How does TARA Stack Up?

I have only used up to Air 2's in my system, so I'm not fimilair with anything above that in there line. I used to have 2 sets of cables AQ and Tara. Tara cables seemed to be to laid back and slowers then other cables, and depending on what music I was listening to I would switch between the Tara's and the AQ( I find AQ more forward). After a while I just thought this was a crazy thing to do, so I started looking at different cables and found XLO Ref. was prefect middle ground for me and had less coloration, Fast with Real nice bottom end. Also I didn't have to spend $1000.00 bucks to get into there upper line of cables, XLO signature I think is $600ish new.

My System Pre amp: Pass Labs ALeph P
Amp's : Aleph 2 mono's
Digital: Electrocompoent EMC-1
Speaker: Made Specail at local shop

funny you should ask. i've been auditioning speaker cables between my rowland 8ti and avalon eidolons for the past 2 months. i started with cardas neutral reference and moved to fim silver. with this first change, there was a hugh jump in clarity, speed and soundstage width and depth. i then inserted fim gold in the place of fim silver. another step up but not as much as going from the cardas to silver; more purity, even greater clarity, rounder bottom and better sense of space and air. i've sung the praises of fim on several posts; rightfully, it's truly great stuff, tho horribly stiff and unwieldy. on a whim i tried tara "the one" a couple of weeks ago. i now own the tara, purchased as a fully broken in demo pair. the tara gives me everything i heard with the fim, and more. the clarity, speed, and depth of fim gold but an even wider soundstage and more stable image and even greater sense of air around the players/instruments. as a plus, the one is terminated with very flexible "tails" and high quality "universal" terminators that accept proprietary screw-in varieties of spades and banana connectors. for my setup, tara's the one is the best cable i've yet heard. i could live happily with fim gold (which is almost identically priced to the one) but i've chosen the tara. for my system and to my "centrum silver" ears, it sounds the best. -kelly

I've heard nothing but good things about Tara Labs. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get my hands on any to audition. The store in town that carries them only stocks their bottom end stuff. I've been sticking with Audioquest for the time being--mainly because I can get great deals on the stuff. I've found that store owners are more apt to give you cables for free if you buy a steady stream of electronics from them.

Thanks, Kell. I value your opinion.(even more so; if we agree)Even the former top cables were better than AQ in my system. However, I could get more for the AQ;and sold them. (Diamondx2 Vs Gen 2 or Decade) Just because I felt one better than the other, means absolutely nothing to anyone else but me.I also had the Tara speaker wire at the time. So; It all depends on how it interacts with the rest of your pieces.