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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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In the early-2000s, an L.A. audiophile named Bryce reached out to me about cables. I kept calling him "Bruce," and he patiently kept correcting me. But that's how we formed a connection.
Bryce knew me as "the guy with the PlayStation and expensive cables." He joked, "The Polluters [most others use the term, "Haters"] Swift Boated you, before 'Swift Boating' was even a thing."
Bryce says, "I fully agree with how you craft your posts, so that, if anyone is interested, he simply emails you offline."
Bryce said, "At the ripe age of 26, I got married in 1982. Since my wife was not from California, our honeymoon was a big road trip. We first stayed in Morro Bay. Then we took that you-gotta-do-it-at-least-once-in-your-lifetime drive up Highway 1, through Big Sur [above, taken earlier this year]. We stayed in Monterey, and I gotta tell you. I don't care how nice Spain was. Junipero Serra and his Padres were no fools, in wanting to stay right here in California. From there, we took 101 to Santa Barbara and home to L.A. No, we did not visit the Bay, until a few years later."
Bryce says, "My son and his wife love checking in on Rocky Road. They say you've got really deep and varied coverage, and they always learn a little something. IYKYK. I know you've said over and over again, that it's not about liking or disliking any bit of the music. But my son and wife love a lot of what you showcase."
"That said," Bryce writes, "For decades now, your cable posts are the best. I love how you frame it in terms of history, life, and music. The Polluters never have anything to contribute, and have driven away scores of potential audiophiles. But you have made this hobby so dang interesting, educational, human, and fun!"
Bryce continues, "You've done such a masterful job so far on the Kimber Naked. Like everyone else, I can't wait for more. Although no one is in the market for such an expensive beast, you have one. You need to tell us everything about it. 'Cuz even if no one can afford it, everyone still wants to know about it, and can then use it as a measuring stick, when evaluating other interconnects."
Bryce adds, "I love it when you mention place names. You are such a good writer, the reader feels as if he is right there with you. You make it feel as though I'm your good friend, and your friends are my friends."
Bryce often repeats this: "But when I learned that you went to UC Santa Cruz while high-end audio exploded, I understood the frustration and felt the pain of not having money for this hobby. You see, in the early-90s, my wife and I were raising the kids, and didn't have money for audio, either. Still, your stories of Santa Cruz and the Bay make it feel as though I had a 'follow-up' honeymoon."
When I would live with relatives in Hawaii, while growing up in the 70s and 80s, my relatives often got tired of local Hawaiian seafood.
I don't recall the exact date, but sometime during the Winter 1992 quarter, Santa Cruz had a clam chowder fest. I was with my friends Kim, Pauline, Quyen, and Tuyet. A market was selling "local" seafood, which meant animals caught off of Central and Northern CA coasts. One of the fishmongers said that "local" seafood often was fresher, and more sustainable. Certain varieties, such as petrale sole, were available all year-round.
We went back to campus, and Quyen, our best cook, even went to the library, in search of cookbooks. She gave up, and just called her mom, and asked how to cook a flatfish, such as petrale sole.
Quyen lived off campus, not far from where the cliff is now falling into the sea. She bought some petrale sole. Because my college apartment (above) had a gas stove, Quyen brought over the fish and other ingredients. Per her mom's advice, Quyen lightly breaded the filets, and pan fried them.
At this time, I had bought an NAD 5000 CD player for my home (San Francisco) stereo system. Thus, I was able to bring the old Sony CDP-520ESII to Santa Cruz. I do not recall which girl had, or where she got it from, a CD single of The Other Two's "Tasty Fish." But this was a popular college dance track. I had just bought a new AudioQuest Topaz line-level interconnect, and it just did not sound as good as an old one. It was this, which opened Tuyet's eyes, to the phenomenon of cable "burn-in."
Also at this time, my friends, none of whom was an audiophile, knew of the existence of the Duo-Tech Cable Enhancer burn-in device. My friends wondered what, if anything, such a device could do.
Bryce says, "We have petrale sole here, too. I generally don't like using fried fish in tacos, but with petrale sole, that is fine."
Which brings us back to the Kimber Naked. In 2024, a Totem Forest Signature got all the attention, as my friends (again, who are not audiophiles) borrowed it. But readers have been pestering me about the balanced Kimber Naked, which, in 2024, has circulated amongst some of my audiophile acquaintances. All these months, because the Naked had been out and about, and used with quite a bit of balanced gear, it has not been in my possession. I have thus not been able to update you on it.
After college graduation, no one kept in touch, and eveyrone went his or her own separate way. I've always wondered whatever happened to Tuyet, who had arguably the most impact on me as a person. All these immature and puerile audiophiles get all weird, when bringing up the name of the Kimber Naked. As an art major, Tuyet was used to drawing naked people and making nude figurines. She was fond of saying: "It's not sexual. You are the one who's making it sexual, when it's not." "I've seen you naked, you've seen me naked, get over yourself."
To this day, I can't shake Tuyet's demonstration(s). She would tell people, "If you rounded up random people, and had them remove everything, including clothing, jewelry and makeup, would you really know how rich or poor they were?"
When the borrowers were asked about the Kimber Naked, they said nothing at all! That was unusual, because they usually had been quick to rattle off how an interconnect performed, and what "rating" they gave it.
One of the borrowers, sounding like Tuyet, shrugged, "All the SAs get all jolly about 'naked.' But I do not see it as being 'stark naked.' Rather, the Kimber Naked is about being comfortable in your own skin."
Once the Kimber Naked came back to me, it received an overnight "recharge," on the audiodharma Cable Cooker. I have to agree with the borrower above. It is less about having its own sound, and more about simply being comfortable in your own skin. Some will find that it "blends in," as one borrower said, with your system. Or, as others said, the Naked can reflect what you feed it.
I told Bryce, "In a vacuum, this doesn't tell you the whole story. It's when you use it with as wide a variety of electronics, and compare it to other interconnects, that you discern what it can and can't do." Future posts will go over such comparisons with other interconnects.
Bryce says, "I was 26, when I got married. Has it been 26 years, since you got Swift Boated about the PlayStation?"
Aiya, yes it has.
Getting Old,
-Lummy The Loch Monster
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Topic - Kimber Naked, Part 6 - Luminator 23:01:26 12/28/24 (0)
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