Review: Labkable – Samurai III & Silver Galaxy Mix II

Samurai III

The Samurai III cable is a higher end cable, which its price also reflects. It consists of 98.5% silver, 1% gold and 0.5% platinum. This is the first time that I have heard that someone uses platinum in a cable. It is one of labkable’s Master Series cables.


The Samurai is a four wire cable with a brownish coating, which gives them a rather low-profile look. I personally would have liked to also see a clear jacket around the wires, as I simply don’t find it aesthetically pleasing. People have different tastes though, so even if I’m not the biggest fan of it, you might still dig it, who knows, what really matters is sound afterall.

Ergonomically the Samurai III is just like the Silver Galaxy Mix II very flexible and light. Even the bigger aluminium/carbon Y-split doesn’t pull this cable down too much. The chin-slider again looks like it’s a left-over piece of a clear plastic tube. For a cable in this price segment, I think it would have been nice to have a more premium slider, it doesn’t have to go over the top, but something different would be better in my opinion, just to reflect the higher class this cable is in.

Just like the Silver Galaxy Mix II it uses metal 2-pin connectors with their logo on it.

The Samurai III comes in a very nice wooden box, like you would be used from premium hifi gear like expensive turntables. On top of the box the labkable logo and their slogan „Solutions for cables“ are carved into the wood. In it there is again a warranty card and a velour pouch. I’ve been using the wooden box at many occasions to transport my audio gear to and from work, because it is sturdy and can take a good beating.

The most noticeable change in sound with labkable’s Samurai III to me has been the enhanced mid-body, that especially gave vocals and string instruments an extra portion of emotions and blood. This mid-bump also gave the entire spectrum a more organic presentation. The speed and clarity of Samurai III are also outstanding.

Bottom-end is a bit tighter and more under control with great speed and texture.

Treble has seen more shimmer and sparkle, while at the same time it also got a bit of warmth to it.

Sound stage has been noticeably stretched in terms of width and depth, with enhanced instrumental separation, layering and detail retrieval.

Conclusion

Labkable has managed to produce two unique and great sounding cables. While the lower cost Silver Galaxy Mix II comes in as a nice accessory for warmer sounding in ears with its lifted bottom-end power and smoothness, the higher priced Samurai III simply matches very well with a wide array of the in ears in my collection, with its wonderful musicality and details.

My personal favourite of those two is the Samurai III because the extra emotion and almost holographic voices are something very special.

Both cables have surprised me with their build quality and flexibility, now if only they would switch to something nicer for a chin-slider on Samurai III…

I warmly suggest you to try out both of their cables, especially the Samurai III, if you can, even if you are not a cable-believer, you might just be wowed and become one.

5/5 - (8 votes)
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A daytime code monkey with a passion for audio and his kids, Linus tends to look at gear with a technical approach, trying to understand why certain things sound the way they do. When there is no music around, Linus goes the extra mile and annoys the hell out of his colleagues with low level beatboxing.

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