Mike
February 5, 2014, 10:16 PM
TaraLabs The Omega Gold Speaker Cables
by Michael Bovaird - Audioshark.org
http://www.signals.co.za/cmsimages/Image/TaraLabs%20Pr.%20The%20Omega%20Gold%20speaker%20ca ble.jpg
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.
http://d2heru13qkbk4q.cloudfront.net/media/796934/scaled/tara_3.jpg
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!
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/taralabs/07.jpg
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.
by Michael Bovaird - Audioshark.org
http://www.signals.co.za/cmsimages/Image/TaraLabs%20Pr.%20The%20Omega%20Gold%20speaker%20ca ble.jpg
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.
http://d2heru13qkbk4q.cloudfront.net/media/796934/scaled/tara_3.jpg
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!
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/taralabs/07.jpg
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.