During the summer of '94, I reconnected with ACS. Preparing for her last year at Cal, she stayed more often at home in San Francisco, than in Berkeley. Since she did not have classes that summer, she was able to work more hours at Victoria's Secret. But she still had plenty of time for sports, entertainment, eating, and other activities. That summer, we were able to hit the San Francisco Zoo, Exploratorium, CA Academy Of Sciences, and the Legion Of Honor. At the latter, we saw several European paintings. ACS was partial to paintings with color (as opposed to B&W). Why? Because the sexy and glamorous colors at Victoria's Secret meant that there was no going back to "boring" black and white, which, according to ACS, were really grays.

Geez, has the Bay Area's Ghirardelli run out of marketing ideas? On some of the bars, Ghirardelli merely copied and pasted the art on tour at the De Young museum. If you were Johannes Vermeer, how would you feel about your artwork used on a candy bar? If you were Johannes Vermeer, who was a contributor to the Dutch Golden Age of painting, how would you feel about being associated and lumped in with Dutch Boy paints? If you were Johannes Vermeer, how would you like the lighthearted, glib, and jocular ACS mockingly pronouncing your surname "veneer," implying that your work was shallow? Oddly enough, ACS and I have not gone together to the De Young (no relation to Dennis).

No, The Absolute Sound (TAS) did not have a Johannes Vermeer. But it did have Robbii Wesson. The original XLO Signature series came out in either late '92 or early '93. And even at that, only a handful of dealers carried the Signature line. The general audiophile public did not really learn about the XLO Signature series until TAS reviewed it in the Late Spring 1994 issue (above). And the Stereotypical Audiophiles, who, by definition, can't read, hated this review. Why? Because Mike Silverton did not say what these cables sounded like.

In the follow-up comments, Michael Gindi had to spoon-feed the SAs: "The Signatures simply evaporate to invisibility..." And he adds, "If the new XLO wires have a sonic signature, I assure you that it is written in disappearing ink."

Back then, TAS was notoriously inconsistent in its publishing schedule and delivery. I did not acquire the Late Spring 1994 issue until the summer, probably well into July. Be that as it may, I was thinking about this issue, when ACS and I went to the Academy Of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. This same issue also reviewed Wireworld's Eclipse series, but it was the XLO Signature, which gripped my mind. While TAS reviewed the Signature interconnects and speaker cable, it did not make any mention of the digital cable(s).

Back then, the XLO Signature 4.1b AES/EBU digital cable came in an anti-static plastic Ziploc bag. Nope, Johannes Vermeer did not have these PET (polyethylene terephthalate) materials to work with. ACS said that this bag reminded her of a "condom wrapper." She flashed her ebullient smile, and said, "Colors are more fun!"

Eying the Signature 4.1b, I asked, "You mean the cables?"

ACS replied, "Well, I was thinking more about the condoms." She chewed on her thoughts about safe sex for a brief moment, then put out, "But in the dark, you can't see. Once it goes into a body cavity, does it really matter what color it [the condom] is?"

Those of us who loved XLO Reference's purple/green/clear color scheme were disappointed in the Signature series' magenta/gray/black color scheme. The Signature series was neither glam nor invisible. Remember, ACS loved a cornucopia of colors. Pointing to a Signature 1.1 interconnect, ACS curled the corners of her mouth downward, and demurred, "Yeah, there's too much black." She then tried to cheer me up, "But Victoria's Secret does have plenty of stuff in those colors!"

When ACS visited me at UC Santa Cruz on Friday, 2/12/93, The Cranberries' "Linger" had the biggest impact on us. But let's back up a little bit. That 92-93 season, the Bay Area received above-average rainfall, thus ending an awful 7-year drought. On Friday, 2/5/93, I decided to go home to San Francisco. The rains had let up, the air was fresh, the temps were mild, and the grounds around Santa Cruz's Metro Center were dry. Since I had some time before the jitney bus to San Jose was to leave, I walked along Pacific Avenue mall. I came across a record store, where I saw Marty Friedman's Scenes.

Okay, let's back up some more. In the late 80s, we San Franciscans knew about Marty Friedman, who partnered with fellow shredder Jason Becker in Cacophony. My friend and classmate Julian had lent me Friedman's noisy solo album, Dragon's Kiss. Becker went on to David Lee Roth's band, while Friedman joined Megadeth. In the summer of '92, my friends and I enjoyed Megadeth's Countdown To Extinction.

So on 2/5/93, I didn't know that Friedman had come out with another solo album (apparently, Scenes hit record stores in November/December '92). Hot damn, on the album cover, Friedman looks like he's sitting on or right off of Santa Cruz's Pacific Avenue mall. Assuming this was another piercing shred fest, I shrugged, held my nose, braced for the onslaught, and bought the Scenes CD. I didn't actually get to listen to the CD, until I got home (San Francisco). I popped it into the NAD 5000. I was pleasantly surprised that Scenes was not a noisy shred fest. In fact, hardly any of it is heavy metal. Friedman had switched gears, incorporated foreign and new age elements. It made me daydream about high-end audio. The NAD 5000 was underwhelming. It left me hankering for more. Not that I, a college student, could afford any electronics, but I lusted after the Theta Digital DS Pro Prime DAC and some 2-chassis Audio Alchemy CD transport. Tired of my decidedly bland-looking and unsexy AudioQuest cables, I lusted after XLO's Reference series cables.

People were just getting to know XLO's Reference series. And then I opened the February 1993 issue of Stereophile. That February '93 Stereophile included XLO's ad, introducing the Signature series. I thought that the Signature series' magenta/black/gray color scheme was conventional. It wasn't as impressive as the Reference series' purple/green/clear color scheme, which, when put in use, visually disappeared into the gray shadows behind audio racks.

