I found it at a yard sale and scored. I had enough left over to set up my small system in my bedroom. Not bad for $3. Compared to the generic 16g wire that preceded this wire the difference was serious. Bass became richer, vocals came to life, everything sounded richer, warmer and he imaging is sometimes just creepy good. It doesn't look impressive but works good. I'm curious what similar quality wire in 8g or something super fat would make as my speakers take lots of juice to get them singing, but I don't feel like spending the $$$ to try it out.

quality for the price

none

I used 1,000 feet of Clara speaker cable at 35 cents a foot to wire my entire house while it was in the rough framed stage. I was very pleased with the results. For custom in-wall applications and/or built-in speakers, it was a great value and excellent quality. I used this cable on the dealer's recommendation and would use it again.

Customer Service

excellent company, though not very well known

Similar Products Used:

Tributaries in-wall speaker wire

Good transparant sound. Very clear mid-range and treble. Good bass reponses. Very well made. Polyurethene dielectric and tough PVC outer sleeve. Flexible and unobstrusive. Looks good in white outer sleeve.

None for the price

Used the Tara Labs Klara (11 ft runs for both channels. A little long, but i've got my equipment rack off-centred to cater to the surroundings) in my budget system. (Rotel RA-931 Mk.II mated with audioquest Ruby to a marantz CD4000 cdp). Gives great warm sounds (all round) to voices and acoustic instruments. The use of 8N-OFC copper is highly regarded in this lower end of the TaraLabs family. The (stranded) copper wires when freshly stripped shows a highly shiny copper. The purity is there for your eyes to see. You can believe the number of 'N' in the 8N specs. I trust TaraLabs to be honest in this respect. 16-ga is excellent for budget systems (entry level systems). VFM (value for money). You don't need to blow it on gas-hose thick cables to wire up a budget system. At just USD1.30 per foot - i don't think you can get better value for money, considering the use of 8N-OFC in constructing these highly manouverable cables. My system may not reveal any shortcomings of the Klara, but then again, it's only a budget set up. Highly recommended, this Klara

Similar Products Used:

Unbranded 16-ga wires

A local stereo shop suggested the Tara Klara and I couldn't be happier. I got my girlfriend setup with her first entry level system (Nakamichi receiver, NAD 502 CD and Tannoy M2 speakers) and wanted a pair of inexpensive wires. To my surprise, the Tara cables sounded much more detailed than my Kimber 4TC as descibed from the reviewer below. I'm really glad I found these inexpensive cables but great sounding speaker wires.

Similar Products Used:

Kimber 4TC

construction, smooth & transparent overall sound

none

The Prism Klara are outstanding speaker cables. I would have never imagined cables making such a big difference in sound quality. This remarkable speaker cable has an incredible way of opening up the soundstage, smoothing out the midrange, and improving the overall resolution of recorded material. I'm enjoying my system as well as my music so much more than before. I drive my Polk RT 55s with my Pioneer Elite VSX-99. Trust me - its pure sonic enjoyment. I highly recommend the Tara Klara.

Similar Products Used:

Monster Original

Tara Labs Prism Clara
System: B&W P4 speakers, Mission 771 speakers, Tannoy Mercury M2 speakers, Sony CDP-XE500 CD player, Arcam Alpha 8 Integrated Amp, etc.

For those needing a rating, I rate Tara Prism Clara speaker wire five stars *****! For those who would like to know why, read on.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to speaker wire. One says that more or less, you get what you pay for and the more you spend, the better performance you can expect. The other says that wire upgrades are a waste of time and money. This second school of thought says that copper wire is copper wire and varies only in thickness. It was this second school of thought to which I have subscribed.

I am always learning new things about hi-fi. I am not much of a technical expert, but I know the sound that I want, which has led me through numerous equipment changes. In the last two years, I have gone through four or five amps, five sets of speakers, several CD players, and innumerable tweaks in search of that sound.

My biggest challenge has been achieving consistent orchestral string tone. String tone on much modern hi-fi has reminded me less of Swan Lake and Rondo Capriccioso and more of a meeting of Godzilla, Ghidra, Mothra, and Rodan. Shriek!

Because of the school of thought concerning speaker wire that I subscribed to, I never considered changing cables, through all the changes in equipment, until now. I had been using standard, inexpensive Best Buy 16-guage wire. I have pretty much ignored speaker wire, and I still become nauseous at the very idea of that $100 per foot stuff. Tara Prism Clara is inexpensive 16-guage cable that does not cost much more than the generic wire. If I had a choice between spending $400 on a new piece of equipment or wire, I would choose the equipment.

