earlier in the thread I had some comments about my recent experience with 'crazy expensive' Tara Labs Grandmaster Evolution 1.5m XLR cables. one thing I mentioned was that they 'got out of the way of the music'.
Devilboy writes;
One thing they DO NOT do (and this one's my favorite), is "Get out of the way of the music". That phrase drives me mad. In fact, I believe they are doing the complete opposite.
I have to strongly disagree. no doubt some cables add coloration to the music with what else they do to transfer the signal. but some cables do actually further remove distortion from the signal path. and you can hear that.
these very expensive particular Tara Labs Grandmaster interconnects apply some exotic technology to the equation. some of the technology could be marketing speak, some of the technology is less likely marketing speak, and some of it is easily verifiable by the user.
cable geometry and metallurgy benefits pretty much is something none of us are in a position to actually verify. even assuming we believe our ears unless we go through the process of listening to various versions we are just guessing about cause and effect. so we must just accept the manufacturer's claims on those issues.
looking at the quality of the actual plugs it is easy to see where the cable manufacturer went to a much higher degree of effort and expense compared to other cables. we can see this. does that actually affect the improved performance? we don't know; but our experience with plugs and outlets with power cables does indicate that these things matter.
then there is the vacuum dielectric and air tube technology. we know this matters with cables. how much does it matter? we have no way of knowing really unless you would have one cable with it and one without.
then we get to the
HRX dual monoblock floating ground station. the cables are grounded. here we don't need to take anything on faith. we can simply plug or unplug the grounding cable and listen.
now we easily hear the part where the noise floor drops dramatically and the music is revealed in much greater detail. it gets much more out of the way of the music. there are no trade-offs. crazy good. I wish for my finances it did not make such a profound difference.
you can sit there and plug and unplug and hear what is happening. it then becomes a question of whether that difference is worth it or not. no question it's not hype. it's simply life priorities.
I happen to have a 'borrowed' similar Tara Labs '2' steps down (Tara Labs Zero Gold) also on hand for comparison. this has an earlier version of the vacuum dielectric and grounding system. I also had the opportunity to try the Zero Evolution (the next step up above the Zero Gold) grounding box with the Grandmaster version. so I've been able to appreciate the steps up and what is doing what.
in the context of your system is it worth it?
happy to have anyone visit and they can plug and unplug that grounding box for themselves and listen.
