Among American audio cable manufacturers (TARA LABS is, in fact, Australian in origin), TARA LABS (formerly Space & Time) occupies a distinctive position: where AudioQuest and Cardas tend toward a rather masculine clarity and directness of sound, TARA LABS is characterised by a more feminine sensuality — a supple, naturally warm quality that sets the brand apart.
Despite offering genuine hi-fi sound quality and solid build, Space & Time has the appeal of being available in Japan across a wide range of models starting from just a few thousand yen — and whether you are after pure hi-fi, home theatre, or even cabling for a video recorder, there is a capable model here that delivers attractive sound quality at a modest price.
What Is Tara Labs | Space & Time?
Perhaps because of the preconception that Tara Labs Space & Time products use high-purity 8N conductors, one often comes across magazine articles that describe the brand’s more affordable cables as if they were clear, high-resolution types — but in reality, they do not exaggerate resolution or transparency, and keep any metallic brightness or sense of hard edge quite restrained. Their character is more of a leisurely, natural, and warm tonality, as though the entire soundstage were filled with pleasantly rounded, welcoming air. In a sense it shares something of the musical mellowness associated with the European Philips sound, yet the overall expression is broader and more expansive — a glamorous, sweet sound tendency that also carries a distinctly rich, American-flavoured sensuality, and that is very much part of the brand’s appeal.
Beyond the claim of using high-purity 8N-grade conductors, TARA LABS is also particular about the origin of its copper, using Australian virgin copper in all of its cables. This presumably reflects the fact that the company was originally founded in Australia, though it is possible they also believe that differences in sound quality can arise from the source of the copper, quite apart from the question of conductor purity. Furthermore, a proprietary annealing process is applied to the conductors — and the result is not the crisp, highly analytical sound one might expect simply from the purity specification, but rather a generous, unaffected, thoroughly musical and warm-natured sound that draws out the inherent character of the material. I think these can fairly be described as audio cables one can trust and use with confidence for the enjoyment of music.
The main models also use solid-core conductors (or structures close to solid-core), which means the sense of frequency range is not especially wide — yet the image density is high, spreading naturally and centred on the midrange, and the transmission of musical energy and rhythmic vitality comes through straight and without wavering. There is none of the smearing of image and soundstage that tends to afflict multi-strand cables, and the surface of the sound is smooth and flowing — another virtue worth noting. Amid the mellowness, there is a slight brightness to be found in the upper register — the direction of the piano’s right hand, one might say — but it remains at a level that is just right for bringing out the clarity of small loudspeakers without ever overstepping into the unnatural. Overall, there is no rough-edged, distortion-like quality to the sound, and I get the sense that these cables tend to suppress whatever sense of distortion the audio system itself may carry.
Space & Time Prism 22 RCA InterConnect Cable
A solid-core RCA cable from two generations back, using 6N conductors, that I have been using and cherishing for many years. List price ¥6,300 — remarkable to think that in the nineties you could buy a cable of this quality at that sort of price. For this price bracket, its outstanding dynamic musicality (somewhat surface-level, admittedly) and sense of scale are the defining traits. Resolution is not especially high, but the image density is strong — and warm, rich, and mellow with it — the sense of scale in dynamic expression is generous, and the overall tone has a full-blooded, densely saturated quality. Add to that a moderate brightness in the upper midrange, and the result is a positive, sunny character that makes music genuinely enjoyable to listen to. To put it in terms of taste, it is like sweet chocolate — a sweetness that is delicious rather than cloying. Before buying, the magazine reviews and the name “Prism” had led me to expect something transparent and sparkling, and I was rather surprised to find, when I actually tried it, a sound that was quite the opposite — analogue-like and leisurely. I am told that the higher models, the Prism 33 and Prism 55, extend the bass further, but even with the Prism 22 the bass is already more than satisfying, and it produces a sound that makes you feel there is really no pressing need to upgrade. For desktop hi-fi use, it has served as the dedicated cable for the MARANTZ CDR630 for the best part of twenty years. In terms of solid-core coaxial construction and natural, classical sound character, the Monster Cable M350i is a fine rival — but the Prism 22 has an even more leisurely and richly saturated sound than the M350i.
Prism Omni 8N Speaker Cable
The Prism Omni 8N (SA-OF8N) is a popular entry-level speaker cable sold by many domestic retailers at around ¥1,000 per metre, and even at this price it delivers an appealing American sound. Seven annealed 8N solid-core strands are twisted together per channel — a structure that produces a soundstage quality close to that of a true solid-core cable. Compared to the Space & Time Prism 22 mentioned earlier, the tonal character here is brighter, with the copper colour of the 8N annealed conductor coming through in a more direct, unmediated way. That said — perhaps due to the thinness of the individual conductors — there is a slight lack of ease in the way the sound opens up, and when the number of instruments or notes increases, the tonal palette tends to flatten to a single colour, making it harder to differentiate fine detail. With orchestral music and strings in particular, the overtones tend to be smoothed away, leaving a generally somewhat unforgiving impression.
In return, the sense of speed is fairly prominent, and this cable is well suited to achieving a well-balanced combination of a matte-natural, warm and sweet tone with brightness in the upper midrange, reasonable pace, and a moderate degree of definition. The frequency range does not spread especially wide, which makes it a cable suited to use with small loudspeakers where one wants a unified tonal character in the manner of a full-range driver. With medium-sized loudspeakers or larger, the upper and lower frequency extension becomes rather too narrow to be convenient. This cable is also a type with very high musicality, so it has the merit of reviving a system that has lost its life — put it on a dull-sounding domestic mini-system, and it is one of those speaker cables that can produce a quite transformed sense of expressiveness.
TARA LABS Space & Time audio cables, making good use of their high musicality and naturally pleasant character, are — whether you want to hear an American or Western pop vocal goddess rendered with sensuous allure, or you want to rein in the harsh, boomy spread of a bright-and-bassy system and gather it into the midrange — a cable brand ideally suited to putting resolution aside and simply enjoying music itself over long listening sessions. They also strike me as rather handy for drawing a properly expressive, dense, and solid hi-fi-grade sound from the kind of thin-toned, inexpensive domestic AV speakers one comes across.
June 16, 2005
Space & Time RCA Cables at Half Price!
The usual periodic limited-time points promotion came around, and this time I ended up purchasing an RCA pin cable from the American brand Space & Time. Before I knew it, Space & Time’s 8N high-purity cables had gone on sale at remarkably low prices — it seems they were clearing old stock following a model change. Limited quantities of the lower-priced models only, at fully half the list price. (Note: this sale has now ended.)
What I purchased was the Space & Time Prism 200i-8N in a 2m length — a cable of this grade for just ¥3,500. Not intended for pure hi-fi use (I may write a sound quality report if I feel moved to), but planned to go between the DVD recorder Toshiba RD-XS40 and the plasma display.
Stock is limited, so for those of you still using the cables bundled with your equipment — even if you would rather not spend money on cables, surely a price like this makes it worth a small indulgence? And for that, you get a Tara Labs Space & Time model made in America, at full hi-fi grade and with high musicality to boot — something that simply cannot be compared with what comes in the box.
As for other purchases, I also bought around twenty domestic DVD-RAM discs. Not rock-bottom cheap, but decent enough. I have had painful experiences with cheap Taiwanese media on more than one occasion — after about a year they become unreadable — so at home I have made it a rule to use only domestic media.
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