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Cable Asylum Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys. |
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Cable Asylum Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys. |
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An audiophile from Ontario (California) used to have the original XLO Reference Types 1, 2, and 3 single-ended, balanced, and phono interconnects. Let us call him "OA," for Ontario Audiophile. OA wrote, "I love how you rightfully show the places, music, and people. That's the way audio should be, and I don't know why others don't do it."
"I'm not far at all, from where XLO started (Rancho Cucamonga). I never did get the Type 5 speaker cable, so like everyone else, I've been following you. I want to know what I missed, and how it compares to others."
"I've been many times to the Bay. I've been to some of the places you've shown, and I know exactly what you mean. But you sort of undersell everything so others may not know the power of the place. And hey, when it comes to all of those smart girls, I know exactly what you mean. While I just went to San Diego State, my wife went to UCLA, and yeah, I know the difference between the UC's. So when you bring up all the girlfriends going to Cal, I know exactly what you mean."
"Hey man, you know we [audiophiles] like exchanging stories. I'm a little older than you. Bring us along for the ride, and tell us again, how you became an audiophile."
In April 1986, while I was a freshman at Lowell, the biology classes went on a field trip to Moss Beach. We had a cool bus driver, who played the radio. As we came out of Devil's Slide, and into Montara, a radio station introduced a new Van Halen song, "Why Can't This Be Love."
"That's not Van Halen!" we roared. But anyway, with so much awesome music played that day, we no longer were content, with squeezing headphones against or into our ears. We needed better audio equipment.
OA looked up my alma mater, and gushed, "Hot damn! No wonder you have an inferiority complex. With such a big and elite school, no wonder you felt left behind. It's a who's who of famous people."
Just telling you about the school is insufficient. You really need to see it, in order to visualize the music. Those outdoor basketball and volleyball courts were where I met a lot of my friends, some of whom would become my girlfriend. At the very end of that Spring 1986 semester, we were on the field, when a boombox played Van Halen's "Dreams." That damn thing soared, and we tried to toss baseballs, footballs, and softballs as high as we could. This photo was taken from the southeast part of campus. There used to be a naked pipe, leading to a back road or parking lot, of the Stonestown Mall. Instead of walking several blocks around, you could risk it, and crawl on this pipe, called "The Trestle," to take a shortcut to Stonestown.
In summer 1986, my dad worked as an educational consultant, while I took a class at Punahou. After class, I'd walk to my dad's office, grab a desk, and do some homework. One of his coworkers had a Panasonic personal CD player, which sounded, on the same albums, much better than the LP and cassette. I was hooked, and that was really when I got serious about audio itself. "Hot damn," wrote OA, "You got to live in Hawaii. No wonder everyone hates you!"
When I came back to San Francisco for my sophomore year, I assembled a system comprising Sony CD player, MTS stereo TV tuner, and receiver. When I acquired Original Monster Cable, we swore it sounded better (more open, less uneven), once it was in use for a few months.
Late in the Spring 1987 semester, on a gorgeous Friday, I accompanied my friend Micky to Japantown, where he purchased a Sony CD player. I escorted him on the 38-Geary, made sure no one stole it from him. His sister had an all-in-one stereo with an AUX input. We used the included patchcords, and voila, Micky and his sister now had CD. The first CD we played was not Van Halen's 5150 , but Journey's Raised On Radio . "Hot damn," wrote OA, "You carried a CD player on a city bus?!"
Hey, that just prepares you for life as an audiophile, lugging heavy equipment and cables.
When Micky and I returned to school the following Monday, we learned of a tragedy. One of our classmates had attempted to use The Trestle, and fell some 15' to the ground below. He was paralyzed from the waist down. Shortly thereafter, this barricade was erected on The Trestle. You can see how dangerous it was.
This may be the sixth XLO Reference Type 5 to go on this particular audiodharma Cable Cooker. OA knows several SoCal audiophiles, who have such a device, so he does not have to ship his wares to me. Nevertheless, OA knows full well, that when it comes to cable burn-in, there are no shortcuts. This Reference Type 5 is a quarter century old, and has been in use for much of that time. Go away to work for a day, or get a nice long sleep. A mere 8 hours on the Cable Cooker does more than a quarter century of regular use.
"WTF does that mean?," asked OA.
With just 8 hours of Cook time, the XLO Reference Type 5, even though it had been in use for a quarter century, is now able to decode soundstage width better. With grain lessened, you can "see" the images more clearly. Moreover, the music itself seems less coated or imbued with grain. Music starts and stops with less of a hitch. It's really like clearing your throat, or blowing your nose. Or, it's like being warmed up, but not tired, as you throw balls high into the air.
Having Cooked other samples of XLO Reference Type 5, we know that this product's optimal Cook time is 5 days. Since the Cable Cooker did not exist, when the Reference Type 5 was in production, XLO themselves may not have seen/heard this product's full potential. Maybe then, they would have believed their own "no coloration" marketing slogan. Maybe then, they would have felt like the Blue Angels in the Van Halen "Dreams" video.
This picture does not reveal just how difficult it was and is, to hook up the spade-equipped XLO Reference Type 5. You really should enlist another person to hold the cable, while you route the leads, fit the spades to the shaft, and then tighten the binding post. The dangers of squeezing headphones to your skull, traversing The Trestle, and lugging a new CD player on a MUNI bus definitively prepare you, for wrestling with the Type 5!
If your speaker is above ground, and its binding posts horizontally arrayed, spades will work just fine. In the early-90s, XLO used to recommend spraying the Type 5's outer jacket with anti-static spray. While the above-ground Trestle was hazardous, placing the Type 5 on the floor, especially carpet, is sonically deleterious. Carpet acts as an electrostatic field, which compromises the Type 5's performance. You most likely will notice a treble roll-off, plus increased garble on the instruments' textures.
Ah, because the leads are flexible, it's not impossible, to attach spades to the upper binding posts, of a bi-wireable loudspeaker. Nevertheless, when we have had XLO speaker cables with the Deltron banana, that plug is easier to route, install, and disconnect. Moreover, when we have listened head-to-head to XLO Reference Type with spades or bananas, the latter sport slightly better sonics. The banana does a better job of reproducing the music's crunch. That applies equally to Davd Lee Roth-era VH, Sammy Hagar-era VH, or some of the orchestral works OA also likes. That quality is also important to OA's wife, who loves lite rock of the late-70s and early-80s. This music was popular in, and even came from, SoCal, and was still played in the mid-80s, when she attended UCLA, and I became an audiophile.
-Lummy The Loch Monster
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Topic - XLO Reference Type 5, Part 16 - Luminator 16:33:46 11/27/20 (0)
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