Our customers are our best advertising. Here are
just a few raves about our products, reflecting both old and new
products. Regardless of the product type, these testimonials
demonstrate the effectiveness and satisfaction with all of the Bybee
products.
David Magnan
Magnan Cables, Inc.
I want to
congratulate you on a truly immense breakthrough with your latest
generation of quantum purifiers. In both the amplifier input and
input to speaker positions they made a wonderful improvement in
lucidity and purity, and a drastic reduction in graininess. This all
resulted in a much more natural sonic presentation. From my present
perspective , your new filters are an essential component, not just
another tweak. Thank you for a large increase in my musical
pleasure.
Gene Lippa
Sparks, Nevada
The SlipStream
Silver 8 interconnects are the flagship units from Bybee
Technologies. They must be heard to be believed as they set the bar
for all else to reach. A bold statement I know but that is the truth
as I hear it….
I have been an
audiophile since 1958 and have been involved with the pursuit of
that elusive demon called “absolute sound” . I have always been near
the top of the food chain with my systems and I can tell you that
high price is no indication of how the component will perform.
High end audio is
magic when all is compatible but put the wrong two units together
and you get disharmony. A good sound system is NOT the sum of its
parts rather a symphony of compatible components. My present system
is listed at the “Audio Asylum Inmate System” under Gene L. There
may be some things you won’t like about my system but if it’s
anything , it’s neutral.
The listening test
was conducted at my home with state of the art interconnects from
the companies that make Valhallas, Palladium, Clairvoyant and Black
Pearl in a effort to find the winner in this stellar list. I used my
CD system as the reference source so that only two of each
interconnects would be needed. All these cables are fantastic and it
is no small task to hear the differences. When you get to this level
it seems to become very clear that they all have something in
common, they are transparent and natural with nothing either
emphasized or held back.
After many hours of listening, I was able to
reduce the list to a clear winner as “best”. The Valhallas seem to
be the most transparent and natural in my system. I lived with
Valhallas for 2 months before I decided to try the SlipStream Silver
8’s. Why did I decide to try the SlipStream Silver 8’s ? Well that
old demon got back into my head and asked the question, “Is this as
good as it gets ?”
Answer: “Who knows, lets explore.”
I have used Bybee
Devices in my system and they are still there. When I perused the
tech stuff on the SlipStream I was struck by the fact that
this was not just wire but a system of components in consort to meet
a desired end result. With all that tech and a money back guarantee
I couldn’t help myself , so I ordered up two sets of 1m
interconnects to audition. {$2K per set}
The SlipStream
Silver 8’s are made from 6 nines pure silver ribbon conductors
encased in PTFE Teflon with minimal contact, creating an effective
air dielectric. There are silver Eichmann Bullet RCA connectors and
a new type of Quantum Purifiers at both ends {signal & ground} on
each cable. Then the whole thing is cryo treated to relieve stress
at the molecular level. I have done this treatment to silver before
and I can tell you that everything I did not like about the sound of
silver went away. If you want to know more about these units, just
go to their web site and have a good read. When my SlipStream Silver
8′s arrived ,a voice in the back of my head said “Nothing can beat
my Valhallas”. Well I proceeded to slip the Silver 8’s into my
system and left the room while the system got warmed up and ready to
go.
Well my friends, as
good as the Valhallas are, the Silver 8’s proceeded to kick them out
of the box! The stage became even more open than before, much more
air around each musician, increased depth, more definition without
spotlighting, velvet black background, improved pace, more contrast
with effortless dynamics and openness to die for. Tumbrel textures
and harmonic contrasts were much improved and lifelike. To say the
least, I was stunned.
If Valhallas are
like Windex on the window to the performance then the SlipStream
Silver 8’s are an open window, so you don’t need Windex anymore.
Don’t take my word for it, get some Slipstream Silver 8’s for
yourself and just listen.
