In 1996, ACS (my then-girlfriend) and I wanted to replace my Signet SL-280 B/U. We auditioned myriad speakers, and the Sonus Faber Concertino still appeared on our winnowed-down list. We heard it at multiple stores, and even brought a demo pair home. 'Round back, the Concertino had awful stair-step bi-wire binding posts. Nominally, the shaft in these binding posts was supposed to fit wide, 8mm spades. However, because of the screw thread, even 8mm spades did not fit.

The thin, poor-sounding, brass bi-wire trips had 9mm notches cut out of them. If you ever had spades that wide, yes, they'd fit over the screw-thread shaft. However, the binding post then had less metal to clamp down on, and those wide 9mm spades often worked themselves loose. Even if you had a wide-enough spade, by spades' very nature, check out the impossible hook-up angles. All this sounds kinky, but most certainly wasn't. Well, the only thing kinked was your poor speaker cable.

Furthermore, you know from this blog that, ever since I got spades in the mid-90s, none was any good, and most were bad. Still, as you've seen from my reviews of Jeff Rowland and Mark Levinson amps, many binding posts only accept spades. That is also why my colleagues do not like the otherwise very good Joseph Audio Pulsar, which uses Cardas' spade-only terminal.

Included in the XLO UltraPLUS U6's termination price is your choice of banana plugs, 6mm spades, 8mm spades, or a combination thereof. My friends do not have any amps or speakers necessitating 8mm spades, so we have no XLO samples. We do, however, have equipment which is compatible with the 6mm spades. Accordingly, we have some samples of the XLO UltraPLUS U6 with these 6mm spades.

The XLO 6mm spade is angled, which further limits and restricts how you can connect it to a binding post. Note that there is a smaller cutout in the crotch of the spade lug, so that a connection can be made with really narrow shafts. Sounds kinky, but isn't. Also note that the collar which wraps, and is soldered to, the bare wire conductors forms a block, which further complicates hookup.

Flipping the spade over reveals a smooth surface. Sounds kinky, but isn't. Even if the spade is on a new pair, using a contact cleaner will remove lots of dirt. The heatshrink wrap states, "Made in USA." Hmmm, with XLO's parent company being in Ontario, Canada, I'm not so sure about being "made in the USA."

Because of the 820S' resolving powers, it is unforgiving of the usual colored audiophile after-market powercords. The most economical thing to do is simply to Cook the stock OEM powercord. Regardless of price, get yourself a neutral powercord, which will then allow you to discern the effects of the 820S' two fuses.

The F2 fuse is the more challenging to get right, so I recommend leaving that one alone initially. So let us start with the "F1" position, which sounds kinky, but isn't.

In either direction, the Synergistic Research Quantum Red restores the music's energy. However, images lack focus and edge definition. Though the sound is fast enough, it lacks snap and pop. When the Red faces left, bass is tighter, but vocalists sound like they have a cold. Many of you will prefer the 820S' OEM fuse over the Red.

The Synergistic Research Black is a quieter version of the Red. If you really, Really, REALLY need the tonal balance (these SR fuses preserve treble extension), then get the Black.

The Hi-Fi Tuning Gold sounds "nice," but boring. It lacks air and transparency. For better grip, make the Gold face left. For a warm, marshmallow tone, make it face right (as pictured above).

Hi-Fi Tuning's Supreme doesn't have that stupid warmth of the Gold, but tonally, is a bit bulbous. In many instances, you'll notice a mild but unwarranted excess of lower treble and midbass.

Of the after-market fuses we have for the 820S, the discontinued Hi-Fi Tuning Silverstar has the lowest price. Yet, in many sonic ways, it is the most honest. It does a better job at preserving: image focus and outlines, resolution, tonal balance, and control. Like all fuses, it is directional. When facing to your left, the Silverstar is open, fast, and detailed, and does a good job at presenting the contrast between music and background. When facing to your right, the Silverstar allows the 820S to be more coherent, with less loss of body in the mid-treble. And if your 820S is feeding a 750D, this last quality is critical.

Here's where listeners can't stop laughing. Are you willing to fork over $175? When it arrives, are you willing to wait 3 months for it to burn-in? Are you okay with giving up soundstaging and razor-sharp image outlines? Then try the Audio Magic Beeswax (the Premier is pictured above) fuses.

