Tara cables made in China?

Pretty old news. There was a fair flurry of posts on the subject at Audio Asylum.

I think they listed the value of the 42,000 cables at $600k or so - roughly $15 each. What they sold for is anyone's guess, but there is a healthy markup, for sure.

I liked Matthew Bond's original Space and Time stuff when he was starting out in Australia, as the Aussie copper was really good. I have a pair of his first interconnects and Phase II speaker cables back in Oz.

 

I am not surprised Tara Labs cables are made in China. No big deal. The problem I have with the whole issue is the mislabeling. I just wonder how many products out there are mislabelled.

 

SB///You can bet your booties that Tara isnt alone in doing this. The difference in cost is staggering and most of these companies cant resist.

 

With all due respect, if anyone is willing to pay 2K-5K dollars for a set of cables, do you think he'll care whether they are made in China or the US...? He might care a lot more about the brand name silk-screened on them...

 

Anyone who spends 5K on cables is paying for a name and not the cable.

 

Though this is just my gut instinct (I have no actual knowledge), I've long suspected that the wire used inside the various cable brands all comes from the same handful of manufacturing plants in Asia. They produce the wire per different company's specs, but it's pretty much all the same. It's hard to believe each cable company has employees in a backroom carefully extruding "99.99999999999999999% pure copper"!

Don't get me wrong--I do believe that cable makes a difference, but it's surely most of what we read about cable from the manufacturers is just overheated hype. I figure it's like guitar strings: there all dozens of different brands to choose from, but maybe 3 factories in the world that actually make the stuff.

A few years ago I joked to my (audio-dubious) wife that soon they'd make cables you plugged into the wall. With Audioquest's new cable line, that's not a joke anymore!

 

Mikey, there are audiobufs out there who have very expensive systems and they buy the very best sounding cables they can. Money is not an option. They listen and if they like, they keep them - or try something else. The Indra Stealth at $5000 for an interconnect is a "popular" choice. Have you heard of the name? How about the Jena Labs Pathfinders? I'm talking about audiophiles, not name droppers.

 

Met, I always said that good cables are part of any serious audiophile audio chain.

However, I am one of those people that doesnt believe that $5,000 cables sound better than say, 900$ cables. At some point, i think people CONVINCE themselves that they sound better.

Do you all remember the Popular Electronics Magazine cable caper? Thats what they called it.

What they did was, they had had a bunch of audiophiles listen to various high end cables including a "Mystery brand" and was touted as being really hi fi.

Out of 10 votes, the mystery brand got 6 votes as the best, better than some of the real famous brands.

It was only revealed later that the 'Mystery Brand" was nothing but garden variety Radio Shack Cable. The point was, people hear what they want to hear.

 

Jena Labs? The porn star?

 

Maybe, but you could make the same case about a new A/D convertor to get better sound for yoiur mastering, when the one you had 20 years ago does basically the same job.

 

That's a slightly different argument to saying those who buy very expensive cables are "paying for a name and not the cable".

 

Yeah, my kind of porn right here http://www.jenalabs.com

 

Does anyone know who actually said these last two lines? Was it the author of the article or Karen Sumner or Noel Lee?

 

Really the point was people hear what they want to hear? I personally think the point according to what you referenced, was that 6 people voted a Radio Shack cable best, thats all.

 

That "cable caper" - are you referring to:

"The Truth About Speaker Cables", Hoffman, Williwam R., Popular Electronics, Jul 95, pg 46-48, &93.

OR

"Wired Wisdom, The Great Chicago Cable Caper", Nousaine, Tom, Sound & Vision(Canada), Sep 95, pg. 73-76.

 

Looks like that web site was outsourced.

 

I wonder why you say that. It's certainly hosted, but the web site looks very home made.

What point are you trying to make?

 

Here's what I've found out about hi end cables during my last couple of years as an audiophile:

1)Most of the interconnect and power cables that are touted in mags like Stereophile and Absolute Sound are way over priced and closer in performance to each other than you would think.

2)Power Cables usually make a greater differance in you system than interconnects provided you have an IEC connection on your component (even budget DVD player with a two prong power connection can be vastly improved upon with a 2 prong/IEC adapter -about $20 and good power cord)

3)The best way to go is to buy from Someone who uses good materials and practical engineering like Grover rather than at the retail level.Also many of these one man companies sell direct and give a 30 or 60 day trial period.

4)Some of the best engineering can come from small companies.I have a carbon pc from an individual named Michael Wolff.Michael was an engineer at Boeing and uses carbon in his cords to absorb Rf- sort of how a stealth plane absords radar.Other cords use different, bulky, and more expensive materials to shield for rf.As a result his cords have as good performance as others that cost twice as much.

 

I agree with most everthing else, but I've never understood the philosophy about upgrading power cables. If one believes that the "system is only as good as the weakest link," then how could the electricity be "better" going from the wall outlet to the component than it is going into the wall (from outside the house) itself? Or is it just a case of the power cable not degrading the electricity any further?

Don't mean to enflame, but if anyone would care to explain this to me...

 

over on Audio Asylum a while back Caelin Gabriel the guy behind Shunyata Research adressed these questions here's a link:http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=cables&n=7311&highlight=cailin+gabriel&r=&session=

 

Could be.