Ron Yee
Honolulu, Hawaii
I started the
[prototype Bybee Slipstream LC] cord off, as I always do, powering
my projector in my home theater system. I do this to “break in” the
cord, and to see if it introduces any noticeable changes. Without
even knowing I had done a swap, my wife asked after 2 minutes of
watching plain old cable TV: “Did you do something to the TV? It
looks much clearer and more natural.” And so it did, so much so that
I left it on the projector for much, much longer than I had planned
– not wanting to give up the improvements in picture quality.
This [prototype
[Bybee Slipstream LC] power cord makes my projector (a very high
level DLP projector) more resolving and smoother at the same time.
Detail is much improved, and for some reason, broadcast artifacts
are reduced – or at least they are rendered considerably less
offensive. Color rendition is clearly superior – more saturated,
more natural and lifelike. I suspect that is because your cord
increases black level performance as well as gray scale accuracy.
The overall effect is quite addictive…
I finally summoned
the will and energy to remove the cord and install it into my audio
system-mainly because a friend of mine is going through a round of
power cord buying and testing and has asked me to help him out. The
first stop for your cord was on my phono stage (Tom Evans “The
Groove”). There it replaced an Omega Mikro active cord (I lent it to
my friend for him to try), which has simply killed all comers for
the last 18 months or so in this spot, but which I will have to
retest again after using your cord. The results were startling – the
imaging and soundstaging seemed to lay back just a little bit from
before, but the soundstage also seemed to expand quite dramatically
both in width and depth and even height (which is hard in my room,
because the ceilings are only a pretty much regular 8’3″ in height),
while the specific images within the soundstage were stable,
proportionate and almost holographic. Dynamics seemed more
explosive, especially on the macro side. As I indicated, the Omega
Mikro is no slouch, and I don’t think it gives anything away to your
cord in detail, delicacy and tone quality. In fact, to the extent
that the Omega Mikro may be less “robust” than your cord, it may
appear to have an edge in finesse. I’ll just have to do a head to
head to clarify my impressions. Suffice it to say, my first
impression of this Slipstream LC prototype on my phono stage was
very strong and very favorable.
I then put the cord
on the separate power supply to my digital player, an Ayre DVD-1,
which I use (and really like) as my regular digital audio source.
The power supply is linked to the main player by a fixed (captive)
umbilical with a special connector, so it cannot be changed.
Nevertheless, power cords have made a surprising difference on this
player.
No power cord has
ever come anywhere near to your [Bybee Slipstream LC] cord in
permitting my digital player to capture the whole space of
recordings and sort out the images within the sound field so
correctly and with such apparent realism. To use more common terms,
your [prototype Bybee Slipstream LC cord causes my player to produce
far, far more depth and dimensionality than ever before. The
"completeness" of the soundfield and the layering of images within
it are unprecedented in my system. The effect is so startling, at
least to me, that I almost do not care about anything else. The
"realism" of the soundstage and imaging is absolutely captivating.
On Video:
An audio-video dealer friend and myself have done fairly extensive
viewing with both the [prototype Slipstream LC] and [prototype
Slipstream HD] cords powering a superb DLP front projection system
by In Focus. We watched DVD, regular broadcast TV through cable and
direct satellite feed, HDTV through cable and direct satellite feed,
VHS high definition digital tape and computer video. off, and those
include some pretty heavy hitters, such as Elrod Signature, Mac
Delta, Shunyata Viper V2 and Electraglide Fatman Gold 2000, to name
a few. My dealer friend will go so far as to say that the picture
achieved with the In Focus projector using the HD cord is superior
to that produced by any front projection system he has ever seen,
regardless of type or cost. How is the picture better? Seemingly, in
every way that counts…
Steve Huntley
Great Northern Sound Co.
Prior to starting
his current business, Steve Huntley was with Wadia Digital for 5
years, where he was involved with product development, sales and
service.
Jack, I wanted to
get back to you with some feedback about what I have tried here with
my Wadia 860 CD player. First, I put a large Bybee purifier on each
leg of the AC line and listened. The sound was much more open right
away. It was a nice improvement…
I then tried one
small purifier on each leg of the balanced outputs. This actually
made more difference than the AC input, and I heard a lot deeper
into the recordings. This step gave me a huge degree of improvement
in soundstaging.