With an Audio Magic Beeswax fuse in the F1 slot, the 820S allows its downstream components to reveal instruments' textures, without resorting to coloration. Music isn't as snappy and punctual as with, for example, the HFT Silverstar, but it is not slow. It has nice flow, without stutter or jitter. There is a nice absence of edge, jaggedness, thinness, static, wind, tipsiness, bitterness, exaggerated sweetness, and metallic aftertaste. We keep coming back to the flavor or texture of the instruments, which sound, well, more like themselves. When listeners get themselves to stop their giddy giggling, they liken the Beeswaxed 820S to a carpet steam-cleaning, freshly-baked food, or that exfoliating full-body sea salt scrub in the large plastic sheet.

Hairbands. Hair bands. Hair metal bands. Among Bay Area bands, Vicious Rumors were kind of by themselves. VR were more power metal, than Night Ranger and Y&T. VR were more talented, professional, and versatile, versus, say, the hard rock/glam metal Babylon A.D. Yet, VR weren't anywhere near the myriad thrash acts, which dominated the late-80s and early-90s.

Durign that era, when my friends got together for competitive activities, such as video games, remote-control car racing, and athletics, we preferred kick-ass music. But sometimes, it was nice to tone it down. We all liked slow songs, acoustic numbers, and power ballads. During the summer of 1992, this is where VR's "When Love Comes Down" came in.

When Patricia had hairbands, she'd keep extras on her wrist. When we played softball, Patricia was primarily our pitcher. She claimed that all those hairbands acted like a wristband. A slender righty, Patricia said that having hairbands on her right wrist enabled her to throw (underhanded) with more control, consistency, and power. Hey, who are we to argue?

One mild and fog-free day out at San Francisco's West Sunset Playground, we were chilling to VR's "When Love Comes Down." Patricia took a hairband, and put her relatively long hair in a pony tail. She then threaded her pony tail through the back of her baseball cap.

These hairbands were, in effect, rubber bands. Patricia also used them to hold her 3/4-sleeve sweater or windbreakers down or in place. She even somehow used them to fix her baseball mitt. And on our road trip down the central California coast, she used hairbands to close bags.

During that summer of 1992, after I did my Hokubei Mainichi newspaper route, my friends would meet at, or go over to, Japantown. I do not recall Patricia doing the two-pony-tail thing. But whether or not she tied her hair back, she kept excess hairbands on her wrist, not in pockets or bags.

The original XLO Ultra series speaker cables used to be held together, not by hairbands, but with Velcro straps.

Since the U6 was stiff, it needed to be tied, to prevent it from springing open/apart. Sounds kinky, but isn't.

Sigh, nowadays, the current-production UltraPLUS U6 is not bundled or tied up. It is just loosely placed in the blue-colored canvas bag. The cable wants to come apart, and places enormous strain on the bag's outer edge and zipper.

The price of the UltraPLUS U6 is double what the original cost, twenty years ago.

In the second half of the 90s, the original U6 was $50 for termination, plus $25 per stereo foot, with no minimum length.

As of this writing, the UltraPLUS U6 is $70 for termination, plus $50 per stereo foot. And if you get it in lengths under 8' (the pair above is 7'), you're still charged the same as for the 8' pair ($70 + 8@ $50 = $470).

In the mid-90s, the push-up Wonderbra was a smash hit. My then-gf, ACS, worked at Victoria's Secret. As such, she did not like padded or push-up bras, which she called, "fake."

ACS loved wearing blue jeans over a black thong, or black tights over a blue thong. So when she came over to my house, and spied the blue-and-black Kimber Kable 4TC/8TC, she approved. She liked that blue-and-black color scheme, which also happened to look good on her, both up top, and around her, um, upper bass/lower midrange.

But then, in Fall 1996, we replaced the Kimber KCAG interconnect with an XLO Signature 1.1. Naturally, you had to use same-brand speaker cables. So we replaced the Kimber 4TC/8TC with XLO Ultra 6/12. Nowhere on the speaker cable did it actually say, "Ultra 6." That is still true today, so the UltraPLUS U6 comes with an identifying tag. In this case, "U6-7" means UltraPLUS U6, 7-feet long.