Yet, after much frustration, I have changed my speaker wire. This has produced dramatic results. The first important clue leading me in this direction resulted when I added the Arcam Alpha 8 integrated amp. My B&W P4 speakers had previously sounded best bi-wired to my Denon home theater receiver. When I bi-wired the B&W P4s to the Arcam Alpha 8, strange things happened. I began to hear things like pages turning, finger nails hitting piano keys, microphone collisions, the sound of the stage underneath the performers as it was impacted by feet, chairs, instruments, etc. Yet, musical dynamics contracted severely. It sounded as if the music had retreated to the background. Performances consisted of foreground details and noise up near the microphones with music being played at low volume somewhere at a distance, instead of the other way around. I quickly abandoned bi-wiring the B&W P4s to the Arcam Alpha 8. Since I knew that bi-wiring lowered cable impedance, I ascribed the problems to an impedance mis-match.

Using the Alpha 8 amp greatly reduced treble sizzle and sibilance. Yet, until now I had wondered at the abscence of the Arcam's famous richness in the upper bass and lower mid-range. I had never heard it. The B&W P4s single wired to the Arcam Alpha 8 sounded like the B&W P4s bi-wired to the Denon home theater receiver, but with less treble sizzle and fatiguing artifacts. The mid-range and bass were unchanged, sounding lean, fast, and tuneful, but lacking bloom and romance with orchestral strings.

The next important clue was the review of Tara Prism Clara speaker wire in a recent issue of Hi-fi Choice magazine (www.hifichoice.co.uk). The thing that caught my attention aside from the highly recommended rating, was the measurement of Tara Prism Clara as having LOW CAPACITANCE. I had been thinking alot about capacitance and impedance since reading the NVA website (www.nva.dircon.co.uk/). NVA specializes in building amplifiers, amps which they warn should never be used with high capacitance or litz type speaker wire. Furthermore, NVA warns not to bi or tri-wire its amps as this lowers impedance and raises capacitance posing the danger of a short circuit to their un-circuit shielded and un-filtered designs. Their amps use "a minimum of capacitors, no inductors," and use "low negative feedback in a class AB circuit design." BINGO! Expecting dramatic results, I rushed out to buy the low capacitance Tara Labs Prism Clara speaker cable.

I have been rewarded by the first musical appearance of the Arcam Alpha 8's famed richness. I knew that a revealing speaker like the B&W P4 would not fail to show the difference created by the substitute speaker wire, if such differences existed. Sure enough, the first thing I heard using Tara Clara was greater fullness in the lower mid-range that brought orchestral strings to life. Treble definition and detail were unchanged, yet sounded much less exposed and fatiguing now that they were balanced by richer, less restricted mid-range and upper bass. Up until that point, I had blamed the B&W P4s for being incapable of re-creating bloom and romance in orchestral music.

I am glad that I changed my mind concerning speaker wire. I still do not believe that there is a perfect speaker cable, nor do I believe that it is necessary to spend mega-bucks, but I do believe that it is useful to take into consideration how the physical and electrical properties of speaker wire interact with amplifier and speaker design. It is worth investigating.

Tara Labs Prism Clara *****

Build Quality *****

Sound/Performance *****

Value *****

I received about 4 metres of this cable for free when I purchased my recent set of Bookshelf/Stand mount speakers. Had I not received this free cable, I probably would have bought cable worth approximately one quarter of the price (still quite decent cable).

I give this cable a value rating of 2, based on the standard retail price and the fact that I would have otherwise bought cable of the same type for about a quarter of the price.

I give this cable an overall rating of 5 because I have not heard any better sound from cable of this type, and have not much else to compare it to. It satisfies my needs.

Quality
Price
Sound
Pre-terminated with bannana plugs

Only comes in white (not a big deal, get some Krylon)
Not bi-wireable (not a problem for bookshelfs though)

This speaker cable is absolutly a gift from above. I have looked hard for almost 3 months for the perfect audio system, however never put that much emphesis on cables and interconects. Let me tell you these cables will more than return their value in the sound they enhance. My speakers instantly had cleaner bass, a smoother mid range, and crystal clear highs. In addition the soundstage was opened up dramaticly.

Similar Products Used:

Radio Shack cable