Tara Labs finally has put the new power cables on there web-site, they are still working on some of the pics of the power cords,However, after my phone call to them, the power cords are there now for all to view, Enjoy! |
Misternice, I bought both the Furutech GTX-D Rhodium and Gold, also one aluminum frame and one carbon fiber plate, how long or hours did it take before you formed your conclusions between these two version's that was best for you and your system?, If I can determine benefits of the frame and cover plate, I will buy the same for the other outlet, I am doing this because of the huge mixed bag of opinions out there concerning these wpo's, I am sure this will take a while for my impression's, reply when you can, cheers. |
Hi Jebsmith73, I respect the Stage 3 Kraken power cord you have, alot of great feed back on your power cord, A very fair comparison would be the Tara labs GrandMaster power cord, they are about the same retail price point for 6ft length, if you could get your hands on this Grandmaster power cord to audition and give adequete burn-in time, I would be most interested in your impressions. |
Hi Everyone, I will be doing a full review of the Tara labs Omega Gold speaker cables soon, after I can determine what these furutech GTX-D Rhodium and Gold will do for my modded krell 700cx and my Tube/solid state hybred digital player, and conclude the benefits of useing the furutech wall frame and cover plates, however, I welcome everyone to post on this thread, maybe latter I will do a review on how or if these Furutech products accomidate the Tara labs sound, we all know that audio is system dependent, so if any of you like, I will do the furutech mated with Tara Labs review too, cheers gentleman |
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and God Bless all of you. |
Hi Jmcgrogan2, since you have sold both the Tara labs and High-fidelity interconnects, what are you useing now? |
Hi Everyone, This is a quote from whatsbest forum site by a member named audiocrack that owns the Tara labs Grandmaster Evolution cables with duel mono-block ground station,Begin Quote “Even Taralabs Grandmaster Evolution series cables can improve if you use a Tripoint Troy Signature to remove EMI/RFI.
BTW, I connected the (double box) Taralabs grounding device to my Tripoint audio Troy signature se grounding device and noticed that the haze on some vocals was (nearly completely) gone. Spooky!”End quote.
This assumption is absolutely INCORRECT!
Let’s explore why?, I have here at my house the Tara Labs Zero Gold Extended Band-width I/C with HFX foating shield ground station on my system, Tara Labs has their own invention inside the ground station called, cerelex compound, unlike other cable manufacturers, The station uses no batteries or electricity, which is in my opinion, an incredible engineering feat, The station has a left and a right plug in hole for the tiny wires to plug into the station, the tiny wires are terminated with tiny banana plugs at both ends to connect the wires that come out of the cable to the station,Floating the shields of the inside of the I/C at both ends to the cerelex compound that is inside the station, having and using these tiny wires is crucial to the over all sound and performance of the interconnect, connecting a station directly to a I/C is not recommended by me at all, the sound doing so is poor in comparison, the station’s design purpose is to remove EMI/RFI from the audio signal, the HFX station also has a third hole for what is called, component ground, the tiny wire that is used for this is terminated with a tiny banana plug at one end, and a tiny spade on the other end, this component ground scheme is connected from the station with the banana plug end, and the spade end of the wire can be connected to anything you want to connect it to, keep in mind that whatever you connect the spade end of the tiny wire to, you are grounding that device!, I will get to the explanation later in this review of the grounding scheme.
I also have here at my house the Tara Labs The one with ISM on board controlled band-width I/C , this I/C is many levels under the Zero Gold I/C in terms of performance and cost with the Tara labs interconnect model line up, ISM stands for isolated shield matrix, the cerelex compound is used inside capsules that are made onto the I/C, in the audio signal path, thus the term, ISM on board, this I/C is not designed to be used with the HFX grounding station, or any other station Tara labs makes, also, there is no way of connecting the Tara labs The One with ISM on board I/C to any out board stations Tara Labs makes, I started my experiment by taking the Tara labs Zero Gold out of my system, keeping in place the HFX ground station, but not connected to any cable, then I installed the Tara labs The One with ISM on board, the wife was there to listen and see what I was doing, we both have fond memories of the sound of the Tara Labs The One with ISM on board I/C, However, The component ground of the HFX station was still connected to my digital source at the spade end to one of the screws of the unit, and the banana end of the tiny wire was plugged into the station, the wife asked, what did you do?, I said, what do you mean?, we both looked at each other in amazement, she said, I have never heard the Tara labs The One with ISM on board sound so good!, I showed her that the HFX component ground was still connected, this dropped the noise floor substantially, again, keep in mind that the HFX station was in no way connected to the I/C, I Proceeded to unplug the component ground from the station, this was much easier than disconnecting the spade end on the digital source, the noise floor shot straight up with the over all sound, again, we both looked at each other with amazement, we realized that the component ground scheme is a totally separate circuit on the Tara Labs HFX ground station, The Tara Labs duel mono-block ground station is essentially two HFX grounding stations made together separated by metal to make one unit, a complete station for each side of the floating shield of the Tara labs Grandmaster Evolution I/C with component ground scheme made onto the station like the HFX station, the two stations are similar, conclusion of this review is that in no way did the Tripoint Troy signature se benefit the sound of the Tara Labs Grandmaster I/C, since the component ground is a separate circuit that grounds and substantially drops the noise floor to what ever the component ground is connected to at the spade end, The fact of the matter is that the Tara labs Duel mono-block ground station benefitted the Tripoint Troy signature se by dropping the noise floor of the unit Hugely, thus thrusting the over all sound performance ofwhatever is plugged into the Tripoint Troy signature se to far greater performance expectations than what the Tripoint was originally designed to perform, Brought to you by Audiolabyrinth, Happy Listening to all. |
My first impressions of the Furutech GTX-D Rhodium at 72 hrs has a synergy between the Tara Labs cobalt power cord with oyaide termination's that is beyound approach, The Rhodium Furutech GTX-D is incredible in every way possible, there is a night and day difference between the Gold and Rhodium for this power cord, of course this could change as burn-in time accumulates, however, The Gold is cooked for 6 days with 11 hrs and the Rhodium only has these specified 72 hrs from new. |
Hi Sts, what have you been up to?, did you have a good thanksgiving? |
Thankyou calvinj, currently, I am doing the most exclusive truth of what the furutech Recepticles are about, I am testing on tube and solid state, at this point, LOL!, it has nothing to do with either!, when I do a full review, I will say it the way it is, with no concern's of the consequenses. |
up date, subject to change as break-in continues, The furutech GTX outlet's with Tara labs cables, has nothing to do with which is warmer or not, or tube equipment or solid state, but rather sound stage presatation!, they are different,I will tell more on this as impression's further along with more break-in, tone is very similiar, but the Rhodium clearly has a lower noise floor, the choices is really, what sounds best over your entire system, mainly the speakers, The Rhodium can or could give you to much detail if you have cables and speakers that already do a very good job at doing so, now the Gold is absolutly no slouch with treble detail at all, close to the Rhodium, both are really good, more up-dates will follow. |