Next, I put a
digital purifier (the one with the special silver leads) in the
digital signal path — and heard the biggest improvement yet. It’s
incredible how this machine is sounding right now. I had noted a
slight high frequency forwardness right after I installed the
purifiers, but after just a day in “repeat” mode that forwardness
disappeared, and now the sound is very natural and grain-free. I
really should be in the shop working on gear, but I can’t pull
myself away from the sound room.
I’m going to try the
purifiers in line with the transformer secondaries and see what that
does. At the moment i’m not sure how much better it can get…. I
haven’t been this excited about a component I can use for mod work
in a long time.
(Follow-Up
Comments)
Jack, I did put
purifiers on the transformer secondaries and they do seem to be even
more effective than at the AC input. It all seems additive, though —
I haven’t reached the point where more purifiers don’t make a
difference.
I also put a number
of them in a GNSC-modified Resolution Audio CD-55 player and it
really sounds fantastic.
I’ll certainly be
trying them in other locations as well.
Nice job Jack !
These REALLY work.
Tony Kob, Jr.
Leesburg, Florida
Hi Jack, I wanted to
give you a preliminary report on-line use of your “simply amazing”
purifiers. I have 4 of them and have experimented using just 2 of
them so far in my modified Wadia 861 CD player, installing them
after the transformer that supplies the analogue power supply on the
main circuit board. They are screwed into the power input terminals
on the circuit board in line with both red wires and not in line
with the white wire. I am planning on using the other 2 purifiers on
the digital power supply connected as above…
Sonically, here’s
what I noticed: after the first hour or so he sound changed rather
dramatically. All I could do was laugh at this mongo-sized
soundstage and real-life image palpability, clarity like I have
never experienced from any system yet. The increase in dynamics and
bass definition, the beauty of the sound on female vocals is just
awesome. MANY newly uncovered microscopic hidden details emerged
over the next several hours. I’m serious, there was an enormous gain
in smoothness and musicality. By now it was 4:00am & I did not want
to stop listening.
Just as a note: Here
is my current system so far. My own 50 kva transformer, cryo’ed
copper service entrance cable and in-wall wire, cryo-treated wall
outlet, 14ft. King Cobra V2 into a Hydra, (1)King Cobra V2 into the
modified Wadia 861, another King Cobra V2 into an Art Audio
Diavolo(soon to be hot-rodded). Cabling by Silversmith. Speakers are
Avantgarde Uno are 2.0… Dedicated room/tubetraps galore and many
tweaks. I am a big fan of cryo-treating most things.
Incidentally, I’ve
used your interconnect and speaker filters in the past and they DID
NOT afford anywhere near the same improvements that these 2 little
raw devices did in this location. Using the former Bybee products, I
felt as though they gave more detail and deeper soundstage
definition at the expense of a sense of liveness. Something was just
missing. I wasn’t able to connect with the music the same way. But
never mind that, I’m now in love with these things. The soundstage
goes way back and is wider than hell. But here’s the weird part. It
seems as though the soundstage comes out to envelop me with a
tremendous sense of projection. I played this one CD and I swear
when sitting in the listening position, 11 feet from the speakers,
which are 9ft apart, there are sounds and the sound of air that are
both quite high in respective level. These appear to be located 10
feet directly to the left of my head. I can still hear those sounds
of air stay put even if I turn my head to the left and look over
there!! I’ve read of others reporting on things like this occurring
every once in a while, but what I found on this recording is really
bizarre.
Wayne Donnelly
Mountain View, California
Let me start with a
little history. I reviewed the original Bybee products in the
January 1999 issue of Fi magazine–unfortunately the swan’s song of
that publication. In that review, I found the Bybee products to
provide extraordinary musical improvements throughout my system.
