May 12, 2011

  • XLO S3-1, Part 5

    30 years ago, I was in a combined 4th-5th grade class.  One of my classmates blurted, "Who the hell is Bette Davis?!"

    Today, people still don't know who Bette Davis was.  Be that as it may, Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" was a huge hit, and about 30 years ago today, made it to #1.  Personally, I first heard it at the old Jeffrey's toy store, in Ghirardelli Square.  The foggy, sinister recording, with Carnes' throaty voice, perfectly matched the fog coming in over the brick building.

    Well, nowadays, if you go back to Ghirardelli Square, you won't find Jeffrey's.  It is now located on Market near Third Street.  If you come back to the brick AT&T Park, you may find Giants fans donning panda hats.  Those hats are in honor of Pablo "Kung Fu Panda" Sandoval.  Sandoval is currently on the DL.  So instead of the panda hat, you can don the other hats by the same manufacturer.  It's a good thing too, because when it's foggy, the hat will keep you warm.

    I can't help it.  Now that I am back in downtown San Francisco, I frequently think about XLO.  You see, in the 90s, Ultimate Sound, an XLO dealer, was located in Union Square, right next to the downtown area.  And because of that, I spent many a day strolling through downtown, and daydreaming about XLO.  Back then, it was the original Signature series interconnect, which was hot.  I still have it.  So that means I can compare the original with the current-production Series 3 model.  Both have been properly treated on the Cable Cooker.

    The S3 corrects the original's fault of throwing away mid-treble body.  So overall, the S3 is quite accurate tonally.  That means it'll do a better job of letting you know what each component, each recording sounds like.  Furthermore, the S3 isn't as uptight as the original.  On drums, the original could sound fast, but too stiff, with not enough body and decay.  With the S3, there does not seem to be much impeding the transients.  Notes start, stop, and end more accurately, cleanly, and effortlessly.  And there is very little curtailing of pop, snap, kick, punch, slap, and tension.

    Versus the MIT Oracle series interconnects, the S3's imaging is not as tactile and finely-scaled.  Nor is it as 3-dimensionally round as the Cardas Clear.  But imaging is stable, focused, sharp, and unambiguous.  The flip side is, with imaging as rock-solid as this, you won't get those panoramic, wide-open, breath-taking soundscapes.  It's more like strolling downtown San Francisco's tightly-packed streets, where you see the buildings' details.