March 23, 2012

  • Adcom GCD-700, Part 12

    Okay, let me think about this.  In the late-70s, my upstairs neighbors, who were African American, introduced me to Soul Train.  Via Soul Train's Don Cornelius, Shalamar were created.  So, 30 years ago, Shalamar came out with Friends.  I don't think anyone outside of the African American community ever knew about it.  Certainly, in my 20+ years of being in high-end audio, no audiophile (outside of my friends, that is) knows about Shalamar. 

    But hey, 30 years ago, I was in 5th grade.  As the top class in elementary school, we were big men on campus, LOL!  And certainly, listening to Shalamar's "A Night To Remember" made us feel on top of our little world, as if the good times would go on and on. 

    In the mid-90s, San Francisco's Ultimate Sound carried both Adcom and XLO.  It was common for Ultimate Sound to place the XLO Signature 1.1 interconnect on Adcom gear. 

    Hmmm, apparently, my Xanga account doesn't allow uploads of pdf files.  So, I simply snapped a photo of a late-1998 XLO retail price sheet.  A 1-meter Sig 1.1 cost $625.  That's almost as much as the $700 Adcom GCD-700, which was also in production concurrently.  Still, I would not be surprised, if Ultimate Sound had stuck a Sig 1.1 on a demo GCD-700.  I don't think ACS came up to Ultimate Sound much, if at all.  Most of the time, she'd go shopping in and around Union Square, while I was in Ultimate Sound.  I did indeed bring "A Night To Remember" to Ultimate Sound, but I don't know if anybody cares or recalls.   

    I didn't actually get the XLO Sig 1.1 until 1996-7.  It was able to unlock some of our gear's potential, thus setting some of the music free.  Since I spent some weekends at ACS's place, I did bring/leave my secondary audio equipment there.  And with the XLO Sig 1.1 between the Theta Cobalt 307 and Adcom GTP-400, yep, we had a lot of nights to remember.

    While ACS was known for casually making flippant (though sometimes hilarious) remarks, she did like the looks of the Sig 1.1.  She said the color scheme, tight weave, and shiny RCA plugs were like when Victoria's Secret put together a unified set of lingerie on a mannequin.  She never said anything (positive or negative) about my Adcom gear's aesthetics.

    Well, tossing lingerie on Adcom gear doesn't do any good, so I busted out the (previously Cooked) Sig 1.1, for use on the GCD-700.

    In some ways, the currently-produced XLO S3-1 brings out the best, in absolute terms, of the GCD-700.  But with the original Sig 1.1, I feel like exclaiming, "Eureka!"  It's just a better match.  The speed, the focus, the black backgrounds, the open top end, the uniformity from bottom to top all make the music more compelling.  Okay, so maybe the S3-1 is like VS putting up the perfect display.  But that can be a bit too antiseptic, too corporate.  Where's the fun in that?  ACS might have said that the Sig 1.1 is like when I finally get a sports uniform which fits, has the right color scheme, and makes me look swift, powerful, and cool.  Or, it could have been when ACS pieced together the right combination of bras, panties, stockings, garter belts, and other coverings, to make her ravishing and a total knock-out, but also to make her know it and feel it.