Taralabs cables

Hey, I guess it's just how things are on audiogon now. I've met some very knowledgeable people on audiogon.  They have given some great advice at times. However, there are those times where people become obsessive about one brand and always want to say they have the best, biggest and baddest system and cables. People talking to themselves. Doing cut and paste. Claiming that they know it all. Just baloney! I look at this thread and I shake my head. Some may ask why even comment on it. . Well because what I see here is just flat out nuts. Life woke me up this past year. I'm not spending another dime past what I have right now. I have a great sounding system but probably cost more than most cars. I'm going to enjoy it and shake my head at threads like this. I guess in Audio like in politics. The truth has nothing to do with facts. Lol. Put 20k in wires on 1k worth of equipment and tell us you are the expert!

Woogie59, You are welcome,  I apologize for the hostile rude few on this thread,  it's not like this normally,  I have talked to mistetnice numerous times,  tell him Audiolabyrinth said hello,  and ask him if he still lives part time in New Zealand?, cheers 

Will do. I spoke to him the other week.  He is working in Western Australia and has a place in Bali.  Half his luck.

I too have tried lots of cables but have settled mainly on Tara Labs and Audioquest speaker and interconnect cables.

Power cables from VooDoo, Crystal Cable, Cardas and Nordost.

Components from Audio Research, Allnic, Kuzma  with local Whatmough speakers.

But there are many more cables to try and always new models to test.

That's half the fun.

Please let this thread just die ...........

Woogie59, That's interesting,  never heard of whatmough speaker's,  can you post a link or some information about the pair you have?, you are correct about testing different cable's,  I'm going to try Cerious technologies graphene cable's for one of my vintage system's I'm building,  very cheap for the admission of their best cable's 🤓🤑

We like to see virtual systems photos posted as well so we comment and compliment others on their systems and learn from them.  I think labryinth, birdiemay (dimebag or otherwise) and woogie should post virtual systems.

Woogie: Good to meet you!  Never heard of those speakers, please post info and pics!

jmcgrogan2, thanks for posting the link.

Superlative build and top notch sound. They are highly regarded in Oz. Sadly their designer, Colin Whatmough, died suddenly a few years ago but his family have continued the business.

I have the Paragons, the latest iteration has twin downward firing 10" sub-woofers in each box.

I was fortunate picking these up as a demo special from my local retailer. I demo’d top line B+W and comparably priced Wilsons, both good, but Whatmough blew them away(for my taste).

I have found Audioquest/Tara Labs as being my choice of cabling for my many system iterations( using many different brands over the years).

I'm tend to lean to a warmer sound, hence my tube gear.

Has anybody. not audiolabryinth or his alter egos. Anybody else give me the opinion on what they think of .8 interconnects. Or any of those that are above that level.

I primarily use 0.8 interconnects both HFX and ISM On-Board and they perform admirably.

I have used the The One and The Two and these were so much better.

I find the HFX more open and use these from my sources to my pre.  I prefer the ISM On-Board between my pre and power amp and between my pre and headphone amplifier. 

I hope to receive my first Zero Gold interconnect in a week or so(just bought it on Audiogon).

If happy with the Zero Gold I may have some 0.8's for sale.  

I will post my impressions over the 0.8 once it arrives.

Going back about 4 years or a bit more, I owned alot of The One interconnects and speaker cables and later moved to a combination of 0.8 HFX and 0.5 HFX (after healthy amounts of trials of 0.8 with ISM Onboard).

For speaker cables I found a shotgun run of The ONE to be my favorite over a single pair of 0.8 speakers cables (for The ONE a shotgun run is 2 complete pairs of course but for Tara, this is 4 individual cables to each speaker as Tara has (an approach that I liked very much) a practice of separating positive and negative sides of the run into individual cables.  Both my dealer and Matthew B. told me that for full-range speakers that open up considerably the lower the effective gauge and higher the amount of great copper that you give them, the shotgunning The ONE was superior to a single pair of the 0.8s. I stand by that statement and enjoyed the config very much. It was very musical and involving and while not the highest precision imaging I have heard to-date, it was a very good configuration for 2 different speaker generations that I owned.

For analog XLR ICs, I found 0.8 with HFX was superior to ISM Onboard; much more resolving and full range, better bass clarity, mids tonality and high frequency extension etc....

For digital (AES and other ICs), I found the 0.5 with HFX was superior to anything in the line I had owned or auditioned.  If memory serves, 0.5 became (or was used as the basis for) the Gold Onyx part of the line.