I took both the February '93 Stereophile and Marty Friedman's Scenes back to UCSC, where I lived in the Crown-Merrill apartments. Other than that ad in Stereophile, there was NO information on the new XLO Signature series. During the morning of 2/12/93, we got some rain. It certainly set the mood for ACS' arrival. That afternoon, after my classes got out, I returned to my apartment, and listened to Scenes. The Japanese-tinged music reminded me of S.F.'s Japantown, and more specifically, Kinokuniya Bookstore. With scant information available, I did not know that the XLO Signature series would include an AES/EBU digital cable, the 4.1b. I would not be in the market for an AES/EBU cable until the late-90s, so I didn't pay much attention to this particular model. In the mid-90s, when I finally acquired separate transport and DAC, I focused on the S/PDIF 75-ohm digital coax, the regular Signature 4.1. According to XLO's August 1998 price sheet, the retail price formula for the AES/EBU 4.1b was $200 per meter, plus $175 for termination. Shortly thereafter, the Signature 4.1b was discontinued [because XLO came out with the disastrous "series 2" line].

Back in 1993, the Crown-Merrill apartments housed 2 students per room. While ACS was making the trip from Berkeley to Santa Cruz, my sole roommate went home for the [Presidents' Day] weekend. That left the room for me and ACS; we did not have to sexile my roommate.

Holy cow! Due to increased enrollment, the college crams three students in each room! So even if one of your roommates leaves, you still have one more. If I had been one of three in a room, ACS and I probably would not have had the room to ourselves. Maybe she and I would have had to crash/sleep in the living room. Or, if that third roommate were a good sport, he could let me and ACS have the room, while he slept in the living room. That arrangement would or could have been awkward.

As 2/12/93 turned out, ACS arrived in the post-rain mist; I completely forgot about Marty Friedman's Scenes; the only cable I even briefly thought about was the original XLO Reference Type 1 interconnect; ACS and I had the room to ourselves; and The Cranberries' "Linger" set the tone for a passionate, sensual, and intimate night. But over 21 years later, I have rescued the XLO Signature 4.1b from the dustbin of history. And I still have and enjoy Marty Friedman's Scenes. Stay tuned.

Again, by intentionally and purposefully using the name Vajra, Pranawire were being provocative. We audiophiles thus had no choice, but to go along. If all this talk about vajayjays seems vulgar, blame Pranawire.

Again, when I entered college, and lived in the dorms, many male students went around without clothes. Having played organized sports for most of my life, I was not surprised, and had no reaction. Though not as prevalent as male nudity, several females went around cuntmando. That, however, was new for me, and took some getting used to.

Bad timing. Joe Satriani released Flying In A Blue Dream around the time the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake struck. Living in Berkeley, Satriani had his fanbase right here in the Bay Area. But with the quake damage, locals weren’t in the mood to swamp record stores and buy music. While not the best of recordings (it’s a little airless), Flying In A Blue Dream is an audio reference. I love the instrumental title track. It’ll quickly tell you if an audio component can rock.

One cool November ’89 night, I was listening to Flying In A Blue Dream via Sony D-10 Discman and MDR-CD6 headphones. I press Stop, take off the headphones, and go to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I had just gotten to the sinks, when Jeanne energetically comes out of the shower. She has a white towel around her dirty blonde hair, and dashes across the room to the cubby holes, where she puts away some toiletries. She pulls out some other personal items, stashes them in a bag, and carries them to the sink next to mine.

Jeanne temporarily hangs up her towel, thus leaving herself completely naked. She opens that soft bag, whips out a small hairdryer, and plugs it in. Bouncing along to some song she is humming, Jeanne momentarily stops the hairdryer, looks at me via the big mirror, and says, “Hi John!” She turns the hairdryer back on, and continues bouncing along.

Her hair dry, Jeanne puts away the hairdryer, and looks at her scalp in the mirror. Without turning her head towards me, Jeanne, still looking in the mirror, asks me, “Do you see my white hairs?”

While the roots of her hair are brownish, I do not see any white hairs. Jeanne continues looking at her scalp. Then she hands me a tweezer. She parts her hair, and tries to locate a white strand. About 4” shorter than I am, Jeanne bends over, makes another attempt to point out a white hair, and tells me to pluck it out.

I look closer, and say, “Um, it’s not white. It’s actually blonde, a very light yellow.”

Jeanne looks in the mirror, doesn’t believe me, and insists that the strand in question is white. She once again stoops, parts her hair, and tells me to find the “white” strand. I swear, if anyone had walked into the bathroom, and saw me and Jeanne in that position…

After some searching, I locate what I think is the white hair. Mind you, I had never before touched Jeanne, not even shook her hand. So, going through her hair was…weird. With the tweezer, I clamp down on the white hair. Not wanting to hurt Jeanne, I say, “Okay, I think I got it.”

To which she commands, “Pull it out!” Man, if anyone had walked into the bathroom, and heard that...

I hold the plucked strand of hair to the light, and judge it (the hair) to be light blonde. I hand over the tweezer and clamped strand of hair to Jeanne. She looks at the rather translucent strand of hair. Does she say I’m right? Not really. She says, “Hmmm, it’s not quite white white. But it's still white.” She then sticks out her left arm, and with the other, holds the strand of hair to her forearm. Her forearm hair is blonde, but still darker than the almost invisible strand plucked from her scalp. In Jeanne's mind, this comparison "proves" that she has white hair on her head.

I’m just standing there passively, when Jeanne reaches over, and drops the “white” strand into the trash. She then raises her left arm, uses the tweezer as a pointer, and directs me to look at her armpit. She remarks that, while her head hair is dirty blonde, her armpit stubble is a tan-brown. Jeanne lifts one knee against the countertop, and points to the few straggly hairs on her shin. She points out that those leg hairs are a darker brown than her armpit hair. She puts her leg down, stands on two feet. She uses the tweezer to touch her pubic hair, which she says (correctly) is black. I am fully-clothed, but I still look down at my pelvis, as if to confirm that my pubic hair is still black.

