March 24, 2012

  • Nordost Red Dawn Rev II, Part 2

    Oh ho ho.  25 years ago, I'd walk by Lowell High's open spaces.  I loved watching small groups of girls practicing dance and cheerleading routines to a boombox.  One of the popular songs of that spring '87 semester was Debbie Deb's "When I Hear Music."  Within dance music, this was classified under the subgenre, freestyle.  Thus, it did not reach a wide or particularly deep audience.  But that hasn't stopped me from using it as an audiophile reference.  Since the 90s, I've had "When I Hear Music" on compilation CDs.  While playing it at stores and audio shows, I'd have audiophiles come up to me, and ask to identify it.

    You see, similar to Romeo Void's Debora Iyall, record companies said that Debbie Deb was too fat.  Thus, they didn't promote her, and after that spring 1987 semester, we never really heard from her.

    Lowell's school colors were (and still are) red and white.  In the mid-90s, after graduating from Cal, ACS occasionally wore red lingerie.  Since she was light skinned, she quipped about her white skin and red lingerie: "Gee, I guess I'm a few years too late for school spirit!"

    She would often complain that she was "getting fat."  It really hit home, when she had to move up in weight class in athletics.  Like many girls, she'd complain that, none of the fat went to her boobs, LOL!  So while her cup size stayed the same, the bra size went up.  Or, if she still wore her current bras, she had to use a looser hook setting.  It's kind of like loosening a belt.

    Okay, so let's hook up the red & white Nordost Red Dawn Rev II.  The Z-Plug bananas fit perfectly into the Primare A33.2's binding posts.  Perhaps because the RDR2 is not a fat, heavy-gauge cable, the Primare A33.2 isn't scared off.  Unlike with, say, the Cardas Clear Beyond and XLO Limited Edition, the A33.2 exhibits no excess bass or plumpness with the RDR2.

    Again, audiophiles for years struggled and wrestled with spades.  Forget spades.  'Tis much easier to hook and unhook a bra.

    Hooking up the Gallo A'Diva Ti can pose a different challenge.  You see, its binding posts are among the shallowest I've ever seen.  So the banana plug only goes in a few millimeters.  In this case, the connection may or not be any better than spades.  I no longer remember the cable, amp, or speaker, but one time, ACS observed that only the banana plug's tip, not the shaft, went into a binding post.  I was worried that the weight of the cable would cause the banana to come out of the binding post.  Ever the optimist, ACS tried inserting and re-inserting the banana, smiled brightly, and said, "Ooh, this is kind of kinky, like a little mouth sucking a big dick." 

    Or, as KJ says, "Looks like it (the A'Diva Ti) doesn't do anal."

    Like all other Nordost speaker cables I've had, the RDR2 is sensitive to carpeting, and the electrostatic fields present along the floor.  Lest you lose top end air and sparkle, raise the RDR2 off the floor.  In conclusion, give the RDR2 some Cook time, and keep it off the ground.  When you hear music, it'll make you dance.