Models and position in the line today may require modification as my ownership experience goes back a few years but the main point is that I had very good experience with these cables and found the sweet spot for price, value and return on investment for speaker, analog XLR and digital interconnects at least relative to my system at the time.

Hi zephyr24069, I enjoyed reading your post,  informative,  I once used the One speaker cable's for bi-cableing myself,  in my opinion and experience,  I found running the Omega jumper 10" cable's to sound hugely better in every way than bi-cableing 8ft or 6ft speaker cable's,  at the time I bought the Omega jumper's-speaker cable's,  they were special order and was the flagship of the small cable's for this application,  they are made exactly like the Omega gold speaker cable's,  just smaller in diameter,  now, they are second in the line up,  the new flagship jumper cable is the new Evolution. 

Woogie59, Very nice speaker system indeed,  congrats are in order, what Audio Research component's are you using? 

All Reference,  6 CD player, 6 Pre and 75 SE amp.

cd9.  Seems my fingers are a bit dyslexic. 

"Hi zephyr24069, I enjoyed reading your post,  informative,  I once used the One speaker cable's for bi-cableing myself,  in my opinion and experience,  I found running the Omega jumper 10" cable's to sound hugely better in every way than bi-cableing 8ft or 6ft speaker cable's,  at the time I bought the Omega jumper's-speaker cable's,  they were special order and was the flagship of the small cable's for this application,  they are made exactly like the Omega gold speaker cable's,  just smaller in diameter,  now, they are second in the line up,  the new flagship jumper cable is the new Evolution."

Are you saying you ran a 10" set of jumpers in place of a full pair of speaker cables Keith?
Also,...with Tara the main benefit gained via upgrades, particularly in speaker cables always was gains in the sheer number of Tara's rectangular conductors (a good thing);  if the jumpers are made 'exactly like the Omega Gold full speaker cables, how are they smaller in diameter? Did they cut down on the number of conductors or is the geometry of the cable different?   Thanks!

Zephyr24069, HI Dave, The geometry of the Omega jumper speaker link's are exactly the same as the Omega gold speaker cable's,  so is the dielectric's, less conductor mass, however,  the signal travel's less, this makes up more than having the same mass, just as a meter interconnect sounds better than a 3 meter interconnect being the same model,  Dave,  I was skeptical of this approach my self,  took 300 hours of burn in,  but after that,  the difference was not subtle,  rather huge.

Dave, If you look and up size my avatar,  you can see the Omega speaker link's in place along with the 8ft omega gold speaker cable's 😎

My speakers have triple speaker binding posts.

I've tried jumpers and it is a viable alternative(cost wise) but in my experience separate or bi-wire cables have always provided a noticeable and worthwhile improvement over jumpers.

I can't quite stretch to run separate runs so I use bi-wire and a single run configuration. 

Playing around I found the combo that sounded right for me was an Audioquest Wildwood bi-wire to mid-bass and treble and a Tara labs Onyx on the mids.  

I sometimes mix those connections around(sometimes leaving one tara labs on the positive and an audioquest on the negative on the same posts)every so often and to achieve a different but equally alluring sound.

Woogie59, I use my omega gold speaker cable’s on bottom post with spades, then I use my omega jumper cable’s with banana plugs from bottom post to top posts , the jumper’s are directional like the speaker cable’s, btw, what jumper cable’s did you try, what was the cost?, I am completely satisfied with my jumper cable’s, they were $800.00 u.s.d. plus shipping, this was the most profound improvement for my system over everything else I’ve done to it.

Andrew9405....get over the English language issue.I'm sure you're not perfect at everything..

Woogie59, Are you biamping your system?

No bi-amping just using an Audio Research Reference 75SE for both runs.

In regard to the jumpers I used high grade Audioquest as well as some top line Kimber and Nordost jumpers. Costs, over $1,000AUD.

The maker of the speakers, Colin Whatmough, always believed his would perform better if you used tri or bi-wired cables.

He also recommended bi/tri amplification as a further improvement.

Woogie59, You mind  me asking,  what was the retail cost of your speaker,s?

andrew9405, LOL?

As a rather colourful Australian politician(shades of Donald Trump) said when she didn’t understand the meaning of a question she was being asked, "Please explain".

audiolabyrinth, in answer to your question.

They currently retail here for $50,000 AUD.

Too expensive for my taste but I had lusted after them after I heard a demo conducted by their creator Colin Whatmough some years earlier.

The local retailer had had some on demo for some time and I thought them sold. That apparently fell over.

Was I interested I was asked?