Kind of like Jeanne’s pubic hair, my Pranawire Vajra comes with the black-colored Acrolink CF plugs. This particular Vajra may be the first or second with the U.S. 15-amp Acrolink CF plugs. This is intentional, so that the Vajra would match the Oyaide SWO-XXX outlets in my house and Power Wings. Again, all other Vajras will come with the aluminum-colored Oyaide M1/F1 plugs.

From body part to body part, Jeanne’s hair came in different colors. I used the Vajra on different components, of varying price levels. Regardless of component, the Vajra consistently tells us that it is about keeping the noise down. When the Vajra succeeds, it allows the component (because it’s not bathed in noise and distortion) to fulfill more of its potential.

Let’s start from the back end. I do not have any powered or electrostatic speakers, so I cannot tell you how the Vajra works on those. But on power amps, the Vajra yields a mature, “I can handle this” personality. If you are tired of after-market powercords boosting the bass or pumping up the mids, you’ll love the Vajra, which does power and control without the bloat or artificial bumps. The Vajra allows my Simaudio 600i integrated amp to track sources more closely.

Okay, it's insane to use a $5000 powercord on a $599 receiver. Nevertheless, the Vajra does transform the little Cambridge Audio One+ into something cleaner, with a less monophonic soundstage. Because the Vajra keeps noise down, it makes the One+'s FM radio have better contrast between sound and background silence.

If you really want to know what your source components truly sound like, use a Vajra. This applies to affordable components, just as strongly as expensive ones. No, the Vajra will not magically transform my modest CAL Delta and Cambridge Audio 840C into the big-ticket Mark Levinson No. 37 and Simaudio Andromeda, respectively. But by keeping noise and distortion away, the Vajra allows the Delta and 840C to get on with reproducing music as best they can.

So while the Vajra will “get the most out of” source components, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll sound “the best.” The identically-priced Pranawire Maha Samadhi (with Oyaide M1/F1 plugs) can bring out the ring, shimmer, enchantment, and soundstage height of source components. Many users will prefer this over the strictly professional Vajra.

Interestingly, the Vajra seems to imbue a very neat, clean, accurate, “professional” picture out of video source components. The analogy would be showing the then-teenaged Jeanne that she had no white hairs. The ones which she thought were white were actually a very light blonde.

Because of the Vajra’s price and bulky Linebacker module, chances are high that a system will not be entirely wired with Vajras. Your system probably will only have one or two. In this case, the safest bet is to use the Vajra between your wall outlet and powerline conditioner. In this position, you can extend the Vajra's neutral, truthful, honest characteristics to the rest of your system. You then have a cleaner platform, from which you can use your other powercords. And hey, if you are lucky and/or rich enough to have multiple Vajras, chances are that you are achieving the state-of-the-art.

From my first two posts about the Pranawire Vajra, you know that I entered UC Santa Cruz in September 1989. In my Crown College coed (housing both males and females) dorm, some of my neighbors walked around in the buff. Prior to this, about the only place where I was around naked people (who were not relatives) was the boys'/men's locker room, when I played organized sports. I've always been perfectly fine, being around naked guys. But as my first two Vajra posts alluded to, I found it a little odd to see naked females.

Let me continue with this theme. Down the hall from me, two fellow freshmen, Raven and Emily, were roommates. Like Sangha, Raven would only carry a towel with her, as she went to the unisex bathroom to shower. Like most in the dorm, the barrel-shaped Raven showered in that morning rush. After getting out of the shower, Raven would towel dry her hair. Since she never brought a change of clothes with her, she was fully naked. She'd wrap the towel around her hair, and walk out. Sometimes, I'd pass her in the hall. She would just stop in the middle of the hall, and carry on a normal conversation. If I tried to slink off, she'd continue talking to me. Even though her name was Raven, no, she did not have hair which was black like a raven. Rather, her shoulder-length hair was walnut brown. Because I got to see her naked, I also saw that the rest of her visible hair - armpit, arm, pubic, and leg - was the same shade of walnut brown.

Raven's roommate, Emily, was slender with straight black hair. I will never forget how she matter-of-factly said, "I'm from Ventura, which is not L.A."

My own roommate Josh and I would talk about the girls in the dorm. When we came to the topic of Emily, we couldn't figure out what her ethnicity was. She didn't appear east Asian (I'm ethnically Chinese), Jewish (as was Josh), Indian (as was Sangha), or Middle Eastern. But she didn't appear northern or western European, either. Josh postulated, "Maybe she's Australian."

"But aren't they originally British?" I added.

"What if she's American Indian?" asked Josh. "Eh, maybe we're barking up the wrong tree. Maybe she's mixed."

I wasn't much of a partier. In fact, because I did not drink, the dormies turned to me, to make sure that, after the parties, they got back to their rooms safely. Or at the very least, I was supposed to warn partiers when the night proctor was coming. I would see Emily at the myriad dorm parties. While she was neither anti-social nor out-going, I frequently spotted her by herself. That is, she was not dancing or making out with anyone. And while I did see her holding alcoholic drinks, I don't recall her imbibing one [same as Andrea].

During one party, I spotted Emily, once again bouncing to the music, but not being with anyone in particular. Uh, that also describes how I was, at those parties. So one time, I gravitated towards Emily. I didn't really know what to say to her, other than, "How ya' doin?" She and I got out of harm's way, and drifted into a quiet(er) corner. Not really knowing what to talk about, I asked what she was. Without any bias, she rattled off some Balkan and eastern European countries or regions I never heard of. She also added, without prejudice, that she wasn't Greek, Turkish, or Russian. Nevertheless, Emily said that her recent ancestors were from the United States' east coast, "not L.A." [her emphasis].