The sound stage is what is so spooky about the Rhodium Furutech GTX-D, just enough forward presatation to be engageing, but depth that knocks your back sheet rock through the wall, on vocals, this is uncanny realistic sounding with the Tara labs Zero Gold I/C, Omega Gold speaker cables and Cobalt power cord with oyaide termination's that is on the digital player, I do like the Rhodium, I believe we have a clear winner for the tube/solid state hybred cd-player, the synergy is a wow factor together with the tara Labs cables over the Gold version Furutech GTX-D wpo. |
Next up is the modded Krell FPB 700cx stereo amplifier with the Furutech GTX-D wpo's and Tara labs cables, keep you posted on the finding's over the next few days. |
The Rhodium has won the tube/solid state hybred digital position hands down, I can hear a fly's wings flapping on the wall within the recording with the clarity, detail treble air beyound belief, detail that brings out all nuances that I have never heard before, vocals that have front to back depth of the presatation that is as real as it get's for vocals, spooky!, timberal accuracy with incredible speed, bass that is so defined, you can hear the foot pedal on the bass drum's,snare drum's that sound like it is in the room with you, I suppose all this can be system dependent and cable dependent, likly, that is why even Furutech made two version's of the GTX-D wpo's, LOL!, if there is better, which I doubt for my system, I do not need it period, for what? |
Hi Jebsmith73, you know, my krell has a stock plug at the end of the 9ft stock hard wired power cord, I was thinking of maybe changeing that to when I can get to it, what do you think?, will just replaceing the plug at the end bring benefits? |
Here is more of the conclusion's of furutech GTX-D Rhodium and Gold wpo's with Tara labs cables, this is a post to one of the well seasoned audiophiles I talk to, quote,Hi rafael0054, yes, the Rodium furutech GTX-D sounds very,very, bright and in your face, like screaming!, with the first 3 to 5 hrs of listening, both Gold and Rhodium go through alot of changes the first 200 hrs, I do not recommend even listening to either of them untill 180 hrs, also, I will add, the seller of the furutech GTX-D Rhodium said that at 250 hrs, I have most of what these do, and that the last 10% to 20% will come at 500 to 700 hrs.., so I thought that my impression's was valid at this point, Raf, I bet I changed out the recepticles atleast 14 times, alot of hard work!, a pain in the ass really,so at this point, I came to a conclusion with the tube/solid state hybred digital player, then, all I needed to do is hear if the Rhodium did the same on the Krell 700cx, to my surprise, The Rhodium had the same sound on the Krell, just not to the magnutude of being on the Tara labs cobalt power cord, but still a incredible huge improvement, one big differnce the Rhodium did to the amp was made the sound stage much bigger with bomb like slam and timberal accuracy and transit speed that was off the chart's, I never heard this on the krell before, it's like I got a much more exspensive amp, so I ask you, do you think it is necessary for me to try the Gold on the amp?, after all the test I have done, and the multiple times of change out of the wpo's, I do not believe I need to hear the Gold on the amp, I might do it one time for you if you think you want to know, alway's a joy to talk to you Rafael0054, cheers.
Audiolabyrinth |
Hi Jebsmith73, yes, I believe you are correct,The plug likly would bring benefit's,however, we thought the wpo's were exspensive, the plug is $293.00 for the Rhodium!, talking about the ouch again, thankyou for your reply. |
Here Is some info about the Tara labs Omega Gold speaker cables that is more informative compaired to what is on the Tara labs web-site, Tara labs scaled down the info of the Omega Gold when they introduced the New Evolution series cables late 2014,,,The OMEGA Gold Series of speaker cables represent the absolute state-of-the-art in loudspeaker cable design. No other speaker cable design can approach the performance standard of the OMEGA Gold Series of speaker cables, other than Tara labs new Evolution series cables. The design starts with Rectangular Solid Core® conductors. The RSC® conductors are specially shaped and frequency tuned to reveal more of the harmonic structure of the music than any other audio conductor. These conductors are helixed around unique PTFE (Teflon®) tubes. The tubes within the OMEGA speaker cable vary in size and total conductor count. The conductors are positioned around the wall of the air-tube without the need for extra dielectric/plastic materials that would affect the sound. The OMEGA Gold Series of speaker cables are truly extreme cable designs. The signal carrying conductors within the cable have such high resolution that all of the other parts and materials of the cable become the audible differences. If the materials or parts can possible influence and change the sound, then we work to isolate the sonic signature of the materials and parts. It is therefore extremely important that all of the materials used in the OMEGA Gold Series have no ‘sonic signature’, meaning that the cables transfer the musical signal with the most clarity, neutrality and transparency possible. There are 3 levels of performance in the original OMEGA Gold Series of speaker cables. From the top, we start with the legendary OMEGA Gold as one of the absolute state-of-the-art speaker cables in the New Tara labs model line up at number three in performance, behind the new Omega Evolution and Grandmaster Evolution. The next OMEGA speaker cable is the highly acclaimed and most reviewed OMEGA speaker cable known as the OMEGA Onyx that is discontinued now. Below the Onyx is the high-performance OMEGA Edge that is also discontinued.
The OMEGA Gold is the ultimate model in the original OMEGA Series of speaker cables. The RSC® conductors are insulated with a fine layer of aerospace polyethylene, a very neutral material with minimal audible effect. The OMEGA Gold delivers lifelike sound vocals, pin-point imaging and clear resolution detail with ease. You will hear an accurate harmonic structure extending upwards with the finest and most delicate of high-frequencies. This will be contrasted with a vanishingly low noise floor. The reproduction of the recorded space can only be described as holographic. The qualities of reverberation and ambient retrieval are simply astonishing. The OMEGA Gold is without peer,other than the new Omega Evolution and Grandmaster Evolution, A level of performance beyond comparison to any other speaker cable design in it's price class.
In the interface between an amplifier and the loudspeaker, we have the output impedance of the amplifier and the impedance of the loudspeaker. The impedance of the loudspeaker usually varies with frequency and this is affected by the electrical characteristic called Inductance. To put it simply, Inductance is the technical term for resistance (impedance) at AC frequencies. The complex AC waveform that we call music is the relatively larger electromagnetic wave. The electromagnetic wave in the speaker cable creates inductance thus affecting the sound in any speaker cable. When a loudspeaker cable is designed to have minimal inductance, the sound becomes more lifelike, more authentic because of the additional harmonic overtones. However, as the cable becomes more revealing, then the materials used in the construction of the cable become more audible.
The complex AC waveform that we call music is the relatively larger electromagnetic wave that travels through the insulation and/or dielectric materials. The materials between a positive and negative conductor are called dielectric materials. The prefix di means between. All types of dielectric materials such as plastic or fabric/fiber filler materials distort and color the sound because these materials have different amounts of dielectric absorption.
Additionally, the amount of absorption varies depending on frequency. As you listen and learn how these distortions can be created and how they affect the sound, your reference for a neutral, clean, clear speaker cable will shift towards a design that relies on having no medium between the positive and negative conductors.
