Woogie: Well said,...sounds like you have your priorities and how you listen and evaluation well squared away. Having owned a prior version of the 0.8s with HFX and 0.5s with HFX in the past (and having the chance to demo them against Gold at the time), I agree with your assessment that the 0.8 with HFX were extremely good and any money over and above that should be weighed carefully for its best use relative to components in the system, etc....
Jmc: That's too funny! You hit that nail right on the head!
Thankyou for your advice but I’m not sure if I agree with your burn in statement.
These are well broken in used cables, a number of years old and heavy used.
In my experience, and I have had many used cables over the years, none have sounded any different from the day they were first in place.
New cables, yes, there is some improvement over time, the so called burn-in period.
That’s not to say you are wrong, it’s just not been my experience. If it changes for the better after 300hrs then I will stand corrected and post my endorsement.
I also stand by my evaluation of the Gold v 0.8. Don’t get me wrong, the Gold is good, but not two to three times as good against the 0.8 Ex with HFX in most systems.
I have used both in my second system, retail approx. $18K. Gold is the better performer but the 0.8 Ex with HFX performs very well when comparing their cost. The real difference is heard in my main system which I have described before. Then the extra cost the Gold is well worth it.
If you have the money, great, the choice is the Gold but I would buy better components first using the cost differential.
melbguy: Glad to hear the system is treating you well but sorry to hear about life not doing so; whatever it is, I hope it gets better for you very soon. As for the rest,...well, 'speechless' would suffice!
Woogie59, The zero gold interconnect you have will make the 0.8 sound broken at 300 hrs of reburn in, just keep playing music for 300 hrs then make another comparison, your interconnect should have come with the leads to be used between grounding station and the interconnect, should be around 18" long, be sure to use them, the cable sounds as it was designed to sound like doing so, never use cable direct to grounding station, congratulations on a fine cable you have, cheers 🤓😀
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!
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.
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.
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
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, 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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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!
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.
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.
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