ACS may have referred to Wonderbra as "fake," but for years, fake XLO have been coming out of China. So to combat that, genuine XLO product, including the UltraPLUS U6, comes with a hologram sticker. Just so you know, ACS detested (and still detests) tags. Along those lines, nowhere on the UltraPLUS U6 itself are hologram stickers or serial numbers.

Perhaps in late summer 1996, my on/off girlfriend, ACS, went to San Francisco's Ultimate Sound, where we nabbed a brochure for the relatively-new XLO Ultra series. It depicted the Ultra products in a sexy magenta-and-black color scheme.

At the time, ACS was working full-time at Genetech. But she still found a way to work a few hours here and there at various Victoria's Secret stores. For her, working at VS was fun, so that was why she didn't completely quit. Independently of her employment at VS, ACS approved of the magenta-and-black color scheme.

However, when we took receipt of XLO's Ultra 6 and 12 speaker cables, we were disappointed and crestfallen, that they were actually lavender-and-black, as shown on the back of the brochure. ACS called this a "bad lingerie" combination. Perhaps under VS influence, she stated that lavender colors should not be mixed with black. Whether lingerie or speaker cables, ACS, you just had to agree, was correct.

When you ordered the original XLO Ultra 6 or 12, it arrived in XLO's cardboard shipping box, with checklist on the outside, identifying the contents. You opened this shipping box, and then sifted through crumpled paper or styrofoam peanuts, to pull out the circular gray canvas bag. ACS remarked that the gray bag was not unlike those which held, for example, car battery jumper cables. ACS liked VS' fancy and colorful packaging and bags, so she detested the utilitarian XLO canvas bag.

Starting in the late-90s, XLO pretty much ignored that Ultra series, and focused on their Reference, Signature, Unlimited, and Limited Edition series. So instead of an Ultra 2 or 3 series, XLO, in early 2012, merely evolved it to "UltraPLUS" status. ACS frowned, "Sounds like a woman's cigarette, maxi pad, deodorant, or tampon."

Well, one change is the addition of an internal cardboard box.

Instead of a checklist, XLO provide an identifying sleeve, which tightly wraps around the inner box. Sounds kinky, but isn't.

In 2004, my samples of XLO Ultra 6 came in the gray-colored circular bag. Apparently, for the past few (7, perhaps?) years, the Ultra speaker cables have come in a blue-colored circular bag.

Sure enough, current-production comes in a blue-colored bag. ACS approves of, and would have preferred, blue over gray. In fact, the blue bag reminds me and her of the blue-and-black Kimber 4TC/8TC we had in the mid-90s. ACS found the blue-and-black Kimber to look better than XLO Ultra's lavender-and-black.

Sigh, but XLO couldn't even bother to change the wording to say, "UltraPLUS." The bag still uses the cheaper "XLO HT" label.

Apparently, Silnote Audio have had an audiodharma Cable Cooker [Anniversary Edition 3.5 with Cardas CCGR RCAs] since June 2013. So if you are in possession of Silnote's products after that, they may already have been Cooked. Be that as it may, any time we come across a used cable, even one which has been previously Cooked, it receives a 1-day recharge on my own Cooker.

Even after a digital cable is Cooked, you need to use it on a variety of gear. This will discern how well or poorly it does its job of (a) passing signal intact, and (b) being impervious to interference and incompatibilities with gear.

Assuming a decent DAC is in use, when the Silnote Poseidon Signature II takes signal from the Simaudio Mind 180, MP3 streams are noticeable, for what they lack: grain, hash, spitchiness, static. Guests are shocked or pleasantly surprised that digital streams, without all that distortion, have some sonic stability, flow, image size, and resolution. People actually have fun, listening to MP3, and often state (correctly) that it is not as bad-sounding as the same music on vinyl.