Given that any practical solution requires a medium of some kind to separate the positive and negative conductors, the TARA Labs air-tube® and aerospace polyethylene insulation provides an elegant solution to this problem. Finally, if you want soft, overly smooth and overly warm sounding speaker cables, TARA Labs is not for you. The sonic signature of this TARA Labs cable is neutral, clear and revealing without sounding harsh, shrill or bright, with a welcome touch of warmness. If you hear any of these negative qualities from your audio system, you need to consider other components in your audio system. |
Hi, Here is some conclusion's of the Furutech GTX-D Rhodium and Gold wpo's on Tara Labs cables, and my particular system, with review's from others as well that I have talked to, enjoy,,, Hi Rafael0054, The Furutech GTX-D Gold I bought was cooked for 6 days, and the Rhodium version of the same was new out of the box, I put 300 hrs on both at this point,here is what Michaelzay had to say on his thread, Furutech Gold and copper, quote-12-12-14: Michelzay
Last week, I made another experience regarding Rhodium vs. Gold Ac connectors. I put back again my AQ Volcano (Copper) speaker cables (instead of AQ Meteor Silver) and some copper interconnects (instead of AQ SKY silver) that I have. With Fi-11 gold AC connectors, the sound was kind of dark side of warm sound and lacks a little bit the high frequencies. Even though music was alive and resolution details were present and the bass was too much pronounced. Honestly I am not a Bass freak… I put back again my Dynamic Design power cords having FI-11 Rhodium and high frequencies opened up magically with Copper interconnect/speaker cables having wider soundstage. The sound was more neutral and one could hear tiny noises out of the records.
It was a pleasant surprise which confirms the AC connector needs to be matched also with interconnect cables materials and speakers cables. Gold connectors with Silver interconnect/speaker cables and Rhodium connectors with copper interconnect/speaker cables. I continue to be amazed how Power cords and related AC connectors would impressively change my system sound. Of course, AC receptacle play a big role especially matching it with power cords. I use Tesla AC receptacle.
I ordered some Silver and Gold “iego” set AC connectors that I look forward to receive them to make new experiences with Silver connectors and compared them with Furutech. I was told Silver connectors presents the best of Gold and Rhodium, let’s see ...
Rafael0054,
Here is my response, quote,,12-13-14: Audiolabyrinth
Hi Michaelzay, I enjoyed your review and find that I have the same impressions between Gold and Rhodium Furutech GTX-D wpo's, my cables are copper!, The Tara labs Zero Gold I/C, Tara labs Omega Gold speaker cables, Tara labs Cobalt power cord that is terminated with oyaide ends, the Rhodium is incredible with these cables, I went through a shock factor of the synergy with all of this, The Gold did not have the magical sound stage presatation or the Resolution that the Rhodium brought out of my cables, you seem to be the first audiophile that knows what he is talking about, has nothing to do with tube or solid state equipment, like you said, Rather it has everything to do with cables synergy!, well said Michaelzay, one thing that is most important that I have not said to no one yet, is the fact the Rhodium is incredible on the $5,450.00 Tara labs Cobalt power cord that is this,, Another industry first is TARA Labs' propriety annealing process, known as SA-OF8N 99.999999% copper (super-annealed, oxygen-free, eight nines pure copper). This creates a unique, long, unbroken crystal structure called “mono-crystal” which has exquisitely smooth and detailed transfer of frequencies over a very wide bandwidth. pure copper, which is the purest in the cable industry,even more pure than occ copper that is 6-nines,also versus cheaper power cords that I do not use that I had on hand for many comparisons that was not so much of a huge improvement like putting the Rhodium on a very good pure copper power cord, cheers. |
Hi Jafant, The Krell came home friday december the 5th, 2014, with up-graded power supplies and capacitors, the amp runs great!, finally, after 2 years and 8 month's, it's done!, Mr Krell is like a brand new amp in every way, the over heating problem on the left side is completly resolved, both sides run cooler and equal to each other, yippee!, Hurray!, feel free to e-mail me, a joy to talk to you Jafant. |
Kyle J. says :
I purchased the Omega Gold speaker cable from my local dealer a few years ago. Since that time, I have taken the time to hear many of the high-end cables within this industry. I have attended numerous dealer presentations and trade shows showing the latest Nordost, Cardas, Kubala Sosna, Transparent and so on. Hands down, the TARA Labs Omega Gold is the best speaker cable I've ever heard.
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Misternice, what have you been doing?, did you get the furutech GTX wall frame and cover plate for any of your outlet's? |
Awsome Grey9hound, However, Tara Lab's does NOT use 6-nines occ copper any more period,also, I confirmed with Tara lab's, they do not make consonant alloy conductor's anymore either, they have not done so for a few years now, this is the conductor now-Conductor Information
The RSC Gen 2 (SA-OF8N) Conductor
Super Annealed, Oxygen Free, Eight Nines Copper (SA-OF8N) is the new standard in high performance copper purity.
TARA Labs Rectangular Solid Core® conductors are completely produced in the USA. We start with Oxygen Free Eight Nines Copper (99.999999%), and the copper rods are extruded into long, unbroken, mono-crystal copper rectangular conductors. The conductors are extruded into a unique rectangular shape having specific ‘frequency-tuned’ proportions. Rectangular Solid Core conductors are annealed with a process known as Super Annealing™.
Super Annealing™ or SA, softens the RSC® conductor and increases its conductivity. After annealing, the RSC conductors are polished in-line, and will become finished SA-OF8N® Rectangular Solid Core conductors ready for insulation using advanced polymers or liquid-film technology.
TARA Labs has continuously advanced the design and materials used in its conductor technologies. Previously, in our lower priced consumer grade cables, we were limited to the use of 6N, or six-nines (99.9999%) pure copper and the OCC or Ohno-Continuous Cast copper technologies.
Since the development of Rectangular Solid Core, we have moved beyond these lesser quality materials with the use of higher purity copper and our exclusive USA technologies.
and this id the new generation 3 conductor here, used only in the Grandmaster Evolution interconnect-Making Sense of….Gen 3 Conductors
TARA Labs, Inc. has just announced the introduction of its Generation 3 Rectangular Solid Core® conductor, to be used exclusively in its state-of-the-art interconnect cable.
TARA Labs claims that the Gen 3 conductor has an increased bandwidth or high-frequency extension, that makes it unrivalled in important test measurements and listening tests.
TARA Labs’ Vice President of Product Design, Matthew Bond, said that the new Gen 3 conductor has the same current-carrying capability of a 28 gauge conductor but has the high frequency linearity of a 40 gauge conductor.
Matthew Bond explains why this is possible. “In a conductor with a rectangular profile, there is a huge reduction of ‘flux-linkage’ or ‘coupling’ of electromagnetic lines of force. These lines of force are created as the signal (music) passes through any conductor.” Bond said further, “In a round conductor there is a large center that tends to roll-off or attenuate much more of the high frequency information … this does not happen in a Rectangular Solid Core® conductor”.
According to Matthew Bond, the new Gen 3 Rectangular Solid Core® conductor is smaller than the current Gen 2 conductor used in most of TARA Labs’ audio cables. The Gen 2 conductor measures approximately 25 thousands of an inch wide and 12 thousands of an inch in height. Bond says that the Gen 3 conductor is about 66% of the size of the Gen 2 conductor, and that it is Super-Annealed™ to increase its conductivity.
Both the Gen 2 conductor and the smaller Gen 3 conductor are said to be Eight-Nines™ pure copper, which is 99.999999% pure. TARA Labs’ trademarks for this technology are 8N™ and SA-OF8N®. SA-OF8N means Super Annealed – Oxygen Free 8 Nines copper. According to Bond, the term ‘annealing’ refers to the method whereby a conductor can be made softer and more conductive.
