by SOLID TECH, Harmonix AC Enacom Improved for 100-240V, Harmonix Room Tuning Mini Disk RFA-80i
– Power distribution board: POWER BASE HIGH END
– Acoustic treatments by Artnovion
Analog stage:
Drive: Clearaudio Concept
Cartridge: Essence MC
Step-up: Thrax Trajan
Phonostage: Sensor 2 mk II

Manufacturer: David Laboga Custom Audio
Prices (Net): 1,8m / 2710 € (EU), 2840 € (UK), 2710€ (US); + 650€ each additional 50cm