Hi Charlieclarke, I seen that video too, all I do know is that over the years I read in the Absolute sound and Stereophile audio publications that these awards were given to Tara labs By these two magazines and many others, I also read the same for audio show awards over the years,back in the 90's I use to take Tara Labs cables from store to store through out half the U.S.A. on my dime to compaire their best offerings of cables to Tara Labs, I met many founder's of audio company's, I had a great time doing this as I also was given seminairs on resonance tunning control at the time too, the good ole days for me, cheers.
I just saw TARA Labs' relatively new video on youtube, claiming that they have "won more professional reviewer awards, and has more positive reviews than any other cable manufacturer in the world today"...can anyone verify this? I'd be interested to know.
Here's the video link if anyone's interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXxc2tpVrBo
What in the world could possibly make a customer think that they can speak for a manufacturer and tell another customer what said company is going to do for them? Tara certainly didn't seem to be thrilled to have to post on this forum to correct the inside misinformation. There is some serious delusion going on here.
Wow!, As it turns out, that classified sale was not legitimate!, By the way Taralabs1, or Devon Scott, the seller claimed to be no other than Matthew Bond himself!, thankyou so much for coming here to clarify this fake sale, I did not understand it,because that pricing would have drove the used market down substantialy of the Zero Gold and Omega Gold, I am sorry I did not catch this, I would have been the one to bring this to your attention as I always have, I was fooled too!, I will be your eyes and ears better next time, cheers
Audiolabyrinth, I am not going to waste my time. Looking at your various posts it should be clear to every sane audiophile that - let me put it mildly - you are somewhat lost.
It is not our usual policy to engage in forum blogging regarding cable comments, but a recent ad posted on Audiogon has necessitated a company response regarding the sale of new Zero Gold LE for $6000.00.
At no time has TARA Labs authorized this posted ad. We only became aware of this just yesterday. In addition, there is no such cable called “The Zero Gold LE” at TARA Labs. To further note: As TARA Labs has been in existence for almost thirty years, we have had to endure counterfeit cables being sold world-wide as official TARA Labs, false advertising and claims, as well as hackers who try to enter into our company computers to steal information. This is a situation that other cable manufactures have had to deal with on a constant basis. In the world of online communication, it is sad that company’s such as Yahoo, JP Morgan, and TARA Labs have had to endure this invasion of privacy. Thank you.
misternice, what have you been up to?, How did the Furutech GTX-D Rhodium work out with your Tara Labs cable house sound?, Should be burned in by now?, Whats your conclusion impressions?, look forward to your reply, cheers.
Hi Jebsmith73, yes, that listing of the Tara Zero sale was LEGIT, I gave my opinions of why it may have been removed, I am sure you can call Tara On the phone and Tara would honor the ad and sale you what you want at that pricing, Happy Listening.
Thanks Jmcgrogan2, I watched your video link, I got a good laugh out of it, I liked it when the kid come up to the glass, I do feel like that at times, especially tring to convince someone the sky is blue and they say it's green currently, great sence of humor John, I needed that, cheers.
Btw audiocrack, I do have the exsperience with the top Tara cables!, I have some, really!, if I were you, I would not listen to that dealer you have, I bet he does not sale the top Tara cables, but sales the tripoint troy products, come on man, wake up!
Audiocrack, I suggest you read my review here on this thread!, diconnect your ground station to your interconnect, put your componet ground on your troy whatever, or put your componet ground on a componet, and keep disconnecting the ground wire from the station at the box end of the station, it is substantial of a noise drop, it's a seperate circuit!, Then come back and admitt I know what I'm saying!, I have 25 years exsperience with Tara, what do you have?, what research have you done?, do you know everything their is to know about current Tara cables and past cables?, If you do not, then listen to me, why fight the truth of the matter, I have proof!
Jebsmith73 and JMCgrogan2, well it appears that Matthew Bond pulled the plug on that speacial discounted sale of the limited run of the Tara labs Zero Gold I/Cs, I supose he might have gotten flack from dealers who still had some in stock?, the ad was suppose to run till 11-30-14, it is expired on my end, cheers.
Jebsmith73, Matthew Bond is selling a limited run 1-10 of the Zero Gold for the last time, likly the Omega Gold as well, This cable system is now discontinued, after a 19 year run, no other audio product in history has had such a shelf life, there were many different variates over the years of the Zero Gold and Omega Gold, Tara labs tweaked this cable system every couple of years, the last and best version is the Zero Gold I/C with HFX station and the genuine Omega Gold S/C, not to be confused with the s/c that only says Omega on the speaker cable that people try to pass on selling as Omega Gold, their is a huge difference, cheers.