TARA Labs is widely known as the leader in cable technology and audio cable design. They are based in Ashland, Oregon. All cables are hand-made in the USA. |
The Tara Labs Cobalt A/C power cable is what's on the Tara labs web site currently as top a/c power cable model however, these models under this is the NEW power cables from Tara labs, you can call Devon Scott there at Tara labs and ask about these NEW power cables to buy, As Always Brought to you by Audiolabyrinth, Enjoy!, The Cobalt AC Power Cable
The Cobalt AC Power Cable is an extreme performance AC Power Cable having both High-Frequency conductors (Rectangular Solid Core) matched with specially adapted Low Frequency conductors.
The Cobalt AC has 14 high frequency conductors for the Live run, and 14 high frequency conductors for the Neutral run. The Ground path is comprised of shielding and 18 AWG solid core conductors that are fitted with Ceralex(R) capsules. The Low Frequency conductors are 18 AWG solid core conductors that are fitted with Ceralex(R) capsules, designed to eliminate High Frequency noise such as RF or EMI in the cable. The New power cables are mentioned here, starting with the cobalt reference.
The Cobalt AC Reference Power Cable
The Cobalt AC Reference Power Cable is a reference quality AC Power Cable having both High-Frequency conductors (Rectangular Solid Core) matched with specially adapted Low Frequency conductors. The Cobalt Reference AC has 18 high frequency conductors for the Live run, and 18 high frequency conductors for the Neutral run. The Ground path is comprised of shielding and 18 AWG solid core conductors that are fitted with Ceralex(R) capsules.
Omega Evolution AC Power Cable (as compared to The Cobalt Reference)
The OMEGA Evolution uses more conductor mass as compared to the Cobalt Reference; the Live, Neutral and Ground runs use 18 rectangular conductors each, whereas in the Cobalt Reference or Cobalt AC there are 14 high frequency conductors used for the Live and Neutral runs and no high frequency conductors used in the Ground runs.
Additionally, three low frequency conductors are used for each Live, Neutral and Ground (Earth) run. The low frequency conductors act as 'low-pass' filters because each LF conductor is fitted with individual Ceralex(R) capsules, designed to reduce RF/EMI interference. The Omega Evolution AC is fully shielded. Each of the Live, Neutral and Ground runs are separately shielded and then the shields runs are connected electrically to each other. The resulting sound is a much more powerful, dynamic, rich, detailed combination of sound qualities not heard in any other AC power cable.
Grandmaster Evolution (compared to Omega Evolution)
The Grandmaster Evolution AC Power Cable is the ultimate AC power cable. It employs twenty-four RSC conductors for each of the Live, Neutral and Ground (Earth) conductor paths. A total of nine low frequency conductor paths is used combined with the 72 RSC solid core high frequency conductors. The 72 RSC high frequency conductors are shielded in three separate groups for live, neutral and ground. The shields are combined to provide a phenomenal ground path together with RF/EMI rejection., cheers and happy listening! |
Marshall Nack / Positive Feedback says :
With the Tara Labs Omega Gold,You hear deeper into the performance and each note proceeded after the previous fully developed note in an unrestrained flow, a quality that's usually the province of fine tube gear. Only now it was emanating from my mbl Noble Line separates. And this timbral beauty was delivered along with newly fearsome dynamics. Dynamic peaks expanded ‘til they had no more space to fill. The room's dimensions became the limitation.
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Making Sense of …. OMEGA CX Speaker Cable
The TARA Labs OMEGA CX is the first controlled bandwidth speaker cable from TARA Labs that uses a balanced Inductance and Capacitance conductor arrangement. While Tara Labs high end speaker cable normally feature separate conductor paths for the positive and negative runs, to make one channel, the OMEGA CX is an integrated conductor configuration with positive and negative runs in one cable per channel.
The balanced Capacitance and Inductance measurements for this cable make it appropriate for wide bandwidth amplifiers and loudspeaker applications. The OMEGA CX is especially recommended for systems with a tendency towards harshness or high frequency glare
This is the only cable like this that tara Labs makes, it is a new addition to their model line up. |
Controlled Bandwidth & Extended Bandwidth Information
TARA Labs is known as one of the worlds' leading manufacturer of high-end audio cables. Currently the business model employed by the company has been one of both technological innovation and design. This ideology has enabled TARA Labs to remain at the cutting edge of the high-end audio industry. With an eye towards continual manufacturing advancements being made in audio components such as speakers and amplifiers, TARA Labs continues to lead the industry in developing new cutting-edge technologies. Our latest research and development has enabled us to create new reference grade audio cables that work extremely well with many of the newly developed materials used in speakers such as Beryllium, Titanium, Kevlar, and Ceramics in addition to standards such as carbon-fiber, fabrics, polypropylene, paper, etc.
TARA Labs are categorized into two lines: Controlled Bandwidth and Extended Bandwidth. These two categories offer a wide range of reference-grade cables that will enable the audiophile to accommodate and upgrade the majority of the high-end audio components available today.
Controlled Bandwidth
The ISM™ OnBoard Series of cables employs the Controlled Bandwidth technology from TARA Labs. The ISM™ OnBoard Series presents a range of cables with more presence, mid-range warmth and richness without sacrificing detail and high frequency extension.
A common misconception is that the words warmer and richer may indicate a sound with smearing or coloration of the upper bass through mid-range frequencies. This is not the case with any of TARA Labs' cables. The sort of smooth or rolled-off sound is found most often with cables that employ filtering such as inductors and resistors found in network filter box designs. By contrast, the sonic signature of a TARA Labs cable is one that is more coherent and natural. The sound is often described as being lifelike with bloom and body.
The ISM™ OnBoard Series of cables is especially recommended for systems that have wide-bandwidth electronics (with limited filtering*), or with systems that use loudspeakers that have a tonal balance that emphasizes the high frequencies. In general the ISM™ OnBoard Series (Controlled Bandwidth) is recommended for systems that are slightly etched sounding or overly detailed, perhaps with a sense of glare.
*Higher frequencies in the RF bandwidth, or Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) can be picked up easily by longer lengths of interconnect cables, especially those with low Capacitance. Connecting this type of cable (especially single-ended) between high-powered solid state amplification can sometimes be a problem with components having limited filtering.
Controlled Bandwidth - Onboard Capsule
The ISM™ OnBoard concept is unlike traditional shielding methods or filter networks. Even complex shielding methods still remain in proximity to the conductors, thereby distorting the audio signal. Filter networks in boxes at the ends of the cables often contain low quality resistors, inductors and capacitors to perform the filtering. These reduce RFI/EMI in the cable itself by being soldered in series and parallel between the signal conductors. This alters the integrity of the signal, in particular, the higher order harmonic structure of the music.
In the ISM™ OnBoard system, RFI/EMI is dissipated and absorbed within the OnBoard capsule. This function occurs in isolation from the signal conductors.
The signal path is not cut and fitted with additional components. The OnBoard capsule is effective in eliminating the noise of RFI/EMI without the attendant high-frequency anomalies of filter networks.
Extended Bandwidth
What this means is that the cable design employs a cable construction that takes advantage of the electrical characteristics such as Capacitance and Inductance. For example, we can reduce the Inductance in a simple conductor by changing its size, and in the case of a Rectangular Solid Core(R) the shape of the conductor can reduce the Inductance in the conductor. By reducing the Capacitance value in an Interconnect cable, we can extend the high frequency detail. These factors, including reducing the dielectric construction in a cable will make the cable sound more open and neutral.
