Tara Labs ISM OnBoard Digital 75, Part 9

Cable Asylum

Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys.

During the Fall 2013 semester, I was working at a public high school. One of the Millennial math teachers loved New Kids On The Block's new song, "The Whisper." She loved how it grew on you. She liked it so much, she did not make her homeroom dance to it. For that, she used the Backstreet Boys :-)

At the same time, I started acquiring Tara Labs' ISM OnBoard Digital 75 cables. We had missed (a) the original Tara Labs The One Digital, and (b) the unaffordable ISM OnBoard Digital The 0.8. So the $1200 ISM OnBoard Digital 75 made sense. The latter itself is fairly open (soncially), so when you use it on a variety of digital gear, you do have a better sense of what each digital component can and cannot do.

I went back to Oahu, where my relatives still have many of my old audio products, including that original The One Digital. The openness of the ISM OnBoard Digital 75 is like this photograph taken from the Lanikai Pillbox. My cousin is facing eastward. So her shadow indicates that the sun was to the south, meaning this took place midday (Hawaii does not do Daylight Saving Time) in winter. If you want a more wide-open scenery, plus resolution of small details, you need to go up to The 0.8. A more wide-open view of the windward coast would reveal that there is a second and smaller offshore islet. The latter is off-limits to us humans, on account of the nesting birds.

When I had the original The One Digital, it was used primarily with the Mark Levinson No. 37 CD transport, which we still have. Versus a fully decked-out The One Digital, the ISM OnBoard Digital 75 falls just short, in terms of frequency extension, and the resolution of the air/space/ambient cues surrounding those frequency extremes. Subjectively, the ISM OnBoard Digital 75 has a smidgen less breathing room. In additon, it doesn't set up as clear and voluminous a venue, to "contain" the bass frequencies/waves.

Okay, so the ISM OnBoard Digital 75 is not as sonically faithful as the original decked-out The One Digital and the ISM OnBoard Digital The 0.8. But with a good DAC, such as that found on the Simaudio 750D, the ISM OnBoard Digital 75 does let you hear what is going on. Assuming you are using a quality source, this cable allows NKOTB's "The Whisper" to build naturally, win you over, and make you raise your hands to the rafters.

-Lummy The Loch Monster

The Whisper (Open in New Window)

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Topic - Tara Labs ISM OnBoard Digital 75, Part 9 - Luminator 17:22:48 01/24/21 (6)

RE: Tara Labs ISM OnBoard Digital 75, Part 9 - fantja 23:24:37 01/25/21 (5)

Better than ever - Luminator 00:14:51 01/26/21 (4)

RE: Better than ever - fantja 00:52:41 01/26/21 (3)

Trickle down - Luminator 01:02:41 01/27/21 (2)

RE: Trickle down - fantja 01:24:35 01/27/21 (1)

RE: Trickle down - Luminator 12:20:10 01/27/21 (0)

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