Perhaps a few weeks into the Winter '90 quarter, I once again spotted Emily at a party. She was just smiling and waving at the partygoers, but was really by herself. Uh, so was I. The party was coming to an end, so Emily and I made our way to our 3rd floor dorm rooms. When she tried to get back into her room, it was locked, and her key was inside. That meant that her roommate (a) had come home and was asleep, or (b) had left and locked the door behind her. Emily let out a curse word, and followed me to my room. She said she was tired, grouchy, and "gross." While the 2nd and 3rd floor bathrooms only had individual shower stalls, the ground floor bathroom had a tub which had a shower hose & wand combo. Emily ripped off her "dirty" clothes, and threw them on my floor. Totally naked, Emily led me downstairs to the tub, where she commanded me to bathe her. From this incident, I learned that, like me, all of Emily's hair - head, face, nose, armpit, arm, back, pubic, leg - was jet black.

Okay, so to recap, Sangha's vajayjay was the first I saw. Andrea's was the first I got to touch/scrub. But Andrea stands out, because she was the first dormie, male or female, to see and touch my naked body. Raven and Emily were the first pair of roommates, whose vajayjays I got to see (separately, not simultaneously). All this talk about my dormies' vajayjays brings us back to the Pranawire Vajra. Warning: the standard Vajra comes with the aluminum-colored Oyaide M1/F1 plugs. Mine is terminated with with the black carbon-fiber Acrolink CF plugs. Mine may have been the first with the U.S. Acrolink CF 3-prong wall plug (above).

Another warning: unlike my Pranawire Satori and Maha Samadhi powercords, this Vajra has not been cryogenically treated. Only the plugs, which were previously used on a Satori, have been cryo'd. If you want to cryo treat your Pranawire product, you will have to take it to a third party. IME, cryo treating powercords lowers the noise floor.

Because Pranawire have an audiodharma Cable Cooker, the Vajra had been Cooked, prior to shipment. Therefore, I did not use my Cable Cooker. Thus, I do not have any photos of a Vajra on a Cable Cooker. But as you can see here, my Vajra has a regular 15-amp IEC at the component end. The Cryogenics International sticker is on the plug. Yes, the Vajra may be ordered with a 20-amp IEC plug. Yes, the all-black Vajra does remind me of Emily, the non-Asian who had all-black hair.

I've told this story many times before. So for those of you who have been following me for a number of years, please bear with me. Or if you are a nudist, please bare with me.

I wasn't even a month into my college career, when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck at 5:04p on October 17, 1989. Long story short, I went home for a few days, grabbed some CDs, and came back to UC Santa Cruz. I know I had Aerosmith's Pump; Blue Murder's eponymous album; Faster Pussycat's Wake Me When It's Over, L.A. Guns' Cocked & Loaded; Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood; Overkill's The Years Of Decay [on Audio Asylum's Rocky Road, I wrote about the SHM-CD version of this album]; and Testament's Practice What You Preach. All those wannabe hippies in the Crown College dorms did not like heavy metal. They were into "alternative" crap.

Most of my dormies took their showers in the morning, when there was a mad rush to use the three stalls. The left and right stalls each had a separate small landing area, where you could place your belongings. The middle stall had no such landing. Without a place to put a towel or clothes, no one used the middle stall. I took my showers at night, which was when hardly anyone used the bathroom. I never had to wait for a shower stall to become available. Early on, I would learn that the short girl with curly blonde hair who lived down the hall, Andrea (she pronounced it "ANN-jree-uh"), was one of the few who regularly showered at night. Andrea (above, wearing blue shorts and yellow bikini top) was pleasant, benign, and clean - quite different from the average Crown College dormie. Unlike others, Andrea did not smoke. At parties, I saw her hold alcoholic beverages, but I swear I didn't see her consume them.

Perhaps a couple nights before Halloween, I went in for my normal nighttime shower. Now, the water pressure sucked, and worse, it took forever for the hot water to come on. So you turned on the water, stood to the side, and waited and waited and waited for the water to go from cold to hot. What a waste of time, energy, and precious water! The water itself was hard; it took forever for soaps to lather. As if that weren't enough, because of the weak water pressure, it took forever to rinse the soap off! Because the bathroom was located in the crook of the L-shaped floor plan, the left shower stall's landing area actually had a window (which faced the wooded crook). More times than not, I preferred using this stall. So anyway, while waiting for the hot water to come on, I hear someone entering the right shower stall. And then I hear that it's a female's voice, which I identify as Andrea's. I guess she's waiting for her hot water to come on, when she starts singing Erasure songs!

At the time, Erasure had just released Wild!, but as it hadn't become popular yet, who knows if Andrea knew about it. Certainly, by the end of the year, a couple of the dormies into "modern rock" bought it.

I'm starting to wash my hair, and Andrea stops singing "Chains Of Love," and utters a "Damn!" It then goes quiet, meaning she had turned off her water. Next thing I know, I hear my outer curtain opening, and Andrea saying, "Excuse me; I dropped my soap."

I feverishly wash the shampoo out of my hair. I open the inner curtain and -- BAM -- even without my glasses, I can see a wet and naked Andrea standing in the small landing area between the two curtains! Before I can say anything, Andrea smiles, and cheerfully says, "Oh, hi John!," and points near my feet. There, I spot her white bar of soap against the white tiled floor. I pick it up, rinse it with water, and hand it to her.

She thanks me, and I expect her to leave. Except, she doesn't. She starts a casual conversation, the same as if we were sitting together in the dining hall. She asks about my classes, how I was doing (especially in the aftermath of the earthquake). The conversation continues, she gets a bit cold, and closes that outer curtain behind her! Look, if the roles were reversed, and I did that to a girl, I'd have to register as a sex offender!

Andrea places one foot on the 6"-tall ledge separating the shower floor from the landing area. Ever calm, poised, natural, and disarming, Andrea casually reaches behind me, wets her bar of soap, and begins soaping her arms, neck, collarbone, and armpits. Though I'm starting to relax, my conscience still tells me, "Maintain eye contact, maintain eye contact, maintain eye contact. Don't look down and stare at her boobs and pussy." But with Andrea being no taller than 5'2", I'm already looking down at her. I turn sideways, and say, "Would you like to come in?"

