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TARA Labs cable challenge!!

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vanselus said:
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??


I do it all the time. In my perusal of your clips I noted a difference between 2.47320 - 6.10009%. I've been calibrated by laser at the local speedtrap recently and stand by my findings.

BTW my Monster input cable broke on a gig, again, a couple of weeks ago. Go Monster.
:hmm:
 
Brad Johnson said:
BTW my Monster input cable broke on a gig, again, a couple of weeks ago. Go Monster.
:hmm:

Well, Brad, what I didn't mention was that my Monster is broke too, and goes in and out occasionally, but there is a "lifetime warranty" so it can be replaced without question if I wanted to. However, do to the Monster's unreliability I would probably not use it live, but for practicing and recording it's fine. It's matter of tone preference like I said. It's not better, it's just different.

As for the 1-5%, that was an estimation. It may be a lot more, it may be a lot less. How can you really tell? I ain't no expert, nor do I claim to be. Regardless of the %, the point is that there IS a difference in the clips, just not a significant one and not one that an average person would be able to hear. I have to be honest, casually listening to clips as most of you probably did, I would have not been able to tell the difference. I had to listen to the clips multiple times attentively. Surely, in a live situation, an audience would not be listening to your bass that attentively.

Bottom line: These cables do not improve your sound ("lift the blanket" as they say). They really don't much at all (at least not dramatically). Sorry if you got the wrong impression from my review. I'm on your side guys, but to say there is absolutely no difference is wrong if you ask me. Whether the difference can actually be attributed to the cables is debatable.

No one offered a detailed review, so I figured I would. Ain't no shame in that. No need for sarcasm.
 
PhatBasstard said:
Human study on this is a waste as none of us, scientificaly measurable, has ever plucked a string exactly the same way twice. Don't even kid yourselves.

<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->In this case, a "double blind" test is also meaningless as the input to be tested is inconsistant (i.e. humanly triggered) and the analyzer is untrustworthy in cases of miniscule differences (i.e. the human ear). Don't even kid yourselves.

Until Bob Lee, or someone, can actually put these power cables through some kind of consistant (i.e. computerised) analysis with flawless input and output, all the rest of this "testing" is pointless.
I hate to quote myself, but these statements from a long ago post seem to need reiteration as some have stated these "clips" are not from a static sound source.
 
CrazySean said:
Well, Brad, what I didn't mention was that my Monster is broke too, and goes in and out occasionally, but there is a "lifetime warranty" so it can be replaced without question if I wanted to. However, do to the Monster's unreliability I would probably not use it live, but for practicing and recording it's fine. It's matter of tone preference like I said. It's not better, it's just different.

Cool. My point was that IME the trade-off for supposedly better tone with Monster is unreliability. Mine died on a gig while making loud crackling sounds in the middle of a song. I'd rather use a cable that doesn't break.

As for the 1-5%, that was an estimation. It may be a lot more, it may be a lot less. How can you really tell? I ain't no expert, nor do I claim to be. Regardless of the %, the point is that there IS a difference in the clips, just not a significant one and not one that an average person would be able to hear. I have to be honest, casually listening to clips as most of you probably did, I would have not been able to tell the difference. I had to listen to the clips multiple times attentively. Surely, in a live situation, an audience would not be listening to your bass that attentively.

Bottom line: These cables do not improve your sound ("lift the blanket" as they say). They really don't much at all (at least not dramatically). Sorry if you got the wrong impression from my review. I'm on your side guys, but to say there is absolutely no difference is wrong if you ask me. Whether the difference can actually be attributed to the cables is debatable.

I didn't say any of that. I didn't get any impression from your review... I took it all as opinion. I didn't say there was zero difference. Like a couple of others, I did find the 1-5% thing amusing... what is 1%? I made what I though was, in light of the content of this thread, a very small joke. Sorry it offended you.

No one offered a detailed review, so I figured I would. Ain't no shame in that. No need for sarcasm.

No need to project on me. I've probably said only slightly more than a non-participant in this thread. Granted, that was probably too much.:D

:hmm:
 
Brad Johnson said:
Cool. My point was that IME the trade-off for supposedly better tone with Monster is unreliability. Mine died on a gig while making loud crackling sounds in the middle of a song. I'd rather use a cable that doesn't break.

Yes, I'm aware there's a tradeoff. That was sort of my point as well. I don't blame you wanting to use a cable that doesn't break. But I have yet to use a cable that didn't break in some way. Perhaps I need to be more careful with my cables. I will admit though, that the Monster doesn't seem to take abuse too well. It is very fragile, which is why I'm careful not step on it and why I try and be more careful when handling it. I expected better from a company claiming to be of better quality. But, IMO, the tradeoff is worth it, and you don't. So lets just agree to disagree, shall we?

I didn't say any of that. I didn't get any impression from your review... I took it all as opinion. I didn't say there was zero difference.

That wasn't directed at you. It was more of a general statement. Sorry for the confusion. I just used your comments to start things off.

No need to project on me. I've probably said only slightly more than a non-participant in this thread. Granted, that was probably too much.:D

Again, it was a general statement. I should have been more direct. Sorry about that.

