TARA (The Absolute Reference Audio) Labs is a manufacturer of a high-end audio cables from Medford, Oregon. It's led by president Merrill Bergs. The trademark of Tara Labs is their use of solid wire.
The company was established in 1984, when company founder Matthew Bond, trained in physics and electronics theory, was looking for ways to improve the performance of audio components and the wire used within an audio system. As early as the mid 1970s and early 1980s, Matthew Bond had experimented with solid core conductors of different diameters. He hypothesized that an 'optimum diameter' of 18 AWG (American Wire Gage) or 1 millimeter was ideal for audio frequencies because there was minimal high frequency attenuation caused by the principles known as skin effect.[1] It is important to note that Matthew Bond's work was corroborated by research work from the NBS or National Bureau of Standards in the 1930s and confirmed later by Stereophile Magazine in July 1988 in a table presented as the DC to AC resistance ratio versus frequency, in wires of different diameters.[2]Matthew Bond is credited with the invention of solid-core wires for audio use, because his work predates Dennis Morecroft (1984) and any of the early solid-core wires developed for use in audio in England at the time.[3]
The first commercial speaker cables were designed in 1984, the Phase II speaker cable, a solid coredesign.[4] Thirty years later, the Phase II Speaker Cable is still available through retailers in the United States. In 1990, TARA Labs introduced the world’s first cable to have a floating conductor unterminated at one end that would allow for an increased high-frequency bandwidth to be coupled to the signal carrying conductors (US patent No. 5033091). Later, a control device inside a box fitted to the cable (The Temporal Continuum) allowed the user to adjust the amount of high frequency energy to be heard.
TARA Labs introduced Rectangular Solid Core cables in 1992. The cables employed solid core conductors with a rectangular cross section. Rectangular Solid Core can be made in specific proportions(width and height), and this provides for the tuning of the frequency response of a conductor as compared to a round conductor of the same size or DC resistance.[5]
The cables employed solid core conductors with a rectangular cross section.[6][7] Both the Gen2 conductor and the smaller Gen3 conductor are said to be Eight-Nines™ pure copper, which is 99.999999% pure. TARA Labs’ trademarks for this technology are 8N™ and SA-OF8N®. SA-OF8N means Super Annealed – Oxygen Free 8 Nines copper. According to Bond, the term ‘annealing’ refers to the method whereby a conductor can be made softer and more conductive.[8]
In 1999 Tara Labs introduced the "Zero" interconnect with an Vacuum Dielectric Insulation system.[9][10]
In 2014, TARA Labs introduced a new line of high-end cables called The Evolution Series, which included cables such as: The Zero Evolution, The Omega Evolution, and The Grandmaster Evolution.[11][12]