Andrea steps up, so that one foot remains on the ledge, while the rest of her enters the shower area (which, due to the partition, is smaller than 4'x4'). She most likely is the first dormie to see me nude. And she's definitely the first to touch, rub, bump into me while nude. Her nipples are really light pink. While Sangha's black vajayjay was the first I got to see regularly, Andrea's was the first I got to see up close and personal, literally in my face. I guess I was expecting Andrea's pubic hair to be straight and dark-colored, but it was just as curly as her head hair (like dry instant ramen, before you add water). And, it was actually light-brown in color, kind of like golden raisins. The hair was so light in color (the water from the shower matted her hair), that I could see her labia majora.

When I try to scrub my back, my elbow hits the partition. Andrea then says, "I got this," takes my soap, and uses it to scrub my back. With two people in that tiny shower, if one lifts a leg, he'll either bump into the wall, or knee the other person. So while I'm standing straight up, Andrea crouches, so she can scrub my butt, legs, and feet. I turn 180-degrees, and she washes my stomach, penis, thighs, knees, and shins.

Andrea stands up and asks if she can use my shampoo. While she washes her short curly blonde hair, I use her bar of soap to get her shoulders, back, and buttocks. As she starts to rinse off the lathered shampoo, I reach around, scrub her chest, breasts, stomach, and crotch. I then squat, and get her legs and feet. We then rinse off, just in time, before the hot water runs out.

Because the inner curtain has been open this entire time, a little bit of splatter gets on my towel, which is hanging in that landing area. Andrea shakes off, opens the outer curtain, walks to the right shower stall, fetches her towel, walks back, and offers it first to me. How sweet of her! We take turns using her towel.

Because of that incident where Andrea walked in on me while I was showering, we always had this calm respect for each other. During our first two years, we lived in the same dorm buildings. Her roommates would sexile her. Occasionally, instead of asking to crash at a female's room, Andrea would stay in my room. In fact, on one such occasion, Andrea took the opportunity to do her laundry late at night. I accompanied her down to the basement where the machines were. I noticed that, unlike most of the girls in those dorms, Andrea did wear bras.

All of this brings me to the Pranawire Vajra powercord. Just as many of my fellow UCSC dormies did not shower, many high-end audio cable manufacturers have not heard about (or are too lazy to utilize) cable burn-in devices. Pranawire are an exception. They indeed possess an audiodharma Cable Cooker. They had already Cooked my Vajra for a number of days, before shipping it off to me. Indeed, when I received the Vajra, it needed a few days of regular playing time, before it settled.

Again, the Vajra is a Satori with a Linebacker module, and inline SEGP. So instead of getting these three products individually, the Vajra incorporates all three into one. It’s one thing for coeds to go without bras. It’s another for the Linebacker module not to have a support. The metal-encased Linebacker module is heavy, on par with the boxes on the MIT Oracle products I reviewed in years past. If you let the Linebacker module dangle, it may place strain on connectors, and even fall with a big CRASH. Yes, you could simply rest the Linebacker module on a shelf or the floor. I have chosen to use a cable tower, to prop up my Vajra’s Linebacker module.

During the times Andrea was sexiled, she and I lay awake at night. Our conversations only briefly touched upon high-end audio. Now that I think about it, we never did discuss Erasure, of which I am a fan.

Andrea was always mature, never frazzled or rattled. That made her the complete opposite of whiny, childish, petty, mean, selfish, hot-headed audiophiles [whoops, I am one]. Whenever she was sexiled, Andrea just shrugged, and was matter-of-fact. Hmmm, I do not know if she sexiled her roommates. Anyway, she was the only one in the dorms I saw wearing a nightgown. During the one or two “pajama night” themes in the dorms, Andrea was ready to go, LOL!

During our sophomore year, I had a single-occupancy dorm room. Andrea was my next-door neighbor, one of three girls in a triple-occupancy room. One Saturday night, the blonde roommate brings over her boyfriend. Thus, Andrea leaves the room, and stays in mine. My room is tiny, with no room on the floor for Andrea to crash/lie/sleep. Thus, she and I have no choice, but to cram, snuggle, and pile on to the Twin XL bed. At first, she and I are both wearing sweatpants. I am wearing a t-shirt, but she has a soft and poofy top. The night is warm enough, and under the blanket, all those poofy clothes make us too hot, and take up too much space. She takes off her poofy top and t-shirt, revealing a white bra. I then shrug, and remove my t-shirt. She takes off her sweats, revealing white panties. I take off my sweats, leaving me in white briefs.

There isn’t enough room on a Twin XL, for two people to lie side-by-side. So with her shoulder over mine, Andrea and I lie on our backs. We stop speaking, and we then can hear voices through the uninsulated wooden wall separating my room from hers. She then frowns, and tells me that she hears not just the blonde and her boyfriend, but the tall Lumberjack Gal (LG) as well. And then Andrea hears a fourth person, a guy.

A while later, Andrea and I hear moaning from just on the other side of the wall. Andrea points out that that is where LG’s bed is [which I had already known]. And then Andrea and I hear LG having sex with the guy. Andrea and I look at each other, with the “FML (Fuck My Life)” expression. Andrea and I remain still and quiet. We strain our ears, and listen intently. Hmmm, we also hear the blonde and her boyfriend talking, ostensibly to each other. Andrea and I also pick out LG and her bf muttering. Andrea puts her hands over her mouth then gasps/giggles, “OMG, they’re all [both couples] having sex!”

I then admit to Andrea that, because my bed is on the other side of the wall from LG’s, I frequently hear LG having sex. Andrea then says, “But that’s when she has the room to herself. This time, [blonde roommate] and her boyfriend are also in there.”

