TARA LABS RSC Air 1EX

MJ26.11.2014

Interconnects

The imaging within the soundstage is f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c, so is the purity and clarity of the sound. I wish every cable in the high end audio industry would image like that. The presence of the performance in your room is palpable, it just is.

100% reference

Function and form

76%

Ease of use

67%

Sound

90%

Appearance

The RSC Air 1EX interconnects cannot be overlooked due to their bright red jackets. They are very stiff and need plenty of space behind a rack with their bend radius over 20cm. They use all the proprietary RSC Air technology that was discussed earlier plus anti-corrosion coated SA-OF8N copper braid shield. They also use the RCA locking barrels that fit tight even without fastening them. Once you tighten the RCA terminals of the amplifier and the cable becomes one.
The RSC Air 1EXs come with a grounding wire at one end so it is highly recommended to use appropriate post to ground them – my modified Nordost Thor distributor could provide that service.

Bass management

Weight

Slam

Articulation

TARA Labs uses proprietary extruded air-tubes inside their cables which eliminates the need for the typical dielectric construction in a typical cable. Using hollow channels along the inner wall of the main air-tube, the positive and negative conductors are isolated from each other with absolutely minimal dielectric absorption and coloration of the audio signal. No unnecessary dielectric materials fill the space between the conductors.

Clarity & delicacy

Detail

Air

Transparency

When I pressed PLAY with my favourite ‘cable-testing’ track Gloucestershire Wassail in the player (Loreena MCKennitt, A Midwinter’s Night Dream, Quinlan Road) I had certain expectations but this cable exceeded them. I loved the articulation of singers that together with imaging was something special. The pinpoint imaging of voices behind the mikes was surgically precise. The cable mastered relative distances between the singers and, as a bonus, it also depicted relative heights of the singers. Usually I hear this track with the voices coming as if from the same horizontal level – this time I could hear how tall the singer were.

Tonal accuracy

Timbre

Dynamics

Temporal resolution

I assume that this happens only in extremely phase coherent systems – one would never heard this magic in DSP manipulated systems where phases are mismatched and shifted. By the clever design TARA Labs have managed to achieve the goal when timing is unified across the frequency spectrum and the system provides crystal clear view of the soundstage not only in spatial domain, but also in temporal domain.

Spatial resolution

Holography

Soundstage width

Soundstage depth

when I run the competition between The RSC Air 1EX and my reference, the Cardas Audio Clear, both had similar amount of clarity, resolution and speed, but Cardas adds the very dimension that makes realistic rendering of an instrument size or a vocalist possible. It also adds weight to lows, improves textures and timbres, but it also doubles the price. I wonder if perhaps balanced configuration for the TARA Labs could bring what I missed.

Price as reviewed:35 000,- Kč

Recommended resellers

Gaia Connections, Praha, tel. +420 286 885 599

Manufacturer's website: http://www.taralabs.com

Associated components

Sources: Van Medevoort CD transport CT460 and DAC DA466, Accuphase DP-78, Accuphase DP-700
Amplifiers: Van Medevoort PSQ/CAQ/PAQs, Accuphase A-70
Interconnects and speaker cables: Krautwire Fractal, Nordost Valhalla V2, Cardas Clear, Audioquest Wild, Audioquest Redwood, Actinote Sonata
Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 802 Diamond, Sonus Faber Guarneri Memento
Power conditioning: Nordost Thor (modified)

Gallery

89%

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