Cable Asylum: REVIEW: Q Audio Tao Analogue Interconnect Cable by RioTubes Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys.

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Model:	Tao Analogue Interconnect
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$350 / 0.5-0.75 meter
Description:	Analogue Interconnect
Manufacturer URL:	Q Audio
Model Picture:	View

Review by RioTubes on January 26, 2008 at 11:03:06 IP Address: 76.174.204.74

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The Q Tao Analogue Interconnect consists of four solid core binary alloy conductors in a parallel quad arrangement. Each conductor is insulated in silk wrap. The four conductors are enveloped in an outer cotton jacket. Illustrated by the comparison of a few ICs in the photo, the Tao is a very thin and flexible cable.

As you can see in the photo there is a twist! No RCA or XLR connectors. I was interested in experimenting with ultra low mass high pressure receptacle contacts that Steve Eddy had experimented with and shared with this forum back in 2005 (link to thread below). Because his thread covers the connector and pin header combination in detail I’ll spare you the description here other than to say the connectors and headers used are Ampmodu mod V available at mouser in a variety of plating options. IIRC the contact material of the SKU I used is phosphor bronze with gold plating.

http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=tweaks&n=121180&highlight=silk+amp+mod+steve+eddy&r=&session=

This was not an arm’s length transaction. I was very fortunate to be on the receiving end of Steve’s incredible generosity, coincidentally around the Winter holiday. I read a post on AA inquiring about requesting ideas and feedback on RCA jacks. I replied by posting a link to Steve’s original thread, knowing that the poster is quite facile at DIY. In my post I remarked how great it would be to free oneself from at least one audiophile expense: RCA connectors. I like to use Eichmann Bullet Plugs at around $45 a pair. Not a huge expense, but if one likes to experiment with various cables it can add up. My system includes a DAC, TVC and monoblock amps, so that’s about $180 for full IC terminations and another $180 on Eichmann female sockets. In my post, I remarked about the expensive crimper needed to terminate the $0.55 Ampmodu connectors to cable. I think it is $200 or so. Steve generously offered to lend me his crimper. I thought this was a gracious offer I could not pass up with a 2 week Holiday coming up, perfect for experimenting with various shielded and unshielded runs of copper and silver cable. To make a long story a tad shorter, Steve ended up offering to build the cables using his highly praised silk insulated binary alloy conductors. Two runs for my whole system. Wow! Not sure that I am deserving of such generosity but suffice it to say that as far as material gifts go, this was the best Christmas in a while!

In any event, I spent a Saturday converting my system to accept these cables. I mounted the 2-pin headers on perfboard (mouser.com SKU recommended by Steve in original thread) and screwed the board to the internal wood chassis of my Dac and preamp over the vacant holes used for the RCAs. Because the amp RCA sockets screwed into a metal plate, I simply made a short umbilical that peaks out of the holes vacated by the RCA sockets. So the neutral IC conductor goes to one pin, and the positive conductor goes to the other pin. Very simple. It would take all of 2 hours to re-insert all the RCA female connectors in my system. Cleary, these connectors will probably appeal to a narrow segment of DIY’r who plan to live with their current components for a while.

As far as how the cable sounds, I can only compare it to what I had in my system which consisted of a run of VH Audio Pulsar as well as AH! AS Direkt KB8—a Swiss cable terminated with Eichmann Copper Bullets. My observations below are relative to these cables. My apologies for not being able to compare a full system run of Tao to a full system run of each of these. I use Pulsar between DAC and TVC and the AH! between TVC and Amp.
Although the details follow, here are key themes that emerged while listening across a range of albums:
- Very quiet and resolving
- Neutral and relaxing sound
- Expansive
- Present, sweet and nuanced treble
- Smooth and airy vocals without a hint of sibilance
- Timbral accuracy – able to distinguish the sound of various percussion instruments
- Wide bandwidth

Here are some of my notes while listening to various recordings:

Norah Jones / Come Away with Me / Title track
Airy and smooth vocals. Very resolved percussion brushwork. On lesser resolving system (including cables) it can be a challenge to discern some far miked brushwork from noise.