When we bring out the professional-sounding NuForce DAC-9, we can plainly see, vis-a-vis reference-level digital cables, where the PS2's negatives lie. First of all, image outlines aren't as razor-sharp as they were recorded. In addition to sounding a little "crowded" (but not to the extent of Wadia's 781i CD player/DAC), absolute soundstage dimensions are reined-in. Add these shortcomings together, and the PS2 is not as see-through transparent as it should be. Assuming the use of top-notch sources, the PS2 does not fully track all the music's minor gradations in speed. Thus, in an overall sense, music loses a little control, PRAT, expression, texture, and feel-and-grip of the note. But really, this is not a long list of negatives. By and large, the PS2 holds the music together. Even as you are aware of the deviations from absolute perfection, you can brush them aside. The music, in most cases, is palatable, accepatable, and unpretentious.

I think that the Mark Levinson No. 37 CD transport came out in the mid-90s. It was state-of-the-art then, and, 20 years later, is state-of-the-art now. That is NOT an indictment of today's digital. Rather, it is a testament to the No. 37's excellence.

With the No. 37 as source, the PS2's negatives two paragraphs above are merely reinforced. But no other major faults are unearthed. And that is a good sign.

Recall how we found that, no matter what version, and despite their strengths, Wireworld's Gold Starlight digital cables always had a yucky, icky golden glow. Moreover, they drained the energy, inter-image space, and vitality from the music. So imagine getting rid of the Gold Starlights' colorations. That is what you'd get, if you went to a Silnote PS2.

Now get yourself a top-notch DAC, such as the one found in the Simaudio 750D. By not making matters worse, the PS2 works well with thin-sounding sources. Yet, if you bust out SOTA sources, and have not much money left over for digital cables, the PS2, in just a relatively small way, gums up the works. Again, it does a good job holding things together, buying time (assuming you even want to aim for the kilobuck digital cable stars), and best of all, letting you appreciate what you have.

To start the 92-93 school year, I moved into the college apartment I was sharing with 3 other guys. After my parents drove off, and I was left with figuring out where things should go, and what else was needed, I noticed that Ron had assembled his own PC. The dial-up modem made that blood-curdling scream. For updates, he did not download via that modem. Instead, he had to go out, buy software, and load multiple 3.5" floppies. Yep, those were the days.

As the school year took shape, Ron would spend hours on end, on that PC in his room. Meanwhile, his roommate, Tron, worked part-time at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Because it took so long to get there and come home, when Tron did work at the Boardwalk, he'd be gone for hours. My own roommate, Will, was a biochem major. So when he had labs, he was gone all day. Thus, with Ron holed up in his room, and with Tron and Will out, I had pockets of time at home.

My most frequent guest was Kim. She lived off-campus. Similar to Tron's commute to/from the Boardwalk, it took a long time for Kim to get on and off campus. With her class schedule, Kim preferred not to make multiple trips to campus. So between classes, she needed places to hang out on campus. And that explains why Kim frequently came over to my apartment.

With Ron slaving away on his PC, Kim and I gladly stayed in the living room, where we used the Sony/Adcom/AudioQuest/Pinnacle stereo system. Update software and firmware? No way! If you wanted to upgrade your stereo, you had to go out, and buy new components or accessories.

It was hard enough, to cobble that stereo system together. So yes, we would have loved to have something even better. But really, Kim and my housemates wished we could upgrade the shower. More specifically, we didn't like the fixed shower head. Looking back, we should have skirted Student Housing's rules, removed that fixed shower head, put in a hose/head, but then put back the fixed shower head, in time for inspections.

We 4 guys complained about the weak water pressure. Even after we removed the flow restrictor (really, just a tiny mesh screen), the water pressure was still weak. It was Kim, who then said to go in the opposite direction. She suggested using the shower head's "misty spray" setting. She recommended using hot water, at maximum pressure. The resultant steam would then turn the shower room (the toilet and sinks were outside the shower room) into a sort-of mini-sauna or steam room. Yep, that was yet another reason Kim liked to stay at our place [her off-campus apartment's bathroom was larger and more open, so it didn't get as steamy as easily].

The Simaudio Mind 180 connects to the internet. The software periodically finds updates. Just like not knowing how long my housemates would be away, you don't know how long the Mind 180's updates will take. So you do have the option to decline the update, and do it later. I don't think this Mind 180 has gone less than 3 months, before the next update hands become available. And of these few updates, I think the slowest took about 10 minutes. Some updates took as little as a minute.

With some of the updates, I do not see a difference. But with others, you see added options and access to streaming services.

