Disclaimer: The Labkable Amethyst was provided free of charge for this review. Labkable is not a site advertizer and not affiliated with Headfonia. The sample does not have to be returned. Many thanks for the generosity and opportunity to review the Amethyst.
About Labkable
Labkable is a Hong Kong based boutique aftermarket cable company. They have a wide range of cables in different series. Their goal is to offer a great price to performance ratio in any price category. Labkable is one of the very few companies that builds their cables with a high wire count up to ten wires, most others stop at eight. The brand itself was established in 2009 and their philosophy is that there is no perfect cable. It is all about preferences and therefore they offer this massive portfolio of cables. Labkable makes use of a lot of different materials. Apart from Copper, Silver and Gold they are also using Platinum in some of their cables. All of their cables are also ran in using their Quantum cable running treatment (HQT) and Far Infrared Radiation Technology (FIRT).
Labkable Amethyst
About Amethyst
There is literally no info about this cable on labkable’s website and the only info available online can be found here
Since my Chinese is a little rusty, I asked labkable for further specifications.
The Amethyst consists of six wires of 99.9992% pure OCC Silver, the purity of the conductor has been certified by the SGS Group. Prior to being released labkable gave the Amethyst a pre run-in of 24 hours using their Quantum cable running treatment. They use an ultra pure and medical grade PVC jacket for each wire. According to them, this insulation is responsible for the best possible flexibility and comfort. Though the cable indeed is flexible, it to me is not en par with some other manufacturers, like plusSound or Effect Audio, who both have their proprietary Poly Ethylene based insulation. The benefit of having a Poly Vinyl Chloride based jacked is that it is not prone to becoming stiff over time when in touch with skin-oils or sweat.
There is also no info on labkable’s website on how you can configure your new cables, but I am sure you can get it in 2-pin, MMCX, 2.5 mm balanced, 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm Pentaconn. There might be more options but I can’t say for certain. My sample is a 2-pin to 2.5 mm cable. When you want to buy a labkable product, you have to write them an e-mail. There is no webshop.
One pair of Amethyst will set you back about 560$.
Package
In all my previous labkable reviews I have been praising their package, as they always delivered a sturdy box with it. The Amethyst comes in the same wooden box I found with their Samurai III cable. It has a velvet padded interior and offers more than enough room for the cable. You will also get a pink velvet pouch, a warranty card and a velcro strap band. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the packaging for this price in my opinion.
Labkable Amethyst
Build Quality
The Amethyst is, as mentioned before, a six wire construction of silver wires. Two of these wires are covered in pink jackets. You either like it or you don’t, I’m not the biggest fan of that colour myself, but I won’t stop you from enjoying it. Plus, it’s about the sound after all, not how the cable looks (though that also plays a role). Labkable is one of the brands that sticks to the metal-gray Astell&Kern plug we used to see a lot years ago. It’s a gold plated 2.5 Millimetre jack, again, I think there are nicer solutions out there when it comes to looks, but as long as it does the trick it should be good, right?
After about 2/3 of the cable we come to the Y-split, which looks very similar to the A&K plug. Gray metal and a criss-cross design in the middle. On top there are three letters etched in the Y-split: lkb. The splitter itself is rather small and very lightweight. That’s definitely welcome in my books. After the split you will find a piece of plastic that acts as a chin slider. I have said it in every labkable review before and I will say it again, I don’t think this chin slider does labkable’s products any justice. It looks like a leftover piece of some tubes. Sadly this same slider can also be found in their flagship cable that costs a whopping 2300 US Dollars. I sincerely hope they will change this at some point to something that looks more worthy of their cables.
At the cable’s end there are pre-formed earhooks, they are formed with clear heatshrink. The cables are terminated to 2-pin connectors. The barrels of these connectors are made of aluminium and have the labkable logo engraved into it. Each side is clearly marked with L and R. In order not to have inverse polarity the labkable logo has to face outwards when you connect it to your monitors.
The Amethyst is a lighter cable with good flexibility, though as mentioned before it could be better. It does not transmit a lot of friction noise.
More on the Amethyst after the Jump
