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.