How TARA Labs cables work
Conductors, dielectrics, grounding and the craft of building a cable by hand: the ideas behind every TARA Labs design.
TARA Labs — A legacy of innovation
Since 1986, TARA Labs has been at the forefront of high-end audio cable design and technology. Many of the innovations pioneered by TARA Labs have since become commonplace throughout the high-end audio cable industry.
Industry firsts
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1986
Air-Tube™ Dielectric Technology
First to introduce Air-Tube Dielectric Technology, reducing dielectric interaction between the conductor and insulation.
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1988
Solid-Core Conductors
First to successfully introduce solid-core conductors in place of conventional stranded conductors in high-end audio cables.
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1990
Non-Round Conductors
First to change the traditional round conductor geometry to a non-round conductor design, developed to reduce the effects associated with skin effect.
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1993
Dress Barrels
First to introduce dress barrels as a refined alternative to conventional heat-shrink termination finishing.
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1998
Vacuum Dielectric Technology
TARA Labs became the first and only cable manufacturer to introduce a true vacuum dielectric to the high-end audio industry.
Read more
- Conductor infoSA-OF8N® copper: super-annealed, oxygen-free, mono-crystal and 99.999999% pure, extruded into Rectangular Solid Core® conductors.
- Controlled and extended bandwidthThe two TARA Labs sound signatures, and how to choose between them for your system.
- HFX Floating Ground StationThe mil-spec aluminum ground station included with every reference Extended bandwidth interconnect.
- Evolution speaker cablesLow-inductance speaker cables, and why some high-end amplifiers need to see a little inductance.
- The cable crafting processHow every TARA Labs cable is designed and hand-made in Southern Oregon.
- Distortion: ours vs. theirsWhy more capacitance means more distortion, and how much of the music you really hear.
- White papersConstant Current Impedance Testing, The Science of Cable Design in four parts, and RSC Air technology.
- High-end audio glossaryDefinitions of the terms used in high-end audio.
- Types of audio system setupsNine common system setups, from basic stereo to near-field, with the TARA Labs cables recommended for each.
- Product catalogThe 2026 TARA Labs product catalog as a PDF download, with a page for each cable.
- Discontinued productsInfo and comparison sheets for TARA Labs products no longer in production.