Andrea glances at the ceiling, then turns her head to me, and sighs, “And here we are…lying in bed...in our underwear...”

I know you pervs would rather see graphic pictures of penile-Vajayjay intercourse. Too bad. Here's a shot of the Vajra's cable portion entering the Linebacker module.

Okay, so taking a closer look at a powercord isn’t the same as voyeuristically overhearing and overwatching two couples having sex. My audiophile friend’s Vajra came with a serial number on the back end of the Linebacker module. Mine does not have a serial number. No, the PG29 is not a serial number or MPAA rating. It's just a part number.

“Eew, what an awful name,” exclaim the audiophiles, as they discover Pranawire’s Vajra powercord. If Pranawire wanted to get a rise (no pun intended) out of audiophiles, using the name Vajra certainly does the trick. You don’t need me, to tell you it sounds too similar to vaj rash, vajayjay, and other variants of vagina. Hell, as several audiophiles have suggested, Vajra sounds too close to Viagra for their own comfort.

OTOH, if Pranawire thought they were being clever and cheeky, they’ll have to contend with NSFW attention, jabs, and reviews. I’ve had the Vajra powercord for a number of months. I’ve discussed this product with many audiophiles, each of whom has winced, hyperventilated, or shaken his/her head at the name.

Okay, I’ll take the bait. For this review, I’ll constantly refer to vajayjays. For me, I didn’t really to get to see that many, until I got to college in September 1989. As I settled into the dorm room, I was almost immediately exposed to nudity. Down the hall was an ethnically Asian Indian gal, Sangha, who was a senior. At the time, the UCSC student body was predominantly Caucasian. So on those grounds alone, Sangha stood out. Not a tiny shrew, Sangha was my height (5’8”), but larger/fuller. In the late afternoon, before the dining halls opened for dinner, it was common for Sangha to leave her room, and go to the bathroom to take a shower. Occasionally, she’d have a towel wrapped around her big body. But most of the time, she merely carried the towel (and a few toiletries). She had this way of slowly (and I mean slooooooowly) sauntering down the hall, kind of like a ghost. I swear, you could feel the heat emanate from her body. She seemingly could stop people dead in their tracks. If you happened to be in the halls, while she passed, you could feel the walls, posters, flowers, and your own body wilt.

Up until that point in my life, I had never seen a naked non-relative female that up-close. I was afraid to make eye contact. I didn’t want to appear anti-social, by looking down, either. And I didn’t want to be impolite, by staring at her naked body. But it couldn’t be helped. It turned out that Sangha, despite her intimidating presence, was not mean or surly at all. She spoke slowly, cogently, and intelligently. And at least when I saw and talked to her, she didn’t seem to care what people thought about her being naked.

This photo reminds me of Sangha. If she wrapped a towel (which was often multi-colored) around her body while walking to the bathroom, she almost always wrapped it around her head when walking back to her dorm room. So when Sangha had that slow jaunt back to her room, her big naked body gave off not just more heat, but humidity as well. When we crossed paths, man, I didn't know to say! I was too petrified to speak. All I could do was give short little one-word answers to her questions. Her black hair was darker than mine (I'm ethnically Chinese). She was dark-skinned. When I couldn't maintain eye contact, my eyes would drift down to her big boobs. Even her areolae were dark-colored. I didn't want to get caught staring at her boobs, so I felt my eyes sink lower, to her, um, nether region. Yep, her pubic hair was as dark black as her head hair. Since she had a big body, she blocked out the light. That went a long way in explaining why Sangha was so intimidating.

I'd retreat into my room, and try to take shelter and comfort in audio magazines. And wouldn't you know it; Kimber Kable's ad featured an Asian Indian woman. However, this big-nosed and fair-skinned model did not look anything like Sangha. So when I'd pass Sangha in the hall or bathroom, I tried to picture her with Kimber's 8TC woven into her head hair. But hey; at least that kept my eyes on Sangha's head hair, not her boobs or vajayjay.

As fate would have it, the very first after-market powercord I actually purchased was the Kimber PowerKord. In the early-90s, a 6-foot piece was around $125. No, I could not, back in late '89, have predicted that I'd one day be using $4950 powercords, such as the Pranawire Vajra [1 meter; $799 for each additional 0.5m]. But as my dorm neighbor lamented, "Pussy is expensive."

Since Sangha took her showers around 4:00 in the afternoon, even during winter, there was still daylight. At this time of day, no one in our dorm ordered from Domino's pizza, one of the few companies which delivered to the UCSC campus. Still, my roommate Josh thought out loud, "What if I were a Domino's delivery guy? I think running into buck-naked Sangha would be scarier than delivering to a haunted house." Damn it, the Vajra comes in a pizza box, which, of course, reminds me of Josh's hypothetical pizza delivery guy being scared off by the naked, powerful, intimidating, and sauntering Sangha.

On sunny weekends, Sangha was one of those students who would go topless out into the quad. She was one of the few people to have and wear a sarong. It was common for students in the quad to kick around a hackey sack or soccer ball. If she wanted to join them, Sangha would remove the sarong. And when she did, she revealed that she wasn't wearing any panties. For such a large person who strolled so slowly, Sangha was sure nifty in kicking a ball.

Our dorm had washer/dryer in the basement. One Saturday afternoon during the Winter '90 quarter, I was doing my laundry (waiting for the dryer to be done, actually), when Sangha, completely naked except for sandals and the towel over her head, plopped her laundry basket onto the table. It was a mixed basket full of clothes. But it didn't contain any bras. I guess Sangha didn't have or use any. By this time, I wasn't as afraid of her. I had already known that Sangha was no-nonsense, but by no means mean, angry, hostile, or antagonistic. Sandals on feet, she removed the wet towel from her head, and tossed that into the wash. She just carried on a conversation with me. I learned that she was thinking about graduation, which, for her, was less than two quarters away. She didn't seem too enthusiastic about that, so I gleaned that she was rather comfortable at UCSC, and didn't have anything lined up for after graduation. And with that, I finally saw Sangha not as the intimidating spirit who cruised the halls, but as a human with feelings and emotions.

