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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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In Reply to: RE: bybee purifiers and other products posted by john curl on January 19, 2011 at 15:33:50:
Jack has a most interesting product. While it works in many applications, there are some where it is of minimum use.
For example: It doesn't work following tube rectifiers or a choke based power supply. Those applications are two very important clues as to the nature of its workings. Jack makes no bones about his purifiers being based on superconductor technology. I am certain it is but, I believe, very few of us have stopped to consider that ramification. A superconductor is not necessarily a great voltage conductor but more of a current conductor device.
In the case of the tube rectifiers, B+ voltage is imposed on the cathode, the current source, and the timing of the current and voltage is pretty much simultaneous. Chokes work similarly in smoothing any current/voltage time lag.
Where the Bybee purifiers seem to work best (in my experience), is after transformers, where it is a known fact that the current is lagging behind the voltage by about 90 degrees. The Bybee, I believe, is acting there much like a power factor corrector: the slight resistance retards the voltage while the ceramic element accelerates the current.
The appropriate application of Bybee purifiers lies where ever there are large inductances being induced, creating a phase shift between current and voltage: voice coils, transformers, crossover inductors generally benefit greatly from a purifier placed following them. Indeed placing them on driver leads directly seems to benefit the woofers more than tweeters, but then the inductors always seem larger for woofers than for tweeters (if they have any).
One thing about a device like the Bybee purifiers is that it exposes weaknesses elsewhere in the system. One must be very aware of that fact.
My first application of the purifiers where in a PS Audio regenenerator. Some things got better (midrange detail) but there was an annoying upper register glare. In listening and waiting for the break in to complete, I then remembered I had that same glare when I had changed a few tubes in my preamp (CJ Premier 17), but toned that down with a change of interconnects. Going back to the older IC's and tubes cured that glare. I then started expanding the Bybee application, placing them in my tube preamp B+ supply (solid state PS, and a solid improvement overall), then the power amp B+ supply (QS Monoblocks). I went back and placed them into the PS Audio B+ supply for even further improvement.
Again, it didn't work at all in the heater power supply, and not surprising since the current/voltage lag there has minimal effect on the audio signal. In a CD player, again the B+ voltages need be treated first, even the 15/8 volt power supply which often is used to power the DAC chips and opamps. On a DVD/blu ray player like the Oppo, that installation made the owner proclaim that his DVD's had a picture quality close to his blue ray discs (his words, not mine, as I didn't really do a visual comparison).
Placing them in the signal path had very limited improvement, at least until the B+ supplies were upgraded first. While probably many have tried his add on RCAs, and speaker cable leads, their performance increase pales in contrast to placing the units in the B+ circuit first.
As a corollary to the ground control tweaks, although Jack first recommended the purifiers be placed only the positive leads, I find that it is imperative to place the purifiers on the negative leads also. The placement on the positive tends to skew the tonal balance upwards, placing a purifier on the negative restores the balance in the lower region. Jack now recommends that a purifier be placed on two legs.
Stu
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Follow Ups
- RE: bybee purifiers - unclestu 16:46:47 01/19/11 (0)
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