These improvements were so dramatic that even with the rather high
cost of the products, I regarded them as the most exciting and
beneficial audio accessories I had encountered in years — perhaps
ever. Moreover, I also found that practically every music lover to
whom I exposed the Bybee devices was equally impressed; the only
holdouts seemed to be some equipment manufacturers or purveyors of
other sound-better accessories, who seemed to have more difficulty,
for some reason, in hearing what was so clearly evident to others…
Although the Bybee
products did well for a few months after my review came out, I heard
later from Jack Bybee that business had fallen off dramatically. I
was not all that surprised; audiophiles are a notoriously fickle
bunch, and as virtually a cottage industry, Bybee Technologies had
never really developed strong retail distribution. A bit later
though, I discovered that Jack Bybee was now interested in selling
the key components, which he called Quantum Purifiers, in raw form,
installable in any component or speaker. This was exciting news, as
Jack told me that the internal installations were even more
sonically effective than the outboard devices. I could not wait to
try them for myself.
My first experiment
was to add the Quantum Purifiers to my Eggleston Andra loudspeakers.
This required ten purifiers, one at the positive lead of each
driver. After the installation, the initial listening session was
not very impressive. If anything, there seemed to be more veiling of
the speakers’ characteristic very open mid- and high-frequency
performance; the bass seemed slightly dull and less powerful. So I
left the system playing and went off to lunch. Returning after about
an hour, I could already hear significant changes, and very
encouraging ones. Most of the veiling was now gone, and the bass was
sounding far more robust. Through the rest of that day, as I
continued to listen, the sound became better and better. The most
obvious improvements were in bass and dynamics, but I was also
beginning to hear more inner detail in well-known recordings, and I
perceived a broader and deeper soundstage, with very precise
placement of voices and instruments, both laterally and in depth.
All of these improvements continued to develop over about the next
month, as the Bybee purifiers broke in fully.
This was very
exciting stuff — like getting a new pair of speakers. After this
success, I was determined to see what the purifiers could do with my
other components, especially in comparison to the effect of the
outboard interconnect filters I was already using. I began with my
VTL 750 Reference amplifiers, treating the secondary B+, B- and
filament. The effect of this change was to make the amplifiers sound
quicker, more agile. I then went on to my reference Thor line stage,
phono preamp and DAC, in that order. On the preamps, I treated power
(after the transformer), inputs and outputs, as well as other key
places within their circuits. On the DAC, I took the same approach,
but included the digital input as well. I will not bore you and
myself with the play-by-play of each little improvement I heard. To
cut to the chase, each time an updated component was re-inserted
into the system, clear sonic improvements could be heard. It seemed
that the beneficial effect of quantum filtration was cumulative far
beyond any level I had expected. The improvements were also greater
than I had been able to achieve using the outboard products —
although I later discovered that continuing to use the outboard
products made for even greater improvements.
The Bybee Quantum
Purifiers are the only circuit tweak — if you can call it just a
tweak — that I have ever found to have no downside. The cumulative
effect of using more of them in the system is to move the sound of
the system away from electronic and toward pure music. It is almost
impossible now to imagine going back to how my system sounded a few
months ago — and I was proud of it then. These little devices have
effected more than an improvement — they have truly transformed my
system, giving it a relaxed musicality that I had no way to expect.
Most of us who have very good audio systems learn that you sometimes
don’t know you have a particular shortcoming until you get rid of
it. Prior to the Bybee experience, I would have been irritated to
hear from anyone that my system sounded “electronic.” If on the one
hand my experiences here made me question my perceptiveness, they
also rekindled my fervor — the core audiophile fervor really — for
continuing on to see just how good the system can get.
One criticism of the
Bybee purifier effect that I have heard here and there is that they
detract from the system’s air. Now, as a reviewer, I have been
guilty of talking about air when describing the sound of components.
But the more I think about it, the more I wonder what air really is.
One thing I know is that you don’t get air in a concert hall; in
fact, you don’t usually get much imaging and soundstaging either.
These are really phenomena that relate to the audio experience, not
to live music. My opinion is that the air that disappears after the
application of Bybee purifiers is really just a kind of quantum
noise, a subtle electronic haze that has nothing to do with music.
