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Cable Asylum Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys. |
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Cable Asylum Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys. |
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During the Fall 1990 quarter, I was introduced to, and got to know, Tuyet. We were both sophomores at UC Santa Cruz, and she lived at Merrill, which was the residential college adjacent to mine. Tuyet was aggressive and fiery, dropping F-bombs left and right.
Her roommate Deidre had a very different personality. Deidre was a really nice and friendly hippie girl.
Interestingly, both Tuyet and Deidre were into toiletries. Tuyet was into them, for looks and scents. Deidre was into "natural" health. Cool. That meant that you got to try some of their toiletries. That way, you had a better idea, of which products worked or did not work for you, and why and how. Moreover, it meant that you didn't have to spend your own money on these products. You wished that audiophiles were that sharing.
One gray and melancholy afternoon, Tuyet came over to my dorm room. Something about the re-released "There She Goes" by The La's captivated us. It turned out that Tuyet was a huge fan of "modern rock." Moreover, her brother played electric guitar. Tuyet was one to whom you could talk about audio. She understood that audio could either hinder you or pave your way towards the music.
At that point in time, Tuyet was, um, rather abrasive. She criticized my budget sheets and comforter, which my parents had bought from (the no longer in existence) Mervyn's. We ate dinner in my dining hall. After that, Tuyet made me go to her dorm room. There, she pointed out her own and Deidre's bedding. The two argued that, because their bedding felt good, they really only wore a loose t-shirt and panties to sleep.
Anyway, one Friday night, Deidre's brother and sister arrived. Thus, Tuyet vacated the room, and crashed with me. Acting like a princess, Tuyet brought over her bedsheet, pillowcase, and blanket. Hot damn! Tuyet's bedding really was comfy and felt good on your skin. I don't know; I zonked out, and probably snored all night.
I had a Sony D-10 Discman and AR Powered Partners. Given that this was the end of 1990, thrash metal was king. But Tuyet's little shower caddy had a bunch of interesting toiletries. You happily took her up, on her offer to try soaps, shampoos, conditioners, oils, lotions, and others.
No, I'm not going to say, "Something snapped." Truth was, I felt so good, I got an audio inspiration. So the next time I went home to San Francisco, I stopped at Performance Audio, and ordered an AudioQuest Mini-Adapter Z. It had a 3.5mm minijack on one end, two male RCAs at the other. It arrived, during Winter Break.
When we returned to UCSC in January 1991, Tuyet came over. She loved, loved, loved the AQ Mini-Adapter Z. She thought it (a) reduced the hash, and (b) prevented the images from shrinking further. She was able to dig deeper in to the music, and do so for longer lengths of time.
Which brings us to the current-production Kimber GQ-Mini-Cu. In this case, GQ probably stands for "gyro-quadratic," referring to Kimber's use of 4 multi-strand conductors. The "Cu" stands for copper, which is the most affordable in this line. Kimber also make the GQ-Mini in "HB" (hybrid copper and silver) and "Ag" (all-silver) iterations.
The Kimber GQ-Mini-Cu comes in a vacuum-sealed Ziploc re-sealable plastic bag.
It starts with a 3.5mm Amphenol mini-headphone jack. A dark-colored mesh encapsulates the four (2 yellow, 2 white) conductors. An art major, Tuyet did have a few lace-y articles of clothing.
If you get the Kimber GQ-Mini-Cu with two male UltraPlate RCAs, termination is $85. But if the load end is also a 3.5mm minijack, then termination is $65. Add $22.50 per half meter of cabling. Therefore, the retail price of the 1-meter sample above is $85.00 + $45.00 = $130.00. Tuyet probably would have cursed, that that is more than the personal CD player itself.
-Lummy The Loch Monster
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Topic - Kimber GQ-Mini-Cu, Part 1 - Luminator 18:40:15 01/24/23 (0)
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