The Kimber PowerKord was sheathed in a black corrugated plastic tubing. Like the PowerKord's outer tubing, and like Sangha's dark black hair, the Pranawire Vajra is only available in black. But what, exactly, is a Vajra? Get your mind out of the gutter. Take Pranawire's Linbacker filter. Then make the Linebacker inline, with pieces of the Satori powercord coming out of both ends. Supposedly, my Vajra above incorporates the SEGP (Super Enhanced Ground Plane).

It was really odd. For someone as ebullient, garrulous, and unfiltered as ACS, she sure had this emotionless and analytical way of watching porn. Back in the mid-90s, when I spent many a night at ACS' apartment, the internet was at dial-up "speed," and DVD hadn't yet gotten established. So everyone was forced to go to "adult entertainment" stores, and rent porn on VHS tape. At night after showering, ACS would walk out to her living room, and pop in a porno tape into her VCR. While drying her hair, she'd fast forward through the first 20 minutes of FBI warnings and ads. All dry, ACS would then (since the room was typically warm, she often remained naked) sit on the couch, and begin watching. She would sit there stoically. She would dispense dry, matter-of-fact, kind of academic comments about the porn.

But you know what? By watching ACS sit through porn, I became a better, more analytical and complete audio reviewer. So when you read, enjoy, and benefit from my reviews, you can partially thank ACS

In recent times, I have gotten together with ACS. This time around, the porn is predominantly widescreen, high-def, with elaborate production. And yep, ACS still has that dry, emotionless way of breaking down film. I saw her shoulders droop, and could tell that all this modern, high-def porn was not turning her on. And that's when she posited that the porn of the 90s, pre-DVD, had a certain charm. She said that, when couples go to bed at night, they typically turn down or off the lights. And if they wear glasses, they take them off. There's nothing high-def about that. The porn from the mid-90s is opposite of today's, which tends to be shot in bright lights. Today's women in porn usually are full of makeup, wear expensive costumes/clothes/lingerie, and have no pubic hair.

Which brings us to the Chord Company HDMI Active Resolution. As of this writing, the audiodharma Cable Cooker does not have an adapter for HDMI cables. Major bummer. Thus, we’ll just have to hook up the HDMI Active Resolution, put it to good use.

When used out of an AT&T U-verse receiver, the HDMI Active Resolution seems solid, competent, very good across the board. Colors are neither bright nor dark. When words move across the screen (as in a ticker), they are relatively smooth, with just a little raggedness and choppiness. When sports are on, it is relatively easy to read the scores; colors don’t bleed profusely into each other. Sorry, I don’t subscribe to any adult entertainment channels, so I cannot tell you how well the HDMI Active Resolution preserves the qualities of porn.

We used the HDMI Active Resolution with a Nintendo Wii U (not pictured) and Oppo Blu-Ray player. In the latter, we played both DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. With both sources, the HDMI Active Resolution proves superior to Chord Company’s cheaper HDMI Advance.

With the HDMI Active Resolution, colors are better separated. They are also more solidly-rendered. Motion is smoother. And perhaps best of all, images are better separated from each other, especially in the depth plane. If the HDMI Advance is “okay” across the board, then the HDMI Active Resolution is “very good” across the board.

Regardless of video source, the HDMI Active Resolution, by being well-balanced, provides a thoroughly competent, fatigue-free picture. There really aren’t any weaknesses. Yes, other HDMI cables can and will do specific things better. For example, if I change nothing, except for the HDMI cable, then the Cardas HDMI v1.4 will provide a darker, richer, inkier picture. For brighter mid-band colors, I’d use the Nordost Silver Screen HDMI. For razor-sharp image outlines, the Wireworld Silver Starlight 5.2 will do a superior job. But for those of you who prize across-the-board excellence, this Chord Company HDMI Active Resolution does a good job. Regardless of what we’re watching, I just do not think about the HDMI Active Resolution. Like the XLO Signature 3 series interconnects, it just goes about doing its job. For many users, that will be all they need to know.

By the second half of 1995, ACS had a VHS-C camcorder. I don’t recall if it had stereo sound. But I’m pretty sure that it only had composite video (via a patch cord) analog output. It did not have the S-video connection.

So what did ACS use this camcorder for? Making sex tapes, of course!

At least while I was in ACS’ company, I observed her being more busy with filming, than viewing what she had recorded. I recall her fiddling with camera placement and angles. She dithered about the location’s lighting, or lack thereof. VHS-C being a tape-based format, you always had to pick up where you left off. If you rewound the tape, you could accidentally record over your previous material. And there were always the concerns about the battery or tape running out. Of course, if you were at home or in the office, you could use the AC adapter, rather than the batteries.

It is one thing to have today’s high-def digital video recorders. But I wonder how ACS would have felt, back in the mid-90s, about having such high-resolution video recording capability. Heck, today’s video recording devices also sport decent audio quality, as well.

Think back to the 90s. When you used a camcorder to film, say, a professor lecturing or a business professional giving a presentation, remember how the audio was lousy? Remember how noisy and full of echo the sound was? Remember how difficult it was, to make out voices?

All of this brings us to today’s commonly-found HDMI format, which carries both digital video AND audio. The UK’s Chord Company were around in the mid-80s, when VCRs became popular. The Chord Company are still around, and now have their poorly-named HDMI Active Resolution.

I’ve written before that, for my 24th birthday, ACS, who worked at various Victoria’s Secret stores, modeled several sets of lingerie for me. She wanted to see what my natural reaction to each set was. Thus, she did NOT video tape these sessions. When all of these Victoria’s Secret products were stuffed in bags or lying on the floor, they were just, well, products. Because of ACS’ figure, skin textures, and hair color, this green bra & panty set came to life, made her totally ravishing.