And its absence in my system causes me no distress; I would rather
have my system sound more like the real thing. I know, that’s what
everyone wants, at least theoretically, but I can’t help wondering
how many audiophiles listen to enough live music to really make the
judgment. (Well, that should be enough to generate a few angry
potshots.) But for the open-minded and open-eared, the Bybee Quantum
Purifiers offer a window into a new level of listening pleasure.
Max J. Westler
South Bend, Indiana
Dear Jack Bybee,
Though it’s now over ten years old, my system was pretty close to
“state of the art” for someone who has to work for living, and I
haven’t had the inclination or the money to buy any of those
glamorous and super-expensive components I read about in audiophile
magazines. This, of course, has made me a sucker for tweaks — any
oddball gimmick that promises “dramatic improvements” at minimal
cost. While some of those tweaks have proven to be effective, others
have not worn so well. A few years ago, I tried (on the advice of a
wise friend) a pair of Bybee interconnect filters, and unlike so
many of the other tweaks I had tried, these really made a
considerable difference: smoothing out my sometimes too-aggressive
upper-end, further clarifying my mid-range, and extending the bass.
When I asked my friend how and why these things worked so well, he
only smiled rather cryptically and said, “Better listening through
quantum physics.” I was so impressed that I scraped up the cash to
acquire two more sets of the interconnect filters as well as a set
of speaker filters. At that point, I could not imagine getting any
better performance out of my excellent but aging equipment. I guess
I should have known better…
Late last year, this
same helpful, ever enthusiastic friend volunteered to install the
in-board Bybee filters I had been anxious to try since I first heard
about them. After a long afternoon’s labor, he had put those devices
(now called Quantum Purifiers, he said — the term filter suggested a
trade-off, giving up something in order to gain something) in my CD
processor, pre-amp and amp, and also my speakers. Even my happy
experience with the original products did not prepare me for what I
was to hear once the inboard Purifiers had gone through a few hours
of break-in. For one thing, the speakers disappeared, and all at
once I was hearing the orchestra from the first row of the first
balcony of the concert hall my listening room had now become. Even
in the thickest orchestral passages, I could distinguish between
first and second violins, violas and cellos, cellos and basses,
basses and double-basses. I could place exactly where the winds were
sitting in relation to each other, could clearly register the
particular timbre and color of each of the brass choirs, even at
full cry. At quiet moments, I could hear chairs creaking as
musicians shifted their weight, the conductor swaying on the podium,
the clicking of a solo clarinet as it was being played. The Bybee
inboard Purifiers have restored not only the lustre and immediacy of
the sound, but also the sheer physical, heart-thumping excitement I
experienced when I first heard this system all those years ago. God
bless you, Jack Bybee.
Leonard Norwitz (formerly, Audio Note USA)
San Jose, California
Web Site:
www.lensphoto.com
Every component or
gadget I’ve ever tested intended to address the problem of noise and
other signal irregularities, came with bad news along with the good
– most commonly resulting in a compression of dynamic response. Jack
Bybee seems to have come upon a device that works.
Bybee Technologies
is located about an hour’s drive from me, making it easy to have
many auditions. Little by little I came to understand what effect
his devices have on audio performance – though I still don’t know
why they work. In two years of listening in a variety of components
and systems, I have observed no downsides to Bybee devices (except
that they can require as much as 200 hours to break in, depending on
the nominal current.)…
Shortly, Jack Bybee
will no longer make his outboard plug-ins components available to
the consumer. Instead, he will have a small number of types of
devices intended for use within speakers and amplifiers, where still
better results obtain, to say nothing of the improvement in
neatness. Depending on the component and function, a manufacturer
could use from two to ten of them in various places – e.g. in
speakers at the drivers; or in preamps, converters, and amplifiers
in both the signal path and the power supply.
A while back, I
auditioned two otherwise identical 300B-SE amplifiers. The stock
unit was priced at $6,000. The amplifier modified with Bybee
stabilizers (ten of them) would have retailed for about
$8,000-8,500. The level of improvement was nearly as impressive as
substituting silver wound transformers for the standard copper. Such
improvement would have cost ten times more in the case of an Audio
Note amplifier.
