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162.205.183.92
When the 1991-92 school year started, XLO burst upon the high-end audio scene. They were from Rancho Cucamonga, headed by a Roger Skoff, who - and I don't know if this is true - was supposedly a UCLA alum
At the time, I was a junior at UC Santa Cruz, where at least 1/3 of the student body came from SoCal. Moreover, I did have a few friends, who were at UCLA. As far as my Santa Cruz friends were concerned, many were from SoCal, but not the "Inland Empire" of which Rancho Cucamonga was a part. During my last two years of college, (a) I liked XLO, and (b) while I did go to SoCal several times, we did not go anywhere east of Pasadena.
"Kukamonga" is a Tongva word, meaning "sandy place." However, Rancho Cucamonga is at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. We're not sure, if, before development, this was a sandy place.
Anyway, an audiophile from nearby Ontario had reached out to me. Although plenty of SoCal audiophiles have a Cable Cooker, this guy just wanted to get to know me better. He shipped me some cables (though not any from XLO), which went on my Cooker. Since I was taking a SoCal trip, instead of mailing cables back to their respective owners, I brought them with me, and used that as an excuse, to meet in person.
Ontario is next to Rancho Cucamonga, so of course I had to go to Soup 'N Fresh, which has been pieced together from the remnants of Sweet Tomatoes/Soup Plantation. Freinds and relatives sorely miss Sweet Tomatoes/Soup Plantation.
Towards the end of my college career, and after graduation, XLO would have a major impact on me.
Roger Skoff now runs RSX Tech, which might be in Rancho Cucamonga.
We're not sure if staff at XLO liked R&B music, but SoCal, including Rancho Cucamonga, has many R&B Tea shops. Given Rancho Cucamonga's hot weather (it's in the upper 90s now), you need bubble tea.
Rancho Cucamonga is about 37 miles east of DTLA. Supposedly, Rancho Cucamonga used to have vineyards, and there is a Vineyard Avenue. Plus, grapes appear on the city's seal.
Rancho Cucamonga is adjacent to Upland, where Upscale Audio used to be (they've since moved west, to La Verne).
Sorry, my friends and I have never imbibed alcohol, so we are not able to comment on wine grapes. Holy cow, the Hawaiian fruit tea comes in the largest cup I've ever had.
Versus my home in the Bay, SoCal has far more radio stations, many of which are not in English. When school isn't in session, maybe I'll take more trips to SoCal. Given that the plurality of audiophiles who write to me is from SoCal, maybe there'll be more in-person meetings in the future.
-Lummy The Loch Monster
Follow Ups:
Up until the time of my senior high school year, I lived in Garden Grove, and every week for a couple of years, my dad drove me to Ontario for my piano lesson at the teacher's house there. Later, my teacher opened a piano store in Claremont where he did his teaching before the store opened, and my weekly lessons switched from Ontario, to Claremont - and then later to Pomona, where the teacher moved his store to larger quarters later on, as the store grew more and more successful.
I remember one of my lessons at the Pomona store, where he got a phone call during my lesson. I could only hear my teacher's end of the conversation:Yup - got a whole store full of them!He explained to me that the whole conversation was like this:
Oh, I see. Well, I'm sorry but we don't sell those - but good luck!Caller: Do you sell Yamahas?
My Teacher: Yup - got a whole store full of them!
Caller: Yeah - so I'm interested in [and then he mentioned a couple of models of Yamaha MOTORCYCLES].
My Teacher: Oh, I see. Well, I'm sorry but we don't sell those - but good luck!
Sometimes, my lesson in Ontario, which usually occurred on a Sunday, would be made into a family trip (with my mom and brother along too), and we would all go to Upland for lunch afterwards - at what I thought was a wonderful restaurant (where I got my first taste of strawberry pie!), although I forget its name now. So I'm pretty familiar with the area you're talking about.
Lummy - thanks so much for your post which prompted my recall of these memories! That was a very magical time in my life.
I went to 5th, 6th, and 7th grades in Garden Grove and attended Simmons Elementary School and Lake Intermediate. I'm not sure if those are still around. I took several swimming lessons at Garden Grove High. We lived on Poindexter Ave ;-) I strung a wire antenna from my bedroom window to the tall palm tree in the front yard and listened to Tokyo on the Radio Shack shortwave receiver kit I built. Garden Grove Blvd was a bit seedy back then (maybe still is, I don't know) but when the Vietnamese folks moved in they cleaned it up somewhat with their restaurants and shops. I think they (or we?) called it Little Saigon.We later moved to Westminster CA where I finished Jr.HS and HS. And then my parents moved to Huntington Beach.
In my early adult years when I lived in Corona and worked in Costa Mesa I would sometimes fly out of Ontario instead of OC John Wayne.
Edits: 06/30/25 06/30/25 06/30/25
During my first two years at UCSC, I lived in dorms. Without a car, we for the most part had to rely on local public transportation. On weekends, if I were out with a fellow Catholic, we'd go to Holy Cross (above). That way, we could avoid the totally convenient on-campus Sunday evening (conflicted with dinner) services.
I had a dormmie, Emily, who was from Ventura. She was adamant, that Ventura was "not L.A." She argued that Ventura was "more like Santa Barbara."I had another dormmie, who was from Huntington Beach. He pulled me aside, confirmed what Emily said, and added that Orange County and L.A. were not the same.
My good friend Tuyet was from somewhere in L.A. She had relatives who owned and worked in hair salons. She introduced us to a cornucopia of haircare products, and was instrumental, in exposing us to the then-rare trend of getting highlights (in the example above, the woman actually wanted the highlights to be a little more white/gray/silver, than the kind of blonde tint).
Anyway, Tuyet was always running down those who came from Orange County. Coming from S.F., I thought that was interesting. OTOH, Tuyet whispered in my ear, "If you can't get UCLA girls, UC Irvine has really pretty ones. And you just might have a better chance with them, than the bitches from UCLA."
During my last two years, my UCSC friends lived in apartments. A small number of these friends had a car. Thus, we loved exploring, and went as far as Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. So, Garden Grove was about as far as we went. More recently, my family has stayed in Garden Grove. And last year, my coworker had a conference there. I did not make it to San Diego, until after I graduated. San Diego Burger Co. (above) opened in the mid-1990s.Speaking of San Diego, one of my laidback dormmies was from San Diego. He would grin, "Eh, from where I stand, L.A. is Northern California!" See, that took place, when I had just entered high-end audio. Perspectives like that were why I never became an SA, or toed the SA line.
If you feel like paying $200+ for jeans, L.A. has a 3sixteen store. If you go, see if you can play with their Marantz turntable.
But the thing is, when SoCal audiophiles reach out to me, they are often curious, about how I, born in S.F., view SoCal. You, though, have lived in both SoCal and NorCal. So, the next step is to check out Hawaii :-)
Edits: 06/29/25
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