During my first three years of college, within deodorants, it seemed that stick/gel became the dominant format. Roll-ons and sprays were a very distant also-ran.

During the Memorial Day weekend 1992, I met Patricia, who had just completed her freshman year at S.F. State. Physically, she was your typical slender, 5'3", 110-pound Asian girl. As I got to know her, she explained that she didn't like bra straps and underwires. Thus, her preferred everyday casual dress was a tube top bra [my other friend at the time, ACS, would work for Victoria's Secret. ACS used the term "bandeau" instead] under a tank top. Regardless of what she wore, and even when not playing sports, Patricia frequently sniffed her armpits.

When Ken, Roy, and I went on our road trip down the Central CA coast, Patricia was fighting her period. That still did not prevent her from sniffing her armpits, especially when we were at beaches. In her soft knit bag, Patricia had a few moist towelettes, which were supposed to be for cleaning your hands. But the four of us just used water fountains and bathroom sinks, to wash our hands.

Oh ho ho. Nowadays, we have deodorant wipes. If these had existed during that summer of '92, Patricia probably would have used and loved them.

In 1992, in order to clean metal contacts, I was still using Monster Cable's 2-bottle Cramolin set. One liquid was red, the other blue. I forget which was which, but one was to clean metal. You then had to use a lint-free cloth or swab, and remove said cleaner. Then you used the other liquid, as a "contact enhancer." Shut up. When my friend Kim was over at my college apartment, she laughed, "Contact enhancer? Sounds like something you put on your dick!"

I pressed on, and continued applying the Cramolin set, to the jacks on my Sony CDP-520ESII, and Adcom GTP-400 & GFA-535. Kim joked, "Why don't you use my nail polish, instead? They're prettier."

1992 was when XLO truly entered the high-end audio cable market. Back then, they had not yet come out with their so-called TPC individually-wrapped wipe, which cleaned metal contacts. But had the $0.99 TPC "moist towelette" existed then, I would have preferred it over the Cramolin set.

Oh no. When I did get the TPC in the mid-90s, ACS, who was then my gf, joked that TPC stood for Tiny Pink Clitoris. No, TPC stood for The Perfect Connection.

Oh no. When ACS read the back of the TPC packet, she crossed out "Things," and substituted "Dicks."

Then we actually opened and used a TPC. Though you had to figure out how to get the moist towelette into nooks and crannies, it did a decent job of cleaning metals. The wipe also did not dry out as quickly as you'd think. Thus, if you had all of your electronics out, you could clean quite a number of jacks, connectors, and plugs.

Oh no. When ACS noticed that using a TPC caused our hands to get greasy, she called it The Penis Cleaner. Though I had no sense of smell, ACS and others stated that, at most, the TPC had only a mild scent.

One mild day in June 1992, a whole bunch of us had spent a few hours at West Sunset Playground. While taking a break from basketball, Patricia wiped the sweat from her brow, pulled her athletic shorts from her crotch, flapped her t-shirt, sniffed both armpits, and shivered, "My whole body stinks." She then went on to curse her Secret stick deodorant, "Strong enough for a man, my ass." She also shook her head about the deodorant not offering "all-day protection." She said it wore off after 20 minutes of basketball.

In those days, maybe the Secret stick was available in just scented and unscented [presently, it is available in a cornucopia of fragrances]. Because she was fine with the fragrance, Patricia did use whatever the sceneted one was. She then mattter-of-factly explained that, the Unscented did have an olfactory signature of its own; it wasn't completely odorless. It did have faint traces of being a material, similar to glue. She said that other brands' "unscented" deodorants may have been more transparent and odorless than Secret's. However, since they didn't completely mask, alter, or eliminate body odors, she ended up smelling her body's own odors, just at lower levels.

Still, as I hold these now 20-year-old packets of TPC (in pricier cables, XLO sometimes would throw in a TPC), they make me think, by a 2:1 ratio, about the benign Patricia, rather than the crude and sexual ACS. While working up a sweat in sports, Patricia claimed that, after her armpits, her stinkiest body parts were her scalp (because her hair trapped in the heat, salt, and sweat), feet, and back. As much as Patricia got all self-conscious about her armpits (more so than other parts of her body), no, she wasn't anywhere near as stinky as us guys.