And wouldn’t you know it; the HDMI Active Resolution’s front-end plug is jade green in color. No, it’s not as ravishing as ACS in that green Victoria's Secret bra & panty set. But it’s infinitely better than ugly black-colored plugs.

Yes, ACS did have "metallic" lingerie. No, it did not look good on her. Whether copper, gold, or silver-colored, the metallic lingerie made ACS look hideous and cartoonish. On ACS, the metallic lingerie was kind of like a bad Halloween costume, oil spill, shiny scarab beetle, or 1970s Japanese "Gorenger" (the original inspiration for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers). Luckily, we didn't video record ACS in the metallic lingerie The back end of the Chord Company HDMI Active Resolution sports a silver-colored plug. This differentiates it from the jade green plug on the front end. Since the cable is directional, these jade green and silver plugs make it easier to get that signal flowing in the correct direction. Yeah, yeah; joke all you want about getting signals pointing, shooting, and flowing in ACS' direction.

My first video game console with a CD-ROM was the Sega CD. It provided a mounting platform for the Sega Genesis, so the two acted as one. Neat. Furthermore, this system utilized RCA audio outputs. Man, when you hooked up the Sega CD to an audio system, you were in for a treat!

In the mid-90s, we bought the original Sony Playstation, which had RCA audio/video jacks. Yep, yours truly was the guy who was viciously lambasted, for using the expensive XLO Limited Edition and Tara Labs ISM The One on the PS1. But, my efforts got audiophiles to see the light. They, too, discovered how friggin’ awesome the PS1 sounded. We all wondered why our high-end audio sources didn’t sound as thrilling as the PS1.

When ACS graduated from college, and moved to her own apartment, she brought along her Sega Genesis/CD. At my own home, I had acquired the MIT Res-LinQ LD for the PS1. I then took the old Monster and AQ video cables to ACS’ apartment. While playing Mortal Kombat or Sonic The Hedgehog CD, ACS remarked that, with these after-market video cables, the picture quality was less fatiguing.

Incidentally, we did try S/PDIF 75-ohm digital audio cables as video links. IIRC, these included the Illuminati D-60, Kimber DV-30, MIT Digital Reference, and Wireworld Gold Starlight. We ended up going back to the AudioQuest Digital/Video Pro.

If you ask her, ACS will say that she kicked my butt in video games all the time. Again, with ACS' competitive nature, she's over-hyping herself. If we're talking about competitive, one-on-one video games, she may have thrashed me 20% (1 of 5) of the time. Other times, I annihilated her. But most video game battles were competitive, with neither player blowing the other away. But in the mid-90s, if you had told us that video would become digital, we would have said, “Bring it on!” So let's open up this Chord Company HDMI Active Resolution.

Nowadays, HDMI is the de facto video standard. It’s been a money-maker, for cable manufacturers as a whole. I don’t know if it’s a money-maker for the Chord Company, but their current top model is the HDMI Active Resolution. The cable proper is a dirty light gray/beige. While it doesn’t look elegant, at least it isn’t black. Interestingly, it is indeed directional.

For me, my video adventure began in Spring '86, when my family subscribed to (analog) cable TV. Shortly thereafter, we bought a VCR (3-head monaural!), and wrestled with all of the confusing hookup possibilities. Little did we know that the easiest was merely the 75-ohm coax with F-type connectors.

Ah, but then somewhere within that 86-87 school year, we got the Nintendo Entertainment System (pictured above, resting on a Yamaha NS-W2 subwoofer). The NES sported RCA monaural audio and composite video jacks. And those, of course, necessitated 75-ohm RCA-to-RCA composite video cables. I think the first one we got was called Monster Video 2.

Throughout the late 80s and early 90s, we acquired more and more video game consoles. They all used 75-ohm composite video cables. And we always bought Monster Video cables.

Fast forward to Fall '93. I bought the Theta Cobalt 307 DAC. Interestingly, DACs used the same 75-ohm composite video cables. But ah, cable manufacturers called these S/PDIF cables "digital coax," and now could charge hundreds more. In 1993, I had grown tired of Monster Cable. So I bought AudioQuest's Video Z. Eventually, I bought an AQ Digital Pro. The old AQ Video Z then could be used with video game consoles. Cool!

In the mid-90s, more expensive digital gear could have S-video or component video connections. Once DVD players hit the market, component video (which is basically 3 composite links) took off.

I think it was one Saturday night in early '96, when I was over at ACS' apartment. One of her next door neighbors was a middle-aged ethnically Russian lady, who lived by herself. Her bedroom was on the other side of ACS' living room wall. ACS and I were watching TV (ESPN's SportsCenter?), when ACS muted the TV, and told me to be quiet. While facing me, her eyes glanced at the wall behind us. ACS then asked, "Hear that?"

We heard the Russian lady and some guy having sex! Sorry, pervs, she was with only one guy. ACS and I were happy that the lady still had it, was still gettin' some. ACS and I high-fived each other. With the neighbor makin' whoopie, ACS smiled, turned off the TV, and said, "I don't feel like watching porn."

Nope, back in '96, ACS and I did not imagine high-def video or HDMI digital transmission. But now, HDMI is pretty much the video standard.

Once again, the Chord Company comes up with another bad name. This product is called HDMI Active Resolution.

Here in the U.S., the HDMI Active Resolution starts at $250 for a .75m piece. The 1.5m length is $300. Inexplicably, there is no 1-meter length. For many users, the .75m is too short, while the 1.5m is too long.

Whereas Chord Company's entry-level HDMI Advance came in a small clamshell, the HDMI Active Resolution's packaging is a box within a box. It kind of reminds me of ACS whispering, "Do you think they [her neighbor and her sex partner] busted out boxes of chocolate, lingerie, and condoms?"