February 27, 2009

  • Tara Labs RSC Digital 110, Part 1

    15 years ago, the East Bay's Testament changed.  James Murphy replaced Alex Skolnick, and John Tempesta replaced Louie Clemente.  And it was obvious that Testament were trying to update their sound.  With their album, Low, they adopted sludgier riffs, more in tune with the post-grunge groove metal movement.  Whether you like this album or not, it does a good job of breaking in audio equipment

    When Low came out, that is when I went to digital separates; that is, a CD transport and DAC (digital-to-analog converter).  And that meant checking out myriad digital cables.  I went through too many, but a few stick out in my memory: AQ Digital Pro, HAVE/Canare Digiflex Gold, Illuminations D-60, Kimber AGDL, MIT T3 Digital and Digital Reference, Wireworld Gold Starlight, and XLO Type 4.

    In 1998, a little over 10 years ago, I acquired the Mark Levinson No. 360 DAC.  Its increased resolution over my Theta DACs meant that I could hear more differences in transports and digital cables.  One cable I tried was Tara Labs' Air 75 Digital, which, I believe, is still in production.  The Air 75 had an "air-tube" core, which unfortunately made the cable stiff as steel.  The Air 75 also was taking too long to burn in.  It was slow and stuffy-sounding.  So out it went, and in came ISM The One Digital.  Oh ho ho, this was elite!  To this day, The One Digital is one of the most transparent digital links I've ever tried.

    "Hey, I'm the one!" exclaims Aiden.

    I no longer have any of my old ISM The One cables.  But I did tap my audio connections for this:

    Whereas The One came in a thicker, bigger black box, the RSC Digital 110 (not to be confused with Tara Labs' RSC Air 110 Digital) comes in a more modest, lightweight purple box.  The paperwork talks about bending and burn-in.

    Because the RSC Digital 110 does not have that stiff inner tube, it is relatively flexible.  And that's always a good thing.  If you look under/through the blue outer jacket, you'll see that the inner wrapping is silver-colored.  All in all, this product looks neat, clean, and professional.

    Instead of reinventing the wheel, Tara Labs chose the industry-standard Neutrik XLRs for this model.