Apparently, Audio Magic's Premier Beeswax has now become the "SHD" Beeswax.

Whereas the Premier came in a silver-colored box, our new SHD model comes in a gold-colored one. Look, I have no idea how the "SHD" differs, if at all, from the "Premier." Supposedly, the SHD incorporates "a triple layer design with 2 new proprietary components to make the fuse even quieter with a better transfer of current and relocation of the Bees Wax inside of the fuse for better stability." At any rate, the U.S. price remains the same: a whopping $175 each. That goes for either 20mm or 32mm; fast-blow or slow-blow; and a wide range of amperage values.

The SHD Beeswax's sticker actually says "SHD." Since we do not have a second sample, we cannot verify if Audio Magic align/orient the sticker in one direction.

While one end cap is untouched, the other will have been drilled out, for the insertion of the beeswax materials. Audio Magic close the drill hole with solder.

Well, the manufacturer recommends 125 hours of burn-in. Audio Magic also claim that their fuses are not directional. With the Premier, we disproved that. In a wide variety of gear, the Premier did sound different, depending on which direction it faced. So owe shall see if the SHD is, like every other fuse, directional. Since the sample above is brand-new, we'll just leave it in the F2 position of the Simaudio 820S [a Premier Beeswax occupies the 820S' F1 slot], which is permanently powered-up.

Here is a lightly-edited conversation I had with my audiophile friend, Bill.

Bill: I don't know 2/3 of the artists or music you write about.
Lummy: That's exactly why I do what I do.
Bill: No, I know that. I've been listening to the radio and reading audio mags for years. Decades. And they never told me about the music. I'm [miffed] that I don't learn about it until I ask you.
Lummy: It's not just I. The other Inmates on Rocky Road make it AA's best forum.
Bill: But they just provide a link, and don't say a [expletive deleted] thing about it.
Lummy: But did you ask them to give you more info? As you know, everyday, I've got half a dozen people asking me questions, making requests, looking for suggestions.
Bill: ...I had no idea Vicious Rumors existed. How can such a solid band escape, without anyone knowing about them?
Lummy: Well, like I said, they toiled in the Bay Area underground in the 80s. By the time they signed to a major label in 1990, the market for heavy metal dried up. VR were too late to the party. Worse, by the time they came out with Welcome To The Ball in late 1991, the grunge revolution had already begun, further burying them in obscurity.
Bill: Tell me more about its songs!

25 years ago, in February 1992, a friend and I saw Vicious Rumors at The Stone, in San Francisco. I was right in the front, and during one song, the lead singer, Carl Alpert, handed me a can of Budweiser. Since I didn't drink, I immediately passed it to whoever was standing behind me. I never turned to see who it was. All I know was, he was so overjoyed, he let out a boisterous scream.

Like all the other Vicious Rumors concerts we had attended, this one was...professional. My friend and I kept waiting for our other friend, Melissa, to show up. However, she had some S.F. State acting group, and by the time she made it across the City, and to The Stone on Broadway, Vicious Rumors were into their encore. Anyway, I believe it was this February 1992 show, at which I bought a Vicious Rumors baseball cap.

At that time, I was a college junior, and I had to think about the upcoming summer, which would be my last. Instead of going to Hawaii to take a class, I applied to the San Francisco Unified School District, to be a teacher's aide. Sometime in the Spring, I got a letter, stating that I had been accepted. I ended up being assigned to Golden Gate Elementary, which was just a 15-minute walk from home. It was a wonderful class, who would enter 5th grade in the Fall.

During that summer of 1992, I worked half a day at Golden Gate Elementary, went home, ate lunch, and often fell asleep. In the afternoon, my friends would start to come over. Vicious Rumors' "Children" seemed to point out that my friends, who were 18-21 years old, were in that transitory position between childhood and adulthood.

When we went out to San Francisco playgrounds, we frequently brought Welcome To The Ball and "Children" was a favorite of ours - and even passers-by.

Lummy: Don't worry, Bill; "Children" was never broadcast to begin with. You had to have been a VR fan, who had seen them live, or possessed their album.
Bill: Hey, [Welcome To The Ball] is 25 years old. But back then, if you guys were not adults, that must mean you guys weren't 25 yet.
Lummy: You are correct.