For someone who has no experience whatsoever with either the Taralabs grandmaster evolution or the Tripoint Troy se your comments/claims are absurd. Both mentioned products are superb and combining them make the Taralabs cables shine even more due to the Tripoint Troy se.Let us be happy about that and stop your miscommunication. Audiocrack
Himiguel, Hi, I did my own testing, I know what the reality of the ground stations are!, Hell yes The Tara labs Ground stations benifitted the Troy signature, I do not care what you have to say about this, My review is the truth!, Audiocrack does not know squat about Tara labs or my research on the products!, I seen and heard my self what My review says, Really!, Its a seperate circuit!, How can it not benefit the Troy, it grounds and drops the noise floor to whatever it is connected to period!,I challenge you to find out what my review revealed, how much money do you have?, re-read my review!
Hi Melbguy1, how have you been?, yes that is true about the copy and past, next, I will be making links, anyway, anything change in your system since the last time we talked?, how did the Rhodium GTX-D wpo work for you?
Audiolabyrinth, Are you calling my customer Audiorack a liar? Have you ever heard the Troy Signature in combination with Tara Labs Grandmaster Evolution series? To assume that the HFX station is benefitting the EMI/ RFI filtering capabilities of the Troy Signature is completely absurd without knowing any of the design philosophies of the Troy? I challenged anyone with Tara Lab ground boxes to a challenge. Bring your checkbook.
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.
07-27-14: Himiguel Even Taralabs Grandmaster Evolution series cables can improve if you use a Tripoint Troy Signature to remove EMI/RFI. Check out this review from a WBF member. Dealer disclaimer. 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! I got some shocking news for you Himiguel, and any other Tripoint audio signature owners, yes I agree that this is a fine product, However, The post here that Audiocrack made on whatsbest forum above is absolutly INCORRECT!, I have done my own research with a genuine out come, Let's explore this, I have a HFX floating Ground station that came with my Tara labs Zero Gold extended Band-width interconnect,The HFX station is out side the signal path, not made onto the interconnect,The HFX station is very similiar to the duel-mono block Tara labs Grandmaster floating ground station, I also have a interconnect called, The One with ISM on board, what this means is that this model interconnect is a controlled band-width interconnect with the cerelex material made inside capsules made onto the interconnect within the signal path,thus the term, ISM on board, the user cannot use a HFX floating ground station with this model called, The one with ISM on board, I dis-connected the Zero Gold I/C and removed it completly from my system, I left the HFX ground station in place with the left and right leads completly disconnected from the HFX station that is for the Zero Gold Foating shield, Inserted the Tara labs The One with ISM on board, mind you, this I/C was in no way what so ever connected to the HFX station!, wife was standing their with expectations of the sound of the Tara The one with ISM on board from past memories as I was, we both looked at each other with pure amazement, she said, what did you do?, I had no answer at the time, we both walked up and looked closer at the cables, WALA!, the componet ground of the HFX station was still connected to source by way of spade connection and pluged into the HFX station, I said, what's this?, How is this so?, unpluged componet ground jumper wire from HFX station and the noise floor shot straight up in the Tara The One with ISM on board, connected it back, the noise floor dropped HUGELY, the both of us was like, wow!, this Tara The One with ISM on board never ever sounded this good, conclusion to this true story is that the componet ground is an entirely seperate circuit from any interconnect the station is connected to, the ground scheme on these ground stations will drop the noise floor to anything they are connected to, That is Amazeing, The Tara labs Duel mon-block ground station is better than the standard HFX station, it is really two HFX stations made onto one unit, so when Audiocrack hooked his Tara labs Duel mono-block ground station that comes with the Tara Grandmaster Evolution I/C to the Tripoint troy signature, it dropped the noise floor to the Tripoint Troy signature significanty!, If anything, The Tara Labs HFX and Duel mono-block stations are IMHO phenomenal!
Thankyou for the phone call to me waxwaves, we go way back, great to hear you are still useing Tara Labs cables, and working your way up the Tara Cable food chain, Awsome!
Misternice, If you liked the tweak I told you about with Furutech GTX-D Recepticles, then you should like this one to further accomidate the sound Of our Tara Labs cables, It's the Synergestic Quantum Red fuses, these are getting plenty of buzz here on Audiogon as the current Best, they are newly introduced to the market, they take 200 to 250 hours to burn in give or take, research these, their user feed back and pro reviews, Bob, they are $59.00 to $90.00 U.S.D. depending on which size and specification you require, the one's I need for my amp, are of course the more exspensive fuses, I would need 4 for the amp,also looking into the possibilty of useing some for my digital,cheers.
I assure you, I did not write the Tara labs Omega Gold speaker cable review posted 10-23-14,however, I believe I will give my account of these fine sounding speaker cables, currently, on my system, the Tara labs Omega Gold speaker cables are the BEST I have ever heard, I have never heard my amplifier create music as does now, it's like I got a substantial, many times more exspensive componet change!
