June 4, 2017
-
XLO UltraPLUS U6, Part 1
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.