Caetano Velosa / Muito Mais Caetano / Terra
The brilliant male vocalist and songwriter from Brasil. Stunning vocals and guitar. Holographic percussion of several types. Deep soundstage. Great separation of notes.

Jan Garbarek / Madar / Sebika
Virtuoso Saxophonist recorded on the stellar ECM label. Beautiful but haunting album. Sax soars and notes decay into emptiness. Great tone. Ton of air around notes. Can really hear the ambiance and Hall effects as the notes fade and reverberate. Very expansive sound. Wow, this cable is quiet!

Bebo & Cigali / Lagrimas Negra / Corazon Loco
Best piano recording I own. Closely miked. Tone, weight, harmonics and decay of notes are spectacular.

Israel Kamakawiwo'Ole / Facing Future / Henehene Kou 'Aka
Great Hawaiian album with male vocal phenom who unfortunately passed too early in life. Busy track driven forward with the trio of Ukulele, Percussion and Bass rhythm. Listening for good separation of distinct notes from each instrument. Yep.

Patricia Barber / Nightclub / Autumn Leaves
Sibilance? Nada. Very smooth vocals. Bass solo was amazing. Great tone. Great dynamic contrast in this sparse but emotional track.

Rosa Passos & Ron Carter / Entre Amigo (Chesky)
Terrific female bossa vocalist virtually unknown in her home country. She is pretty good on guitar as well. Minimalist track of vocal and acoustic bass. Tone and harmonics of acoustic bass sound really convincing.

Eva Cassidy / Live at Blues Alley / Oh, Had I a Golden Thread
Listening for sibilance. Zilch. Very tight and distinct bass. Noticing the Hall effects on Eva’s voice. Also listening to quality of percussive brushwork and symbol decay. Excellent. Again, very quiet and resolving cable.

Cowboy Junkies / Trinity Sessions / Blue Moon
This ambient rich recording was recorded live in a church. Cables doing great job at sorting out the instruments that otherwise can sound muddy due to the airy hall. The symbol crashes and decay are distinct and not lost in the ambient rich venue. Very smooth vocals.

Haden & Methany / Missouri Sky / Cinema Paradiso (Love Theme)
Great tone and harmonics on bass and guitar. Really nice weight to the guitar plucks. Enjoyable to follow the whole unfolding story of certain notes in this quiet recording, from the attack, the development of the note through the decay. Very expansive quality. Beautiful!

I guess the biggest surprise is how quiet these cables are in my system. I was convinced that I would benefit from a shielded cable between Dac and preamp because I use a modified Squeezebox as a transport. I have a BUS of multi conductor 30awg wrap wire between SB and Dac that transmits a master clock from Dac to the SB transport, and then I2S signals back to Dac. I thought this had created an RF-rich environment, hence the need for a shielded IC due to the close proximity. Boy, I was wrong! This Tao unshielded IC is just dead quiet and remarkably resolving. On a separate matter, I had just a hint of hum in one channel audible within a foot of the speaker prior to implementing these ICs. While using the Q Tao’s the hum is completing gone. The system is dead quiet.

Due to the nature of how I came into these cables, I feel it is not my place to recommend them. However, I thought my experience in using different cable terminations would be interesting to some DIY folks. All I can say is that the synergy between the Q Tao Analogue Interconnects and my components translates to a genuine improvement. There is a hard-to-describe “ease” with which the music flows…very relaxing…with a lot of space around the notes…with timbrally accurate and nuanced bass as well a sweet extended treble.

Suggested Retail Price:

0.5M-0.75M $350
1.0M-1.5M $400
2.0M-2.5M $450
3M $500

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Product Weakness:	The ultra low mass ampmodu terminations eliminate any hope for mass market appeal
Product Strengths:	Neutral, quiet, resolving, timbrally accurate, organic, relaxing sound

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Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier:	Welborne Labs DRD 300B
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Stevens & Billington MKIII TVC
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	TDA1541A NOS DAC
Speakers:	Tonian Acoustics TL-D1
Cables/Interconnects:	Q Tao Analogue Interconnects
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Bossa, Samba, Flamenco, Jazz, Rock
Room Size (LxWxH):	17 x 18 x 9
Time Period/Length of Audition:	1 month
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Blue Circle Balanced Power
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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