The Extended Bandwidth Series of cables is recommended for most audio systems. A very good example of the EX cable design philosophy is the Air Series of cables from TARA Labs. In most systems, the Extended Bandwidth cables deliver a sound that is more revealing, open, neutral and transparent.
Most audio electronics use filtering and do not amplify extremely high frequencies such as RF/EMI. The best loud-speaker systems are generally phase coherent and do not sound forward or overly harsh, or even bright. However there are some combinations of audio electronics and loudspeakers that create strain or glare in the sound.
Extended Bandwidth – w/HFX Floating Ground Station
The HFX Floating Ground Station is an extraordinary component that is included with all reference Extended bandwidth interconnect cables. TARA Labs proprietary ground station is made of mil-spec aluminum alloy. Our specific metallurgical properties allow for the reduction of RF and electromechanical resonance; EMI/RFI. It's 18.23% heavier and stronger than aircraft-grade stock. Equipped within the HFX station is a patented ceramic composite of metallic oxides and an amalgam of mineral elements in a ceramic binder called "Ceralex." Because the HFX functions completely outside of the signal path, its ability to dissipate and eliminate the effects of EMI/ RFI (Electromagnetic interference & Radio frequency interference) which also includes sonic distortion, noise, "snow", and lack of image clarity. The appearance of the HFX station is one of beauty and elegance, in addition to its superb performance. |
Hi Bvdiman, I have posted many,many user comment's on this thread, if you back read what's been posted here since november 2014, a few Evolution model line user comment's, you do know their is different model Evolution cable's?, and as far as Audiocrack is concerned, he did not like being corrected when it came to what a HFX ground station or duel mono-block HFX ground station will do, and can do, I gave evidence concering this matter on this thread as well, also, all information on this entire thread is as accurate as can be period, all info is sent to me by request from Tara Lab's, and other info is pulled directly from their web-site. |
Here is the matching Tara Labs 0.3 speaker cables to the above interconnect's, these speaker cables are very good and is a brand new speaker cable model to the line-up, Pr. The 0.3 - 8ft/2.4 meters
The 0.3 Speaker Cable is a state-of-the-art speaker cable using an all PTFE (Teflon) air-tube construction and a trio of helixed Rectangular Solid Core® conductors. Each channel uses 144 Rectangular Solid Core® conductors with a total gauge size greater than a 6-gauge conductor, together with the high frequency extension and linearity of a 32-gauge conductor. This cable provides exceptional performance and high current carrying capability. The 0.3 Speaker Cable has tremendous bass weight and authority, with a neutral and revealing mid-range, together with warmth and airy detail that is not found in other audio cables.
•BSM (1/4” spades & bananas)
•144 RSC Gen 2 conductor per channel
•8+ gauge conductor runs
•Positive/negative run for each channel
•Positive/negative conductor runs are 72 conductors each
•Extremely transparent and neutral
•Midrange and vocals are life-like with realism and presence
•Increased sense of warmth and richness
•Vivid and detailed imagery |
The “TARA” in TARA Labs is an acronym for “The Absolute Reference Audio.” Since the company’s beginnings, TARA Labs has been known among audiophiles as a manufacturer whose cables set the performance standards and whose technological innovations and patents constantly advance the frontiers of the industry.
TARA Labs started in Sydney, Australia in 1986. They began by developing cables and experimenting with different types of conductors. An early result was the Phase II speaker cable which was submitted for review to Stereophile magazine in 1988. The response to the very favorable review from this little-known cable manufacturer was overwhelming. TARA Labs moved to the United States later that year.
The introduction of Rectangular Solid Core® cables in 1992 is an example of the type of innovation that is responsible for the continuing success of TARA Labs. RSC® cables are the only cables in the world to use a solid, extruded conductor with a rectangular cross section. These conductors improve on the performance of regular round solid core conductors by having the current-carrying capability (power) of a large conductor, combined with the frequency linearity (musical accuracy) of a small conductor.
Another recent innovation is the introduction of Isolated Shield Matrix™ technology, which uses the world’s first completely isolated, floating interconnect shield and a separate unit called a Floating Ground Station (HFX) to remove radio frequency interference and electromagnetic interference from the audio signal.
As well as these innovative high quality audiophile products, TARA Labs also produces a range of audio cables under the names of TL™ series, Prime™ series, Onboard™ series, Zero™ series and Omega™ series to name a few. The TL & Prime series utilize many of the features and technologies developed for TARA Labs’ high-end products but offers them at more affordable prices.
Today TARA Labs produces a full range of cables and accessories which are sold through dealers throughout the U.S. and Canada and in 38 countries worldwide. Products are regularly reviewed in respected audio magazines the world over, including Stereophile and The Absolute Sound in the USA, Audiophile magazine in Hong Kong, and numerous professional audiophile magazines throughout the world. Recent reviews, as well as technical information and product descriptions, can be found on the TARA Labs website: www.taralabs.com.
TARA Labs operates and manufactures all of their cables in Ashland, Oregon, USA. |
Hi Ghosthouse, what does this author tring to say here?,quote-People who claim six or eight nines purity? Let's just say that you cannot obtain certification papers for this type of purity. Anywhere. It doesn't exist - except in our audiophile world.End quote, Tara Lab's has patent's and trade mark for haveing the purest copper conductor's in the world, Here is the Tara lab's conductor info, full of trade mark's and patent's,The RSC Gen 2 (SA-OF8N) Conductor
Super Annealed, Oxygen Free, Eight Nines Copper (SA-OF8N) is the new standard in high performance copper purity.
TARA Labs Rectangular Solid Core® conductors are completely produced in the USA. We start with Oxygen Free Eight Nines Copper (99.999999%), and the copper rods are extruded into long, unbroken, mono-crystal copper rectangular conductors. The conductors are extruded into a unique rectangular shape having specific ‘frequency-tuned’ proportions. Rectangular Solid Core conductors are annealed with a process known as Super Annealing™.
Super Annealing™ or SA, softens the RSC® conductor and increases its conductivity. After annealing, the RSC conductors are polished in-line, and will become finished SA-OF8N® Rectangular Solid Core conductors ready for insulation using advanced polymers or liquid-film technology.
TARA Labs has continuously advanced the design and materials used in its conductor technologies. Previously, in our lower priced consumer grade cables, we were limited to the use of 6N, or six-nines (99.9999%) pure copper and the OCC or Ohno-Continuous Cast copper technologies.
Since the development of Rectangular Solid Core, we have moved beyond these lesser quality materials with the use of higher purity copper and our exclusive USA technologies.
and this id the new generation 3 conductor here, used only in the Grandmaster Evolution interconnect-Making Sense of….Gen 3 Conductors
TARA Labs, Inc. has just announced the introduction of its Generation 3 Rectangular Solid Core® conductor, to be used exclusively in its state-of-the-art interconnect cable.
TARA Labs claims that the Gen 3 conductor has an increased bandwidth or high-frequency extension, that makes it unrivalled in important test measurements and listening tests.
TARA Labs’ Vice President of Product Design, Matthew Bond, said that the new Gen 3 conductor has the same current-carrying capability of a 28 gauge conductor but has the high frequency linearity of a 40 gauge conductor.