I still thought they were too expensive but they offered me a once in a lifetime deal which included a full trade in price on my 2 year old speakers, a 40% discount on RRP, plus a 1.5metre Nordost Tyr XLR interconnect cable and a DEQX pre-amp/room correction processor(value $5,500) they were using with the speakers. They would delivery and install and room calibrate using the DEQX.

So I took the plunge.

Since then I have embarked on upgrading my components to get the best out of these exceptional speakers.

I have no regrets but I have a much lighter bank balance.

Its been a great journey.

Yes, they are beasts.

Each sub-woofer box have a massive screw type spike on each corner so as to elevate the speaker from the floor.  So that's the whole 140kgs sitting on those four massive spikes.

Each to their own in what approach you take. 

Its a bit like golf equipment.  I have a mate who just loves buying new clubs, putters and drivers because he is, as we say, a "golf tragic". He just wants to believe that the new equipment will make him straighter, longer, better(no chance).

I do get "cable envy" and that's an itch I am presently about to scratch with the Tara Zero Gold interconnects that are currently in transit to me. 

I will post my 0.8 v Zero Gold shootout when it arrives.

Woogie59, I bought my zero gold interconnect used, It took 300 hrs of reburn in to realize most of the cable's sound,  btw, what are you doing with outlet's and house wireing?

I use a PS Audio P10 and an Isotek power board(for TV, player etc) both plugged into normal wall sockets.

The P10 certainly makes a difference along with good quality power cords.

The Isotek board is one of their base designs( approx. $599AUD) and is designed more as a filter.  It certainly improves the TV.

Last year I went to an Isotek demo night at a local Audio Store. Isotek demo'd their range using the same music, cables, speakers and components.  The units were just plugged into a normal wall socket.

As you went up the product scale the improvements were audible.

Woogie59, After painful extensive testing many various tweak's,  The best match for the zero gold interconnect's sound stage is useing a furutech gtx-rhodium or furutech ncf gtx-rhodium outlet's,  however,  just use one on whatever you are connecting the zero gold interconnect to,  in my case,  it was my digital player,  the zero gold interconnect has a wonderful sound stage, but it is a bit recessed in front,  the furutech gtx-rhodium outlet's take 500 hrs of burn in,  this gives you the proper front while retaining the depth of the sound staging,  modifies all the attributes of the cable,  incredible mid-range and bass with dynamic sound scale that is rather startling,  also running dedicated power cables in your wall is a help as well,  especially on your amplifier,  I would never use an amplifier on anything other than straight to the wall, what you get for around  $250.00 u.s.d. with the furutech gtx-rhodium outlet's is like a component change,  yes, it's that much of an improvement,  cheers 

Unfortunately none of the major brands manufacture a AU compliant wall socket.  The US, UK and Europe sockets are not compliant for use in Australia.

Our voltage is offically 230v(was 240v) but of course that fluctuates up and down(more around 240v old level).  The use of a device to filter/regulate/re-generate at a constant voltage is thus critical to protect expensive components.

In my case I have found that the P10 has had a positive performance effect for all my components compared to direct connection via the wall socket(my Ref75SE amp included).

I wish the manufacturers would make a AU compliant wall socket but I suspect the market is just too small for it to be viable. 

The Zero Gold interconnects have arrived.

Replaced 0.8 with HFX from CD to Preamp.

Preliminary listening results are very positive.  An increase in definition, a fuller richer sound.  

Then tried Gold from Speaker Crossover(my speakers have a powered external crossover) to amp(replacing 0.8 ISM onboard) and 0.8 with HFX on everything else.

Also an improvement but not as good as the first iteration above.

Now how do they compare to the 0.8 with HFX/ISM on Board?

I think the 0.8 is a great cable for the money.  The Gold is superior but is it 2 to 3 x times superior(price on the used cable market)?

In my opinion it all depends on your system.

The 0.8 is very comparable to the Gold on a value basis when you are looking at the level of systems most people have.

Yes the Gold will yield better results but in my opinion not 2 to 3 x better over the 0.8 on a such systems.

The benefits of such high end cables really start to flow which using high end systems.

I have fairly high end equipment so this is a natural progression for me.

I think you would be better off investing in better components first and using the 0.8. You won't be disappointed.

To reap the benefits of the Gold I will need to replace all my interconnects in the chain with Gold but this first step has been a good one.

Melbguy.....Good Day!  You are very welcome; I just don't see how Tara Labs for all I remember having been a loom-owning customer myself in years past, could get behind or excited about the drivel/other things you cite that we know to be true.  I guess some people think any kind of press is good press these days :-)   Enjoy your day and the music!  Hope your system and life are treating you well!