I recently compared AudioQuest Ruby vs. Tara Labs prism55 and for me Ruby is the winner.Ruby has a wide soundstage with god details and still it holds everything together. But the thing that makes Ruby really great is the warm touch that it reproduces the music with. You can also notice that it has a kind of "silence" between the instruments. Not any high frequency’s still sounding after
the last strokes of the cymbals or something, just silence.
My only complaint is that it has a little bit weak bass reproduction.
If you have a bright system, then this might be the cable you’re looking for.
If you’re just looking for more details then try the Prism55. They have a very wide, very detailed sound with god bass reproduction. But on my already bright system they just sounded harsh.

good detail, midrange dynamics

stiff, like other audioquest cables

I bought these Rubies to upgrade a pair of Topaz in portable headphone system consisting of a TEAC 300, heavily damped with sorbethane, and Koss E90 electrostatics. The contacts are treated with Pro-gold. While I have used a large number of Monster Cable 950's in various locations, I found I preferred the Topaz sound in this particular set-up, partularly of their dynamics in the mid-range frequencies. I had hoped that the Rubies would give more detail and can say that indeed they do. After about 50 hours of break-in, the sound is similar to the Topaz, with more detail and more dynamics. While I still prefer the 950's in other locations, this particular set-up just seems to sound best with the Audioquest products. Even though the Koss system is much cheaper and generally seems inferior to several Stax systems I have used over the years, I find that I like this particular set-up now quite a lot. Maybe your ears just need a change now and then. The 950's sound somewhat mushy and bland in this set-up, whereas in three Stax set-ups they sound well-balanced, and poised.
This experience again shows that you can change the sound of a system sigificantly with accessories and that it is hard to predict how any two components or accessories will
sound until you try them out.

Similar Products Used:

Monster Cable 850, 950, Topaz, XLO