BYBEE QUANTUM SIGNAL ENHANCER

My wife affectionately calls me “Tweakman.” I am a passionate advocate of the many benefits that happen when you tweak a room and/or a component. Tweaking can create huge sonic improvements on an audio system – regardless of its price or performance.

My quest for new approaches to extract more musicality from my audio system led me to a collaboration with my friend Ben Piazza and resulted in our co-invention of the Shakti Hallograph. This powerful passive room tuning device helps create a wider, deeper, more natural and musical soundstage. It’s very success tells the story (15 years and counting). In the beginning, Ben and I would go to CES and do live demos with a pair of the Hallographs, putting them up and down without stopping the recording. Most people were amazed at how powerful a transformation we made with our device. They just made everything come to life with more musicality.

Back to the Future….  

I  remember the day my buddy Clement Perry showed up at my house and insisted I try a pair of Jack Bybees’ Golden Goddess Speaker Bullets he showed me. I hooked them up to my Apogee Stages’ speaker terminals and listened. Everything sounded very different and it left me unsettled. I took them out of the system and listened again. Then I put them back in and I knew I could never live without them. They just made the music sound more natural. They pulled out noise I had assumed was mainly coming from sub-par CDs.

I realized that tweaking my audio system would be a long ongoing process to properly deal with the insidious noises that continue to undermine its performance. It was chockfull of resisters and capacitors, circuit boards all hooked up with long runs of speaker wire, interconnects and AC powercords necessary for turning  the endless stream of electrons into the music radiating out of my loudspeakers. Unfortunately, the very circuits and long runs of wire that make everything work, also act like giant antennas, pulling in various types of distortions. The circuit boards themselves are also generating fields that create their own noise. These contaminating fields can prevent any system from reaching its full potential, no matter how well components and speakers are designed and engineered. A  good AC conditioner is  important but  it doesn’t completely deal with all the issues. A power conditioner is a good step forward but it’s just the first step.

Bybee Quantum Signal Enhancers (herein Enhancers) are thin, lightweight and extremely powerful. Measuring a mere 4”x6” long, 1/8th” thick and finished in a shiny black lucite. Embedded inside the Enhancers however is Jack Bybee’s remarkable new Crystal Technology (the same technology used in his and exciting AC powercord reviewed). Russell Lichter goes great length in an attempt to explain the Crystal Technology in his excellent review of the Bybee Crystal AC powercord (here).

Jack Bybee’s background in quantum physics enables him  to solve problems in a unique way and create devices that truly push the boundaries in audio noise reduction technology. I decided to add these Enhancers one at a time to my system which was already tweaked out with an arsenal of devices like the Stein Harmonizers, Novum Resonators, IPC Energizers, Shakti Stones and Hallographs, Bybee Speaker Bullets and more. I chose to begin my experiment with 5 Enhancers which I felt was a reasonable number and would show their capabilities.

I put my first Bybee Enhancer under my PS Audio DSD DAC. The Enhancer created a noticeable  improvement to the sound that went way beyond its $119 asking price. I put the second one under my Wells Audio Innamorata stereo amplifier. And again, I heard an increase in musicality and image clarity with less grain and more natural harmonics.

I placed the third Enhancer under my Bybee AC Conditioner. This particular placement seemed to provide – what is already an extremely good conditioner – even better dynamics and resolution. Excited, I placed the 4th and 5th Enhancers one under my speaker cables and this resulted in an overall quieter and musical presentation. All this for $599! I would certainly qualify this a bargain!

I decided  to test the 5 enhancers on my friends system which is much less tweaked out than mine. We placed the first  one under his Sim Audio Moon stereo amplifier and sat down to listen. We both felt it took some noise out of the system while providing slightly greater depth to the music. He remarked that it was  not a dramatic improvement but  it was certainly a bargain for the results we achieved with just one Enhancer. The 2nd one went under his PS Audio PWD DAC.

Now things were getting interesting!

We listened to Diana Krall’s  “Girl in the Other Room” CD. Her voice became more dimensional, then we put in the 3rd and 4th Enhancers against the crossover networks of his Apogee Duetta loudspeakers.  We were both wowed by the increase in soundstage depth and the overall naturalness that enveloped Diana Krall’s  voice.  It was as though a veil had been lifted. A 5th enhancer went  under his Audio Research Preamp and this addition took the system up another noticeable notch. The improved sense of quiet gave greater contrasts and of course this lent to greater dynamics  and still further clarity. Once situated with all five Enhancers in his system, my friend was impressed beyond measure that these small,  light-weight and inexpensive devices could make such an improvement to his system.  Of course, like all of us, he was heartbroken when I had to take them home with me (of course, he hurriedly ordered a replacement).

The beauty of the Bybee Quantum Signal Enhancers  is that they work almost anywhere you put them in your system. And they’re affordable! The remarkable improvements they make can be used to enhance your system whether modest or  state of the art. I highly recommend the Jack Bybee Quantum Signal Enhancers.

 david caplan