Matthew Bond explains why this is possible. “In a conductor with a rectangular profile, there is a huge reduction of ‘flux-linkage’ or ‘coupling’ of electromagnetic lines of force. These lines of force are created as the signal (music) passes through any conductor.” Bond said further, “In a round conductor there is a large center that tends to roll-off or attenuate much more of the high frequency information … this does not happen in a Rectangular Solid Core® conductor”.
According to Matthew Bond, the new Gen 3 Rectangular Solid Core® conductor is smaller than the current Gen 2 conductor used in most of TARA Labs’ audio cables. The Gen 2 conductor measures approximately 25 thousands of an inch wide and 12 thousands of an inch in height. Bond says that the Gen 3 conductor is about 66% of the size of the Gen 2 conductor, and that it is Super-Annealed™ to increase its conductivity.
Both the Gen 2 conductor and the smaller Gen 3 conductor are said to be Eight-Nines™ pure copper, which is 99.999999% pure. TARA Labs’ trademarks for this technology are 8N™ and SA-OF8N®. SA-OF8N means Super Annealed – Oxygen Free 8 Nines copper. According to Bond, the term ‘annealing’ refers to the method whereby a conductor can be made softer and more conductive. |
This is 8 cable models down from the top model interconnect of Tara Labs, it is a new model to their line up, A very good entry cable, this is far better than the well known Air 1 series 2 interconnect that was discontinued years ago, this cable is alot better than the competition with-in it's price class, a very affordable way to get into Tara Labs family,,, Pr. RSC® Air Evolution - 1.0 meter
Category: Interconnects
The Air™ Series and air-tube™ technology from TARA Labs has been at the forefront of audio cable design for nearly 20 years. The Air 1 Interconnect was The Absolute Sound ‘Product of the Year’ and has been one of the best-selling high-end audio cables of all time.
Now TARA Labs proudly introduces the Air Evolution™ Interconnect that provides phenomenal performance and a Capacitance figure of only 4 pF per foot. This means that the Air Reference has more than twice the high frequency bandwidth of the famous Air 1 Interconnect. Of course the construction uses a minimal amount of dielectric material and a pair of the Rectangular Solid Core™ conductors.
The sound of the Air Evolution is completely neutral and absolutely revealing with high frequency and airy detail that is not found in comparable audio cables.
•All new air tube design
•Controlled geometry for stable electrical characteristics
•Teflon and Aero PE filament ensuring a high percentage of overall air dielectric
•Each channel is a twin axial
•Each channel uses a RSC Gen 2 conductor for separate positive & negative runs
•Anti-corrosion coated copper shield
•Extremely transparent, detailed, open & revealing
•Fine resolution of fine detail
•Image outlines clearly defined, life-like imagery |
Louis / CO says :
Purchased a pair of TARA Labs Air Evolution interconnect's online and was really amzed by how they sounded in my system. Blew away my Transparent Reference cables.
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Merry-Christmas to all the Audiogon community, and God bless you all, Happy Listening. |
Hi Jafant,I enjoyed talking to you on the phone as well, I will take a peek at the thread you are talking about, anyway I can help with question's about Tara Labs, I will do my best, Thinking about putting a Furutech FI-50 Rhodium wall plug on the Krell to match the Furutech GTX-D Rhodium outlet in the wall, what do you think?, these furutech top of the line product's are a complete synergy match for the Tara Labs Zero Gold I/C, Omega Gold speaker cables, and Cobalt power cord that has oyaide termination's, look forward to your answer, Thankyou Jafant. |
If anyone has question's on Tara Labs pricing, call Mr Devon Scott there at Tara Labs, their is two differnt version's of the new Air Evolution interconnect's, one version has the Evolution ground station, and this version is called the Extended bandwidth version, however, Do not get the Evolution ground station confused with the HFX ground station, the Air Evolution ground station is a down graded station for only the Air Evolution interconnect, none the less, their is a price difference between the Extended bandwidth and regular Air Evolution cables. |
Jafant, Do I have to join up to be a member like here on audiogon?, likly I bet, I have no problem with that, I am also a member of one other audio forum site, audiogon takes 90% of the forum time, but I will look into it, how long have you been a member of audio asylum? |
This is a help tool on the Tara labs web-site, it is a program on their web-site that gives recomendation's for cables per system, it is a basis to work from, however, tast for sound is the the end result when obtaining cable synergy, we all often have different likes and dislikes, again this Tara labs Cable recommendation system is a basis, but it does work well,,,CABLE RECOMMENDATION SYSTEM (CRS)
TARA Labs Cable Recommendation System (CRS) is an objective calculation of the components in your system. By choosing and clicking on the brand names of manufacturers, CRS will analyze the information and offer two cable recommendations for that system. Please note that room acoustics & material, speaker placement, in additional to numerous other factors greatly contribute to the overall sound of an audio system. Knowledge of your preferences for the sound you are seeking is also important and is one of the many factors that helps determine our recommendations. |
Why Rectangular solid core conductor's?,
The patented RSC conductors have become the definitive technology in high-end audio cables. The rectangular shape offers a unique advantage over round conductors. They have the necessary mass for solid bass, yet are thin enough for a coherent reproduction of mid-range and high frequencies. The RSC is not subject to the same high frequency losses that hamper traditional round conductors. To further understand the principle behind RSC technology, it is necessary to understand a phenomenon known as "skin effect" This principle states that in a round conductor, higher frequencies will tend to travel towards the outside (or skin) of the conductor, while lower frequencies will travel closer to the center of the conductor. The larger the diameter of a round conductor, the worse the effect will be, resulting in a significant roll-off of high frequencies in large gauge conductors. Because of its rectangular cross section, an RSC conductor essentially has no center like a round conductor. Therefore it does not suffer the same high frequency losses. |
Thankyou Jafant, I had a great new years day, we rented a hotel for new years day to watch the college play off game's, needless to say, it was priceless to see Alabama loose!, Happy new year to you Jafant. |
Happy new year to you calvinj, thankyou for the kind words. |
I have been told by Mr Devon Scott of Tara Labs, which is the vice president of the company, they are going to be doing instructional video's of Tara labs cable's over the next few month's to go on their web-site, this is very good to help all Tara cable owner's to get the best performance out of their cables, an example of not useing a Tara labs cable improperly is useing a ground station straight to the cable without useing the jumper leads that are required and supplied with a new extended band width cable system when bought new, the leads come with the set-up, the forth coming video's will make this clear to use everything that is supplied, cheers. |
I made an error on the above post, the post should say,An example of not useing a Tara labs cable properly is useing a ground station straight to the interconnect without useing the jumper lead's that are required and supplied with a NEW extended band width cable system when bought new, the lead's come with the set-up. |
Hi calloway, how have you been, my system now sound's the best I ever heard in my life, my building and tweaks are paying off way more than I ever expected here, you should hear this system with the Tara Labs cables I have, installed a single poll 30 amp breaker on my modded Krell 700cx, played in for 17 hrs, talking about wow!, unlimited current!, like a bomb going off in my home!, I have done numerous thing's here, audiogon member's have help me alot through private E-mail's with advice, krell has helped too by phone and E-mail's, this 700cx is way beyound the stock oem 700cx, Damn, I put $4,000.00 in the inside, and $400.00 more soon, this system is singing with Tara Labs cables, synergy is all so important, most never get this kind of system synergy, Happy Listening. |
This is a brand new model in the Tara Labs cables model line-up, this model is 9 model's from the top flagship cable, this also is an affordable cable, this is more affordable than the new Air Evolution cable, The Tara Labs Pr. RSC® Air Forté – 1.0m/3.3ft interconnect, TARA Labs proudly introduces the Air Forte interconnect and speaker cable.