Like a couple of others, I did find the 1-5% thing amusing... what is 1%? I made what I though was, in light of the content of this thread, a very small joke. Sorry it offended you.

What is 1%? 1% is 1%... ;) No, seriously, I would think that 1% represents the smallest noticeable difference. So in Chp. 1 of "Crazy" Sean for Dummies, there will be a translation that states *ahem* and I quote:

"1%=small and barely noticeable difference. Note: this % is not definitive."

All kidding aside, I don't understand why what I said was comical. I estimated a % of what I thought was the difference in order to put things in perspective. I'm sorry, I didn't know that "quantifying" is not permitted or that I'm incapable of doing so. Maybe I should have been more brief and general like everyone else and not have bothered to "quantify" (the word of month perhaps? ;) ) the difference that I'm so "crazy" of hearin' in the first place... :hmm:

And I was slightly offended by your joke ( I thought it was rather unneccesary), but it was a clever stab; I commend you for that (albeit, from left-field of Veteran's Stadium no less, which no longer exists :D ) No hard feelings, my friend. :)

Sean

P.S. BTW, half-of-me says your joke was funny, and half-of-me says it wasn't, so am I allowed to "quantify" and say that your joke was 50% funny? Oh, yeah, I forgot... I can't ;) :p Thank you, and good night. :D :o

-----------------------------------------------------
For the record, "I'm not really crazy, it just sounds good." And happy post B-Day for me. Gotta go, I think the insane aslyum is calling me. They let me out for the day.
 
Perhaps human hearing is "infallible" and human tests are useless. It would be interesting to see what a "scientific" analysis has to say. Meanwhile, I guess I will have to continue to "trust my own ears" as Petebass would say and stand by my findings. But when results come back and say 1%, whose gonna be laughing then? :D

BTW, guys, I just went back and compared Monster to generic and upon first listen, I thought, "wow, this sounds exactly the same." I kid you not. But then upon closer inspection, for me at least, there is a small diferrence. On the RATM groove clip, the Monster sounds slightly more bassy (or muffled I guess you could say). But it's so minute, it's almost unfathomable. Perhaps, the Monster sucks some highs? I recall someone stating that from another thread.

In the case with the chords clips, the Monster definitely sounds more muffled (for better or for worse). Finally, on slap, they sound almost exactly the same. Actually, in this case, the generic sounds slightly more muffled (and actually different from the Sad 5 clip from the Avalon preamp section, which is in fact the same preamp is being used in the cable clips BTW... may just be the difference in gain :confused: :hmm:... or maybe cuz of different cables... ;) )

The Monster sounds slightly more lively. Instead of quantifying it with numbers, lets just say it's like the difference between Coke and Pepsi, or perhaps even a lot less than that. (Now, that my friend, is amusing. ;) ) It's not like night and day. As with Coke vs. Pepsi, the difference is so petty that an average person can't tell the difference (but I am of the minority that can). Coke is darker, fizzier and rougher on the throat; pepsi is sweeter, blah blah blah who cares...

So anyway, I think am 1 out of million that will ever recognize the diffference. So much for the outrageous claims as the difference is certainly not mind-blowing as they want to lead you to believe. Hence, for others, I would definitley say, don't waste your money! As for me, well, I already have it already, so I guess I might as well continuing using it. It's the longest cable I have too (custom made 15 ft.). Good for playing while your on the toliet at least. (If you wanted too that is.):D *courtesy flush*

Sean

P.S. Wow, I posted more in one night then I did all year.

EDIT: I listened to it again to make sure, and it appears that on groove and chords, there is only a difference w/ the Monster on ONE OR TWO NOTES! Wow, talk about a waste of money. Granted, those two notes do sound good though (for my tone preference anyway) :D I'll figured out what notes later.
 
Being a self proclaimed handyman and Do-It-Myself-er as well as a trained technician, I've been working on a human perception error meter for the past two weeks. It uses a quadruple DSP chip in a ceramic, gold plated ball grid array chip carrier, the firmware uses the Finite Rejective Adaptive Unbalanced Displacement algorithm, based on a series of Biangular Octal Gyroscopic Unconscious Synaptic measurements. I incorporated some of my own improvements, which remain propietary, of course.

I've come a long way, but it still needs some work, because strangely enough, the needle keeps hitting the end-of-scale stop :(
 
Joris said:
It uses a quadruple DSP chip in a ceramic, gold plated ball grid array chip carrier, the firmware uses the Finite Rejective Adaptive Unbalanced Displacement algorithm, based on a series of Biangular Octal Gyroscopic Unconscious Synaptic measurements.(

Well, duh...anybody could've figured that one out!








Sorry...couldn't resist. :hiding:
 
The problem is obviously the end-of-scale stop, which is inducing loss of coherence and allowing oscillations in the space-time continuum. Let me guess-it's made out of--gasp!!--ALUMINUM.....Any human perception error meter worth using will only use platinum stops, made from virgin ore (I've never met a virgin 'ore, however....)
 
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