TARA Labs “The Zero” Interconnect and Omega Speaker Cable

TARA Labs’ proprietary “Teflon airtube” design—in which the positive and negative conductors are housed inside Teflon “galleries” (see Illustration 1), with no added insulating material (save air)—is claimed to reduce dielectric distortion while maintaining proper spacing between the conductors and between the conductors and the shield.

Just recently, Bond has improved upon his ingenious Teflon air-tube design. Though the air-filled Teflon galleries make for a very effective dielectric, they still affect the propagation of select frequencies, reducing linearity and adding a sonic character that one doesn’t hear when comparing raw conductors to insulated ones. To reduce dielectric interactions (and fluctuations in flat extended frequency response) to an absolute minimum, Bond has developed special RCA and XLR connectors equipped with valves (see Illustration 2) that allow a vacuum to be drawn inside the Teflon air-tubes, creating a theoretically ideal dielectric environment. [2] Very expensive to make (and purchase), TARA Labs’ “The Zero” interconnects are the first to employ this vacuum dielectric technology, which Bond claims has been measured at less than 3.5pF/foot. (The Zero interconnects also use an outboard passive grounding station to terminate their shields.) [3]

I have to be honest: The first question that popped into my mind—after I removed the massive, incredibly hightech, beautifully made Zeros from their foam-filled, luggage-style carrying cases and started plugging them in—was how long the vacuum inside them would survive the stresses and strains that any interconnect is subject to in real life. TARA Labs claims that the Zeros can be “bent” up to 90 degrees at the “flexible segments near the connector ends” without causing vacuum leaks, but should not be sharply bent anywhere between these flexible end segments. Also, obviously, any attempt to remove the screw-down crowns of the valves on the RCA/XLR connectors—or to disassemble the connectors themselves— may result in loss of vacuum and the voiding of warranties. [4]

While I have no way of knowing for certain whether the vacuums in my Zero interconnects were, in fact, maintained throughout my tests, I can assure you that all of the interconnects were bent sharply at the “flexible segments,” that the extremely hefty RCA and XLR connectors (which use screwdown tightening) had a good deal of pressure applied to them to make sure that connections were snug (the sheer mass of the RCA plugs necessitates this), and that, because the Zeros were under test and had to be periodically swapped out, they saw more bending and unbending and tightening, untightening, and retightening than any consumer would likely subject them to in several lifetimes of use. In spite of all this abuse, the Zeros never changed their sound, which may confirm that their vacuums are a lot harder to mess up than I originally suspected or, contrarily, that the Zeros sound more or less the same regardless of the condition of their vacuum dielectrics.

As for the sound of The Zero and Omega, let me begin with a confession: I do not know how to tell whether an interconnect or cable is faithfully reproducing all that is recorded on an LP or a CD or an SACD; all I can do is report on the differences between its presentation and that of my reference interconnect and cable (which, as noted, was primarily Nordost Valhalla), and compare these results with my impressions of the sounds of real instruments. Any reviewer or manufacturer who tells you differently— who claims that an interconnect or cable is 100% faithful to every source or has no sound of its own—is kidding you and him/herself.

It is my guess that because both the TARA Labs and Nordost are very low in capacitance, the differences in their presentations were, in certain regards (transparency, particularly), not as marked as the differences I’ve noted between certain other cables and Nordost. That said, there were differences.

To start at the bottom, the Nordost, though impressive, did not have the same degree of focus, detail, color, power, and grip on really deep bass notes (or mid- and upper-bass notes). On something like David Bowie’s “Little Wonder” on Earthling [Virgin], where the synth goes so powerfully deep it feels like a lava flow under your feet, the Nordost just didn’t pack the same floor-shaking power and presence as the TARA Labs. Ditto for the timps and bass drum in the closing movement of Frank Martin’s masterpiece, Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments, Timpani, Percussion, and Strings [Ansermet, Decca], which sounded very close to real when played back on the 101 Es via the TARA Labs (and the MBL 9011 monoblock amps and 6010 D preamp, and the Lamm LP2 phonostage) and just a little less so—slightly more pallid and diffuse—via the Nordost. From Fender bass to timp, contrabassoon, kickdrum, and Steinway, the TARA Labs consistently offered more authority, definition, dimensionality, color, and transient speed, without any sacrifice of the fine inner detail and see-throughto- the-back-of-the-stage transparency that Nordost is so good at delivering.