he impact of tests in trade magazines is either described as none or of a sort that can change everything; it depends on whether or not the one who expresses such an opinion likes or does not like the press and/or reviews. But if you want to form your own opinion, it would be best if you base it on concrete examples. The argument FOR could be the story of the, at the time Australian company with headquarters in Sydney, the TARA Labs (TARA is written in capital letters, because it is an abbreviation of The Absolute Reference Audio).
The company launched on the other side of the globe in 1986, with their Phase II cable. In 1988 they managed to organize its test in the American magazine "Stereophile". The cable proved to be so interesting that the magazine gave him an extremely positive feedback. The response from the press, distributors and consumers was so great that a year later the company moved to the United States and since then is a US company. It was not the first nor the last such Aussie transfer – one could point out some other examples such as: AC/DC and Dead Can Dance. But as far as audio industry is concerned this was the most famous transfer.
The world of cables is divided into those who use copper and those who use other metals, mainly silver. TARA Labs belongs to the former. But this is not the only distinguishing feature of their designs. The second is a commitment to the use of solid core cables, i.e. single, separately insulated wires, in TARA Labs version placed in the tubes filled with air; as air is one of the best insulators. Except for vacuum of course - the company boasted that for the, until recently top interconnect in company's lineup, model The Zero, they managed to get the pressure inside the pipes that is similar to vacuum. Was it really so? Hard to say, but the message was released out into the world.
The conductors utilized by the company were not ordinary round ones. Already in 1992, TARA used wires with a rectangular cross section (Rectangular Solid Core). Today such non-round wires are used also by other brands such as: Acrolink or Acoustic Revive that uses oval ones, but back then it was a true novelty. As for newer ideas introduced by TARA there are some worth mentioning such as: passive float screen that is connected to a special "base" (Isolated Shield Matrix). Currently, TARA Labs is one of the largest manufacturers of specialized wiring. All of its products are made in the USA, which emphasizes the engraving on connectors that reads: "All cables made in U.S.A.".
TARA LABS EVOLUTIONFor a long time the top TARA models were The Zero interconnect and The Omega speaker cable. A few years ago, however, American brand diversified top of their lineup and divided cables into two sub-series: Onyx and more expensive, Gold. Although in both cases it was a step forward, it were still variations on the theme, and not a true new quality. The latter was introduced in 2014 with a completely new series called Evolution, with two sub-series: Evolution and Grandmaster Evolution. The first was twice as expensive as the Omega series, and the second is much more expensive than Evolution. Grandmaster Series Evolution, as we read on the official website of the manufacturer, is not available for review. So we do a test of The Evolution Zero interconnect, The Omega Evolution SP speaker cable and The Omega AC Evolution power cable.
If you know previous models offered by the company and you see and read bout its new products a few things will immediately catch your attention. Let me begin with the least important, or it would seem so, element, its appearance. And this is because it turns out to be extremely important in everyday use, and is a result of particular mechanical design, which is a fundamental building block for sonic performance of the cable.
The Zero EvolutionThe Zero Evolution interconnect is not advertised as using "vacuum" as a dielectric. Maintenance of the model that actually used vacuum was extremely difficult and any, even the slightest damage to the cord or plug was tantamount to saying goodbye to the key feature without even knowing about it. The new interconnect uses the classical solution, i.e. solid-core conductors in tubes filled with air. These are rectangle second-generation RCS wires made of SAOF-8N copper. The abbreviation reads: Super Annealed (subjected to aging), Oxygen Free (cleared of oxygen), with a purity of 8N (99.999999%) - the highest, that is achievable today. Wires are polished and coated with a thin layer of a liquid dielectric, which solidifies over time. This coating is intended as a barrier against oxidation of the metal. Each of the wires is a long single crystal, the solution known from the OCC.
The wires are wrapped around a thick inner core and mechanically stabilized so that bending the cable would not change their arrangement, and thus their electrical parameters. Sophisticated design and high quality materials - tube and core made of Teflon and coating wires with a polyethylene used in the aerospace industry - made it possible to achieve extremely low capacitance of the cable, at the level of 2 pF and conductivity 75% higher (I'm quoting manufacturer) than the one of The Zero Gold. A derivative of these changes, but a very important one, is the incredible flexibility – it Is extremely easy to install cable in the system.
After "vacuum" cable Evolution inherited an important component - fantastic plugs, particularly impressive in the RCA version. They constitute a superb termination of thick cables (thick, not because of the number of conductors but because of the mechanical design) and allow for precise clamping them in the socket.
Another 'inherited' element is the virtual ground "station", called HFX (High Frequency eXtendened). This block of aluminum filled with mixture of granules of different kinds of minerals. The solution is similar to ones made by other brands such as: Acoustic Revive, Entreq and Verictum. In this case cables screens are connected to it. Normally, the screen is connected on both sides of the cable to ground, or just on the source side, if negative signal run has a separate cable (it's called: pseudo-balanced design). In the Zero Evolution case screen is not connected on any end, but only to this virtual ground, which extends the frequency response of the cable – with a screen a capacity is introduced, and it blocks high frequencies.
The Omega Evolution SPThe Evolution speaker cables are constructed similarly to the interconnect, the main difference is a greater number of conductors (224). But while The Zero Evolution from the outside – apart from a greater flexibility – does not differ much from The Zero Gold, inasmuch The Omega Evolution is a completely different breed than The Omega Gold and Onyx. They differ primarily with their diameter. Already before some people unrelated to the audio when they saw in my room two hoses running to the loudspeakers, laughed, saying that apparently I took them from the welding machine. With Evolution on my floor they will have to change the repertoire of jokes and go to those about hoses used in hydraulics or irrigation - the new cables are so thick that they could pass for the main system irrigation bus of a large size farm.
Another important difference that goes in opposition to their thickness, is, again, their flexibility - the cables are extremely easy to install in the system and place them whatever way we want. The connects are screwed on – so one can use spades or bananas, and then change one's mind, one is not limited by anything. This is an additional point of contact, which in itself is not beneficial, but I know from experience that the idea works in real life, not in the imaginary world of audiophiles. I do have two sets of plugs and occasionally interchange them.
The Omega Evolution ACThe power chord The Omega AC Evolution is much stiffer than the speaker cable, although it is similar in diameter. The thing is that manufacturer used of a screen with very high coverage, which protects against electromagnetic radiation and RF noise. Also ferrite cores placed at both connectors serve the same purpose.
The new cable features twice as much conductors as the previous flagship – there are 18 rectangular SAOF-8N copper wires for the "hot" run, 18 for the "cold" and 18 for protective run. In run three thick wires were added to improve conductivity. As it turns out, this stiffness stems also from the fact that each of the runs is separately shielded. Plugs come from the Japanese company Oyaide.
In „High Fidelity's” May issue I presented the first part of this test, an assessment of the Krakow Sonic Society (meeting #103, see HERE). The Evolution series was compared to TARA Labs The Omega speaker cable, TARA Labs The Omega Onyx and Siltech Double Crown IC and speaker cable.
In my own system for comparison I used Siltech Triple Crown and Crystal Cable Absolute Dream interconnects, TARA Labs The Omega Onyx speaker cable and Acrolink Mexcel 7N-PC9500 and Acoustic Revive Power Reference Triple-C power chords.