Hi Bvdiman, I said used market value had alot to do with system dependency, well then, common sence states that an individule will pay for what they need to further the performance of their system, an example of what I am saying here is the fact that a 69 chevelle automobile may be worth to someone the asking price, however, as much as I love this car, I will not pay nothing for it, I have no use for this automobile, cheers.
I remember several years ago getting the opportunity to meet with the owners of a famous NASCAR racing team. We were pitching a software solution at the time and during the meeting, it was painfully obvious that the Mother of this racing team called the shots for her late husband and son. I remember during a break saying to her, “it must be so exciting to be in the business of racing cars.” She looked at me and said, “son, we are not in the racing business, we are in the advertising business.”
In high end audio, there are certainly a lot of “flavor of the month” brands and products. The audio marketing machine brings these flavors to us with regular flare. It is not an accident, that the most successful brands in this $200 million a year business are also the ones who are often the most successful at marketing and advertising. I’m not suggesting that these successful companies are in the marketing business first and audio second. They just know how to play both cards simultaneously well.
Digging back through the cobwebs that cloud my memory, I remember in the 70’s, 80’s and even into the 90’s, high end cables were met with much of the skepticism that a lot of audio voodoo like isolation is met with today.
However, something happened in the early 2000’s. It all of a sudden seemed that the audiophile collective realized cables do matter! During the entire decade it seemed that the next greatest cable was around the corner. The perpetual cable swapping on Audiogon gave even the most ardent audiophile a massive headache!
My first exposure to Tara Labs cables was in the late 90’s. Tara cables, even their entry level products, were something I could only dream of. I remember hearing products like the Tara Labs Isolated Shield Matrix “The Two” interconnects and speaker cables. In those days, those were the things I put on my “one day I will own” list, along with a red Ferrari, circa Magnum P.I. and a BIG 37 inch TV!
The Tara website states that 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.” Throughout much of the 2000’s, several of my audiophile friends continued to mention Tara Labs cabling as being the stalwarts of their great sounding systems.
Founded in Australia, Tara Labs has been making cables for almost 30 years. Their first product to be reviewed by an American Magazine was the Tara Labs Phase II Speaker Cable, reviewed by Stereophile in 1988.
That glowing review put Tara Labs on the map so much so that Tara Labs moved their operation to the U.S. that year (1988).
Throughout the 90’s, Tara Labs continued to innovate, bringing products like the Rectangular Solid Core cables, or RSC as they are known today. Tara Labs states that RSC cables are the only cables in the world to use” a solid, extruded conductors with a rectangular cross section. It is believed that 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 of linearity (musical accuracy of a small conductor.” RSC power cables have been in my system for quite a while now.
Fast forward to 2013. I was invited to a demonstration at Design Audio in Texas. I met with the owner David Baskin, a Tara Labs dealer. David had a broad range of cable products, but it was these particular Tara Labs The Omega Gold speaker cables he insisted I hear.
We first listened with a competing brand of similarly priced cable and then switched over to the Tara Labs The Omega Gold speaker cables. The difference was not subtle. It was equivalent to a component change. It was like a veil had been lifted.
Over the next few months, I kept thinking about those cables and the difference they made. I contacted David and he agreed to ship me his pair to try in my system. I had been using a variety of different speaker cables including WireWorld and AcousticZen.
From the first note, the first thing I noticed was how much wider and deeper the soundstage was. But even more significant was the space granted to each instrument and vocal. There was absolutely no smearing or edge which had been the characteristic of the WW cables and many other previous cables in my system.
Some cables on the market today deal with transients in a very forward, almost aggressive manner. Not so with the Omega Gold. The Omega cables handle transients with a delicate touch, especially with acoustic instruments. While listening to Oscar Peterson deliver his superb piano playing on Goodbye J.D., We Get Requests (Verve), I experienced the cables delicate touch with transients. A characteristic that is so important when emotionally connecting the listener to the music. At no point did the piano sound “hard” or “soft” – it only sounded right. In fact, I know that song well and it never sounded so good, so natural.
A great cable has the ability to extract the last little bit of information from the source, while never making it sound forced or hard. The Omega Gold cables handle decay with exemplary performance. Female vocals just hang in the air.
On the downside, the cables themselves are not very flexible, so if you need to go around a tight corner, you may want to look elsewhere. At their max flexibility, you can get more of a U shape. Even the pig tail ends are a little stiff to work with for angling a connection on to an amp.
These obstacles aside, I greatly appreciate the interchangeable ends on the speaker cables. Wide spade, standard spade, banana – are all options now. Brilliant!