In the case of the Air Forte interconnect the high-frequency extension is clear and linear. The high-frequency extension is defined by the electro-static field, more usually known as the capacitance. The capacitance of the air forte is a remarkably low 5pf per foot. The inductive reactance known as inductance is also remarkably low. This means that the Air Forte interconnect is 200% – 300% greater linearity with frequency than similar priced cables. The sound of the Air Forte is completely neutral and very revealing with high frequency and airy detail.
•All new air tube design
•Controlled geometry for stable electrical characteristics
•Aero-PE filaments ensure a high percentage of overall air dielectric
•Anti-corrosion coated copper shield
•Each interconnect channel is a twin-axial design
•Extremely neutral, detail high-frequencies
•Resolution of fine ambient cues |
The Air Forte is a high-performance and highly affordable speaker cable. Each channel is comprised of two separate large Teflon tubes. Each Teflon tube is helixed with 24 RSC Gen 2 conductors, making a total of 48 conductors per channel. This speaker cable takes full advantage of air dielectric design principles.
The Air Forte speaker cable has tight bass frequencies, with a neutral and revealing midrange, where images are rendered with precision and lifelike quality.
•BSM (1/4” spades or bananas)
•SAOF-8N copper conductors
•10+ gauge conductor runs
•Each Teflon tube is helixed with 24 RSC Gen 2 conductors
•Neutral & revealing
•Linear and extended high frequencies
•Natural midrange and vocal frequencies
•Tight and articulate bass frequencies
This is is the matching speaker cables to the Air Forte I/C. |
tara labs
Air Evolution Interconnects
as reviewed by Marshall Nack
The Jazz Mecca
At one time, you could club hop along 52nd street in New York City and hear the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, et al., jamming until the wee hours of the morning. More than thirty clubs ranged along the street known as Jazz Alley, at a time when NYC was the jazz mecca of the world.
All gone. Only Birdland survives, today relocated eight blocks south on West 44th street. NYC commemorates this glorious musical past by hosting the Annual Americana Jazz Festival, now in its 40th iteration.
Lynn and I happened to be free that Saturday and looking for something to do. So…why not? We made the trek uptown. Alas, it turned out to be just another of those ubiquitous street fairs with the predictable clan of vendors. The sole nod at a "Jazz Festival" theme was an open-air stage, where the Duke Ellington Jazz Vocal Competition was held. (Later I was happy to come across a couple of jazz LP vendors down the street and snatched some choice originals.)
But the Vocal Competition was of interest. Twenty-two artists at various stages of their careers were given two minutes to sing a tune. Although competing with street noise and amplified over a Bose PA system, each vocalist conveyed a distinct personality and style.
At the time I had some newly arrived interconnects on my mind, and it struck me—this competition could be a useful analogy in that cable review. We'll come back to it a bit later.
The product we're looking at today is an interconnect in TARA Labs' new Evolution series of cables. TARA Labs was keeping a low profile the last few years. Now they're back, ramping up with an advertising campaign. You'll be seeing a lot of audio press reviews coming in the near term. The Evolution series hits many price points: the Air Evolution Interconnects (MSRP $1895) on hand are one level up from the Air Forte, the low rung in the series. At the top you have the Zero Evolution and the off-the-charts Grandmaster Evolution.
I'm listening to Lutoslawski's "Chain 3," volume 1 from the four-CD series of Lutoslawski Orchestral Works recently released by Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (CHANDOS CHSA 5082, SACD). Somehow, this young conductor has ignited a magical frisson with the second-tier BBC, resulting in a major discovery of this late 20th-century composer. Neglected and sidelined in the USA, Lutoslawski deserves more—in Europe, he is well-esteemed and programmed often. And it sure helps his case that the performance is captured in brilliant CHANDOS engineering. This is an example of why SACD should be adopted as the recording standard.
I inserted a run of balanced Air Evo interconnect between my CH Precision C1 DAC and the Trinity Preamp, and another from the Trinity to the Audionet MAX mono-amps. The rest of the system remained Kubala•Sosna Elation! cables, including the new XPander Power Distributor.
Even on first listening, after a week's burn-in off on the side, the clarity and spaciousness of the soundstage is striking. Massed strings murmur briefly at the opening of the work, quickly followed by tympani and double bass punctuation marks, which come and go fast and tight, like the quick jabs of a lightweight boxer. The orchestra swells into mezzo forte with continuing percussive jabs, then quiets down before moving into a sustained Largo, scored mostly for low strings, which continue to murmur underneath the chattering woodwinds.
The full orchestra ramps up again at about four minutes and the sound takes off, spreading laterally across the span between my YG Anat speakers. Soundstage width is excellent; depth is fine, if not quite as good, but no reason to complain.
The Air Evo are neither bright nor dark: when they went in I did not have to re-balance or make any adjustments. Frequency response is smooth and evenly allocated, with good extension on both ends. I found the treble slightly more pointed and focused than the bass and midrange, which makes this band a little more forward. This has a two-pronged effect: On the one hand, it promotes clarity and articulation; on the other, I would not characterize them as laid-back.
Air Evo transients are sharp edged and fast, as fast as any cable I've come across. Related to that, the tail of notes, while not exactly truncated, is on the short side. This handling makes for very quick coming and going of events.
The Timbral Envelope
I must say, strings are impressively rendered. They don't exhibit any abrasiveness. (I always find TARA's Ceralex, described below, to be useful here.) While not lavish, timbre and tone are convincing and the gestalt of the instruments is nicely conveyed. The soundstage is populated with tall and a bit skinny images, their borders sharply defined, so imaging is discrete with little overlapping or blending. Resolution is sufficiently high so that a solo instrument can be readily distinguished from a duet. Likewise, the volume occupied by a mass of instruments is conveyed.
Soundstage
This amalgam of Air Evo qualities makes reading the orchestra an easy call. There is no confusion, no vagueness; each instrument sounds like itself and is located where you expect it to be. The Air Evo doesn't seem to add anything. It's a very straight-ahead type of sound, totally free of mechanical artifacts and noise on the one hand, and musical embellishments on the other. The cables clearly conform to TARA's enviable reputation for neutral voicing.
Cable Categories
Now it's time to recall the Duke Ellington Jazz Vocal Competition. The twenty-two artists spanned the gamut of talent with most in the average category, a few dreadfuls, and two or three outstandings. This was over a PA system at an open air street fair—a truly low-res situation. Of course, in an actual concert hall, there would be a ton of additional info. Yet, it was easy to discern differences in vocal quality.
That's what made it entertaining and I imagined the judges were going to be in for a tough time. And that's when the analogy to audio cables came up. Cables come in a variety of price and performance points. What do you get at the different levels?
A while ago, my colleague Bob Levy used to rank cables into price categories as follows:
- $4000 and up, per meter: Top Tier
- $2000 to $4000: Mid Level
- up to $2000: Low End, with several sub-tiers
This was back in 2010. Given inflation plus the general tilt towards more expensive products, the rankings need to move as well to be realistic in the here and now. The Air Evo, at $1895/meter, clearly fall into the Low End of today's market. Shocking, isn't it?
