XLO, Cardas vs Tara Labs, MIT: which ones?


I am looking to improve my system by replacing my Tara Lab Decade IC, looking for getting increase speed, presence and "air". I am considering XLO Unlimited / Signature 5.1 and Cardas Golden Cross Reference. I am also questionning whether I should also replace my MIT cable..

Has anybody compare those cables? Any suggestions?

My listening tastes privilege the musical balance, speed and "air", as well as the tone harmony, rather than hearing every single tiny details... In a nutshell, music that lives and breaths! I am listening mainly jazz, blues and (baroque)classical music.
System / Cables [in the same order: Source to Speakers]
LINN Ikemi + CHORD DAC64 + Spectral DMC30 + Linn Klimax 500 + Maggie 3.6
HT Cyber Platinum + Tara Decade + MIT-Spectral ULII-350CVT + XLO Signature 5.1
yhupe
Looking at your system. I will go for cardas, in
terms of musicality, XLO speed,no grain,good bass,
vocal sweet.IMO,I have master gen tara,Use to own
MIT for my taste they are dry sounding,master gen
with grain but big soundstage.XLO they are fast.
The Tara Labs Air-1 and Air-2 are an overall improvment over the Decade. The Air-1 is faster and more detailed, but the Air-2 is more open and musical. The Decade comes off slow and muddy in comparison with either of these.
I have been told that Audience Au24 IC cable might be the solution: very natural and transparent cable. Any one heard those. By the way, meanwhile I got hold of a Cardas Golden Cross Reference IC.
Yes, I have heard the Au24 interconnects in 2 different systems. Overall, they are a nice cable. To me, they come across as being slightly laid back & have a slightly inferior transient response compared to my TARA Labs RSC Master Gen 2 interconnects.
To me, the Au24 & the TARA Labs RSC Master Gen 2 are the ying & the yang of cables. BETWEEN THESE 2 CABLES: the Au24 is laid back & seems to emphasize the music, glosses over some of the inner details & forgoes some of the transient attack. The TARA Labs RSC Master Gen 2 is more immediate, has better transient attack, better inner details & is truer to the recorded music. It is a more accurate cable of the two.
So, it depends on what your electronics are. Are they bright? Is your system very revealing as it stands now? If so, then you might want some balance i.e. the Au24. OTOH, if your system is already laid back/musical then the Au24 will take you deeper into that realm - may become excessive & artificial. In that case TARA cables are better.
BTW, my understanding is that XLO Signature cables are of the same flavour as the TARA cables & the Cardas cables are of the same flavour as the Au24.
Hope this helps. FWIW, YMMV, IMHO.
So far, the Cardas Golden reference have bested all the other cables I have tried, in terms of clarity and nusicality (music coherence). Yes, other cables like the Audience Au24 or the Tara Labs (Decade) have more details, especially in the high range, but I feel that this is actually detrimental to the overall music. The result being lots of details seemingly out of phase, and the playing being cold, strangely all over the place, and hearing noise rather than the instrument themselves playing and listening to the music... I think this phenomenon has been very well described by Peter Qvortrup (http://www.audionote.co.uk/) in his white paper 'Are You on the road to Audio Hell?', paragraph 'Detail and Resolution', which I recommand everyone to read, though I do not necessary agree with all his conclusions or hold his products as the ultimate audio reference...

By the way, any recommandation on what could best my Cardas Golden Reference (increased level of details and bass impact without sacrificing musicality) given the above? (Actually, may be there is none!!!)