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TARA Labs cable challenge!!
- Thread starter ModulusFan
- Start date
- Status
Benjamin Strange
Commercial User
- Dec 25, 2002
- 9,737
- 310
- 49
- Disclosures
- Owner / Tech: Strange Guitarworks
john turner
You don't want to do that. Trust me.
Brad Johnson said:You know, jt... I've been meaning to send you a Christmas card... what's your address?
1300 pennsylvania avenue
Benjamin Strange
Commercial User
- Dec 25, 2002
- 9,737
- 310
- 49
- Disclosures
- Owner / Tech: Strange Guitarworks
Couple points I'll add:
1) Basstasters is the coolest farggin' site on the web! Thanks vanselus!
2) I have been able to hear some pretty significant differences between the clips of different pre-amps, basses etc.
3) I hear no difference in the clips with the cables. Certainly no blankets were lifted for my ears.
That is all.
1) Basstasters is the coolest farggin' site on the web! Thanks vanselus!
2) I have been able to hear some pretty significant differences between the clips of different pre-amps, basses etc.
3) I hear no difference in the clips with the cables. Certainly no blankets were lifted for my ears.
That is all.
Well you're all wrong. You're all using garbage speakers for a start! And you're probably using garbage cables on them, and blah blah blah......
Ditto. He's really put up some articulate, well-developed thoughts without being a snot about it. I could never do that.Benjamin Strange said:
I was getting scared ... the thread went two weeks without a post after mine. I thought I was the ultimate thread killer.
Munjibunga said:
No, that title belongs to me...
Watch, this thread will now die....Anyway, I heard differences in the clips. The best sounding to my ears was the Monster cable, but it's only slightly more pleasing than the generic to my ears. Just my tone preference though.
There is a difference between all of the Tara Labs power cables and the generic one. They have a smoother sound, but only by about 1-5%. The Prime being the smoothest.
TL Multi-Platinium + Tara + Generic actually sounded better than the all Tara. The most notable difference is between the EA Lyric + All Generic and All Generic. The Lyric is brighter and clearer than the generic instrument cable. It's not better, it's just different. The Tara Multi Platinum obviously sounds better than the Platinum as it should.
Monster and All Tara sound similar on groove, but the Monster sounds a little bit better on slap. However, the All Tara sounds a little bit clearer on chords, so it's almost a tie.
My rankings are:
1. Monster Bass -- the fattest of the them all and by far the best slap.
2. Generic + Tara RSC Prime -- a very slight improvement over generic.
3. Generic + EA The Source -- nice groove, but the Prime is a little better on slap and chords.
4. All Generic
5. All Tara (shocked 'ya didn't I) -- the generic sounds a tad cleaner.
There you have it. The final verdict: Stick with generic. It sounds just fine and there is no substanial difference in sound quality, especially not one to warrant the extra cost. In the meantime, I'll stick with Monster bass. It's part of my sound.
SMASH said:
I agree to a point, which is why when I did my "pseudo-blind" testing, we used recorded music.
However, surely if a blanket was to be lifted off my speakers, you'd be able to hear the difference even with human playing. Human playing IS how all of us would use these cables in our rigs, and Tara's proponents claimed we would be amazed - even within the variations of human playing!
vanselus said:
I agree totally, and I recall your descriptions of your blind tests.
What I said relates specifically to "1-5%" differences the poster above me claimed he could discern. I doubt very much the human ear can even discern such differences, and my main point was they can't simply be attributed to a change in wire vis-a-vis the major differences in sound that can result form extremely minor and accidental differences in playing.
The whole "blankets" thing is so comical and in many ways offensive I never gave it any credence and so don't even touch it. Certainly the poster I responded to heard no "blanket" effects either.
I do have to admit that I chuckled a bit in disbelief when I read "1-5%". How could one make that estimation reliably, much less quantify it??
OK, I heard a Tara cable live in action tonight, so I've got 1st hand experience with them 
I went to Gary Willis' clinic at the Manhattan GC. I want to start by saying that Gary is a better player than I will ever be, and that he has *many* good ideas about composition and technique. I might even go buy his instructional book, his ideas about neck geometry and soloing make a lot of sense.
Toward the end, somebody asked about his cable. He said it's a Tara Labs bass prototype that he really likes. I asked how much it cost, and he said don't ask. I said "more than your bass?" and he pointed to the cheaper version of his Ibanez signature model ($800) and said "more than that one." When I asked if it was worth it, he said yes and gave an explanation about how highs and lows travel through a cable at different speeds. He said that highs have a lot more energy, and that the cable corrects for this giving a fuller tone. [I've heard something like this from BBE, but I think BBE isn't talking about electricity in cables, they're talking about sound vibrations in air. I definitely notice when my BBE is bypassed].
In listening to him, I never would have guessed that he had a supercable. I actually wasn't into his tone much at all. I like it brighter than he does, but everybody knows tone preferences are subjective. He had a great Aguilar rig w/ tons of headroom (excellent dynamics and great B string), and his use of false harmonics and fingernail scrapes made me think he was using a pedal or two when he wasn't (really, it was that much of an effect!). All in all, the clinic didn't make me want to run out and buy any of the gear he was endorsing, except for his book.
Off topic, he used that new Bose PA for his backing tracks and I was not impressed until he did a jazz ballad. On that one tune it seem like the drum kit was all around me. I actually looked up above my head to see if there was another speaker handling the ride cymbal. There wasn't, it was all coming from 1 column and 1 bass module.
I went to Gary Willis' clinic at the Manhattan GC. I want to start by saying that Gary is a better player than I will ever be, and that he has *many* good ideas about composition and technique. I might even go buy his instructional book, his ideas about neck geometry and soloing make a lot of sense.
Toward the end, somebody asked about his cable. He said it's a Tara Labs bass prototype that he really likes. I asked how much it cost, and he said don't ask. I said "more than your bass?" and he pointed to the cheaper version of his Ibanez signature model ($800) and said "more than that one." When I asked if it was worth it, he said yes and gave an explanation about how highs and lows travel through a cable at different speeds. He said that highs have a lot more energy, and that the cable corrects for this giving a fuller tone. [I've heard something like this from BBE, but I think BBE isn't talking about electricity in cables, they're talking about sound vibrations in air. I definitely notice when my BBE is bypassed].
In listening to him, I never would have guessed that he had a supercable. I actually wasn't into his tone much at all. I like it brighter than he does, but everybody knows tone preferences are subjective. He had a great Aguilar rig w/ tons of headroom (excellent dynamics and great B string), and his use of false harmonics and fingernail scrapes made me think he was using a pedal or two when he wasn't (really, it was that much of an effect!). All in all, the clinic didn't make me want to run out and buy any of the gear he was endorsing, except for his book.
Off topic, he used that new Bose PA for his backing tracks and I was not impressed until he did a jazz ballad. On that one tune it seem like the drum kit was all around me. I actually looked up above my head to see if there was another speaker handling the ride cymbal. There wasn't, it was all coming from 1 column and 1 bass module.
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