What's Expected
What are the expectations for a $1895/m product? I asked around among the cognoscenti and came up with a consensus opinion: a cable at this price point should have good all-around performance and not evidence serious fall-off anywhere. It should not have any issues.
Yup—you could certainly say that about the Air Evo. I mentally checked off every item on the Audiophile Report Card and there is no area of slackness that I need to call to your attention. Well done.
What It Doesn't Do
Actually, it is a lot better than that. It wasn't until I compared the Air Evo to the Top Tier cables that omissions became apparent. Against my reference K•S Elation! (MSRP $6000/m) and other Top Tier cables, the differences lay in the realm of escalating refinements.
For example, the Air Evo does the imaging thing, placing instruments in space at discrete points and layering depth. However, compared to the Top Tier, instruments are less fleshed out and have less individual depth, less 3D rounding. They appear a bit flat. Timbres, as noted above are good, but the full complexity and beauty of the higher-priced spread is not there. Musical flow, defined as what happens when going from one note to the next (a particular strength of the K•S Elation!) is not the same. And the quality of air and ambience in different recording venues is left unresolved.
What the Top Tier offers is the icing on the cake, heard in the refinements that bring you closer to the performance. It is not a huge difference, but it is an important one and the cost is huge.
On a side note, another observation expressed by the cognoscenti is that as you move up within a cable brand, the house sound should remain a constant. For example, comparing TARA's The 0.3 with HFX (MSRP $8,900) to the Air Evo, there is a percentage of "better" in every category: still, the voicing is recognizably by the same designer. There should not be a radical change from one cable to the next within the same brand.
Cable Construction
The Air Evo interconnects have a newly designed air tube construction with Teflon and Aero PE filament, which ensure a high percentage of overall air dielectric. TARA Labs claims an amazingly low 4 pF per foot capacitance for the Air Evo interconnects, which provides "…more than twice the high frequency bandwidth of the famous Air 1 Interconnect."
Conductors
Each leg of the Air Evo interconnect uses a separate positive and negative run of conductor material made from SA-OF8N copper utilizing Rectangular Solid Core Gen 2 geometry. (The Super Annealed™, Oxygen-Free Eight Nines process creates one long, unbroken single crystal, or mono-crystal, structure.)
Cable Grounding
TARA Labs Technical Design Team has always been a big proponent of floating the ground on their cables. That's why they have an elaborate system of pigtails, mini bananas, RCA plugs and sometimes outboard Ground Stations.
Like the upper-end TARA cables, the Air Evo interconnects have pigtails sprouting on both ends. The source side of the cable has mini-bananas that plug into the outboard EVO Floating Ground Station (FGS). The EVO FGS, in turn, is connected via mini-banana pins to ground somewhere on the component's chassis. In this way, the EVO FGS provides an independent ground path.
On the load side, the Air Evo has mini-bananas that lock together. Thus, the ground wire is lifted on both ends—a true floating ground.
EVO Floating Ground Station
Ceralex Compound
The EVO Floating Ground Station employs passive noise reduction technology in the form of a patented compound called Ceralex. Whatever EMI/RFI is riding along the ground wire is dumped into the EVO FGS and absorbed by the Ceralex inside.
You hear this as the removal of noise and smearing. The Floating Ground Station doesn't change tone or timbre but makes everything clear and sharp. Disconnect the FGS and you lose focus.
Conclusion
The TARA Labs Air Evolution Interconnect with EVO Floating Ground Station is advertised as "completely neutral and absolutely revealing with high frequency and airy detail that is not found in comparable audio cables." It is certainly neutral, revealing, and loaded with detail.
At $1895 for a meter length, the Air Evo fall into what must be considered the Low End price point for audio cables. How they stack up against the competition required some investigation. I queried the audio cognoscenti for definitions and expectations at different price points.
They clearly exceeded the base-line for a Low End cable, in most respects falling in line with expectations for a Mid Level product. Shortfalls only appeared when I shifted gaze to Top Tier cables. What the Air Evolution doesn't give you lies in the realm of refinements, the tasty garnishes that are like icing on the cake and only available from the best-of-breed.
The bottom line is TARA Labs new Air Evolution cables are out-sized performers and offer a big bang for the buck. Highly recommended without reservation for those shopping at this price point. Marshall Nack
Air Evolution Interconnect
Retail: $1295 / 1m
Air Evolution Interconnect with EVO Floating Ground Station
Retail: $1895 / 1m, Additional meter $250.
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Jeffrey Weber is a twenty-five year music industry professional. He has produced over 135 CDs with releases on just about every major label as well as a host of independent labels. Along the way, his projects have yielded two Grammys, seven Grammy nominations, at least seventeen top ten albums, two number one albums and an assortment of other honors.
Among the many artists that have fallen under the banner of "Produced by..." include: Nancy Wilson, David Benoit, Steve Lukather, the Utah Symphony, Jackson Browne, Marcus Miller, Michael McDonald, Bill Champlin, Gerald Albright, Tom Scott, Chick Corea, Stanley Clark, Etta James, Linda Hopkins, Kenny Burrell, McCoy Tyner, Jackie McLean, Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big), Cozzy Powell, the Count Basie Orchestra, John Sebastian, Ronnie Dio, Ritchie Blackmore, Pat Boone, Buddy Miles, Billy Preston, Kenny Rankin, Diane Reeves, Diane Schuur, Rita Coolidge, Luther Vandross, David Crosby, Simon Phillips, Jeff Porcaro, Patrice Rushen, Toni Tennille, among many others.
Jeff is well known for his involvement in high technology recording techniques, especially live two track recording, live multi-track and digital recording. Because of their sonic excellence, his recordings have been repeatedly selected by major hardware manufacturers (Sony, Toshiba, Threshold, Boston Acoustics, Jeff Rowland, Martin-Logan, Psion, to name a few), to demonstrate their product lines.
Why Jeffrey Weber Loves TARA Labs!
Jeff Weber knows how to get a live performance to sound unforgettable, and he knows how to master a CD to sound like a live performance. Jeff used TARA Labs (RSC) Rectangular Solid Core cables throughout the recording process. From the TARA Labs (RSC) Microphone cables in the studios and booths, right through to the TARA Labs (RSC) Air AC Power cables in the control room.
The Power Of The Performance
In evaluating a systems sound, the goal is feel that we are in the presence of live music. To hear the rich harmonic textures, and to convey the emotion of the music and the artist.
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I challenge anybody to compaire the very best of Tara Labs to ANY cable out there, take the Tara Labs Grandmaster Evolution or Zero Evolution cables to your audition, you get what you pay for! |
calvinj, I read your thread, I post fact's on this thread about the sound and the way the cable is made of different Tara Lab's cables model's, I post review's and audiophile user comment's to back what is said here, it's better than the same 4 people gushing over and over about their cable's,also, you need to understand, although the cable's all of you gush about that seem exspensive to some on your thread, none of you likly will not pay the price for the Tara Lab's Zero Evolution or Grandmaster Evolution cable's, their is a reason why they are far more exspensive than the cable's all of you rave about, I do not come to that thread and comment about what the 4 of you do there, I expect the same here, thankyou. |