Tara Labs is not a marketing company, they are a cable company to the core. They also aren’t a flash in the pan new kid on the block. Tara Labs has been around almost 30 years and are one of the most respected brands in high end audio.
I could go on and on about these cables and just how natural they sound, but I recognize that recommending $24,000/pair cables is a bit crazy. OK, not a bit…a lot. But if your system (and budget) are up to it, I definitely recommend an audition. Just be prepared to not want to give them up – ever.
After living with the cables for two months, I wasn’t about to let them leave. I had David order me a new pair. I have since added the TaraLabs 0.8 Interconnects and TaraLabs Zero Gold phono cable which I will review in another post. But for now, let’s just say the TaraLabs 0.8 IC’s have eliminated a lot of noise I was experiencing with my WireWorld IC’s. The phono cable is also noticeably cleaner and quicker sounding than my previous Furutech phono cable. Rounding out the DC loom of Tara Labs has taken my system to new heights.
I can now cross Tara Labs cables off my list. The Ferrari will have to wait, This author desires to be unknown, for reasons of over whelming comunications to the author, cheers.
Jebsmith73, You are incorrect of the used market values of the cables you have specified, my values corrospond to my archives that I have been keeping since 2012 from the watch list of audiogon,The Tara Labs cobalt power cord is $5,000.00 new retail, with oyaide terminations it is $5,400.00 6ft, used market for cobalt for 6ft is $2,300.00 to $1,900.00 depending on which cobalt power cord you buy, The Tara Omega Gold is $24,500.00 new retail 8ft, on the used market $11,000.00 to $8,000.00 depending on if you get a Regular Omega pair of speaker cables that does NOT say Gold on the cables, alot of people try to pass these speaker cables as Omega Gold cables, THEY ARE NOT!, they are the first Tara labs Omega speaker cables built, The Omega Onyx speaker cables has more performance than this cable, The Tara Zero Gold, depending when it was made!, The first version had a much smaller box called floating ground station,it said the Zero, this is not the same as the HFX grounding station, the station before the box that said zero was a grounding station that said Tara labs on it which was inferrior to the box that said zero, so now we have three different versions of the Tara Labs Zero Gold that new full retail cost $15,950.00 to $14,500.00 depending what country it is sold, now the used market for the Zero Gold can range anywhere between $5,500.00 to $8,000.00 a meter!, this depends on which version you buy, they do have different performance from one version to the other, Jebsmith73 I paid nearly $7,000.00 used market for my Tara labs Zero Gold 1-meter Balanced I/C, the cable was one year old, I had a relationship with this cerified Tara Dealer to get this cable at this price because of the age that with the serial numbers Tara Authenticated this Tara labs Zero Gold WITH HFX ground station before I bought it, only select Tara Labs dealers are allowed to sale such a cable, currently all the cables you are talking about here has dropped used value by a little bit, considering the introduction of the new Power cords By Tara labs that Is not on their web-site yet that any one can buy now, they are the new Cobalt AC Reference power cord, The new Omega Evolution AC power cable, and The new flagship GrandMaster Evolution AC power cord,, currently, The Tara labs Zero Gold and Omega Gold cables are third in the new line up, however, according to Tara, these cables are subject to be dis-continued soon, the new two top models of Tara labs is the Zero Evolution I/C and matching Omega Evolution speaker cables, and the new flagship cable system is called the GrandMaster Evolution I/c and speaker cables, Tara labs also introduced much more new models in their line up that I did not specify here, all these new cables are driving the used market down for the cables you mentioned Jebsmith73, The Tara labs Onyx I/C and Omega Onyx speaker cables have been dis-continued nearly a year, this model on the used market would be a great buy for what you pay for it now, also this model out performs most other cables on the new market, cheers.
Sabai, can you explain what cables run in series means to you, many different opinions of how cables should be run, I enjoy talking to you, I applaud your efforts to be different, that is exactly what I do, go against the grain by experimentation to confirm the truth of what works best on my system, cheers.
Tara labs Cobalt A/C Power cord. Retail price is around $5400,used market value is only $1500. Omega Gold speaker cables MSRP is around $22,000. Used market price only around 5 to 6K. Ouch!! . Who would pay 4 grand for a Zero-Onyx cable when you own a Zero Gold for a little more than 5 K , and it's a much better cable?
Melb was expanding on resale value side of things if you didn't already get that. And now, how does resale value correlate with system dependency as per your saying?
This is a interesting subject at hand here, I do not believe there is a clear answer, as you know, because of system dependency, how can their be a clear winner of what cable has the best re-sale value?, as I said, this is subjective and controversal, however, I welcome all to chime in, I would like to know opinions out there,thanks to jebsmith73, this could be a learning exsperience for all.
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