Until then, I had
satisfied myself in my own system with Bybee devices only on the AC,
but have since experimented with their use at the speaker driver
(Audio Note Model 2/SE) and at the input of the amplifier (Audio
Note Ankoru) and preamplifier (Aesthetix). Each time, there was a
similar clarification of the signal, an integration of harmonic and
dynamic presentation, and a pushing back of the noise.
In the case of the
speaker, there was a most unexpected result: the drivers began to
cohere as if they were one driver! The astonishing evidence of the
value of Bybee stabilizers is that if you place them in series,
things get better, not worse – even in the signal path! This flies
in the face of everything we believe we know and understand about
audio, but such is the case, I kid you not.
Stephen Dull
Calgary, Alberta
The Bybee thread is
getting a bit long, but wanted to post my experiences with them as
these are the only truly NEW class of device to come along in some
time.
Furthermore, my
background is in Physics, so I have a bit of ability to understand
what Jack B has really done here.
First a bit of
background: The devices are installed in my AUDIO ONLY system. This
system is designed for very high musicality and emotive power. I’ve
put it together over the last year, and it consists of: Platine
Verdier turntable Pink Triangle Litural CD Joule Electra LA100 pre &
phono High Fidelity Eng Zen Triode monoblocks Avantgarde Audio Duo
speakers PHY-HP wire This is all run on symmetrical AC power (+/- 60
volts) via a 5kva isolation xformer – no other conditioning at this
point. All is installed in a stand with pneumatic isolation for each
component. I believe this setup is very dynamic and revealing – it
will play to 115db easily in a large space, yet reveal very small
shadings & nuances in the music. Most importantly it tells my WHY
the musicians are there, not just what they are doing…
Bybee
Experiment
It is important to understand that the devices are a new type –
unlike all other approaches so far. Without going into a long
technical description, suffice to say that these really do “purify”
the signal (the only device to truly qualify for this metaphor – all
others simply filter, which is inherently frequency dependant).
When electrons pass
through conductors they “hit” the structure of the conductor, which
causes noise (quantum noise). Minimizing this structure is one big
reason “single crystal” wire works.
It turns out there
are two types of electrons in the world, one type which tends to
“hit” less. The Bybee filter tends to trap the ones that hit and
eliminate the noise. Thus the devices really do filter out the
“noise” that builds up WHENEVER THE SIGNAL PASSES THRU A CONDUCTOR.
This means the devices are best used at major impededance changes,
and after longer “runs” of conductor, e.g. at the speaker drivers.
Other good places are at the preamp & amp in and the power entry to
same.
At each point they
remove the “built up” noise. They also have the effect of reducing
the reactivity of the load (a good thing).
Knowing all this, I
installed 8 devices in the Duos. Jack B indicated that break in was
lengthy; however the benefits were apparent immediately. The overall
effect was like moving up to the next more expensive speakers in a
line. More definition, more “hear into,” more detail. The background
was blacker/quieter. Bass seemed to have a bit more definition. The
magnitude of this effect was substantial (as these things go) –
perhaps in the same areas as putting in a good power conditioner, or
going to a MUCH more expensive tone arm.
An across the board
“cleaning up” rather than a frequency-dependant effect. Very little
on the minus side.
One friend with a
good ear, but a tendency to like “hi fi” sound thought the
soundstage was a bit diminished, and that the “bite” of Violas was a
bit reduced. Really so or was this bite an effect of the added
noise? Don’t know. But for myself, the Bybees are one of the few
virtually unqualified improvements I have made to the system.
In so many other
cases things are “different” but not necessarily better – or
alternatively improve one thing but hurt another. The Bybees are an
across the board improvement . Speaker mfgrs are you listening? A
bybee upgrade is at least as valid as options on internal wiring. I
have experimented with various tweaks a lot, but only with stuff
that I understand, and hence know WHY it should improve the sound.
