Bybee Quantum Signal Enhancer

Introduction

Jack Bybee is no stranger to the world of hi-fi tweaking, and for that matter - controversy. The Quantum Signal Enhancer ("QSE") is different from his Slipstream Quantum Purifiers. The latter is used as in the signal / power chain, while the former can be used simply by proximity.

Description

The QSE is a small device, looking like an acrylic board with it's underside lined with felt. It measures at 4 x 6 inches, and is just a 1/4 inch thick. The board has crystals embedded in it, and the device is claimed to reduce noise and hash.

The QSE can be placed under, or any cable that is carrying power or signal. It can also be placed on top of, or under your components. Cumulative use is possible, but I was only passed one piece to evaluate.

Application

I tried placing the QSE in the various places suggested, including on top of components, over interconnects, and over AC plugs and AC cables. I noticed that the changes in sound take a while to settle, and the best effect was heard after leaving the QSE in place overnight.

The effect can be overwhelming - it did not like being on top of my DAC, placed directly over the power transformer. It did not seem to have much effect sitting in between my power cords plugged into my Acoustic Revive RTP-6 power distributor. No surprise there - the RTP-6 is already chock full of crystals. After some experimentation, the optimal place for the QSE in my system was on top of the power cord - just before entry into the component.

Sound Quality

The most striking effect of the QSE is on the midrange. Vocals are smoothened, and the tonal quality takes on a warmer and more analog like quality. From a staging perspective, the singer moves back a few rows. Bass lines are fuller and wetter, trading off some impact and tightness for bloom. High frequencies lose some aggression in favour of a gentler presentation. On violin pieces, there is less bite in favour of a sweeter and fuller tone.

How effective this works for you depends on your system and desired tonal balance. If you like a very focussed, incisive and more analytical presentation - probably not. If you find your system bright, dry and harsh - this is a god-send, and all for a very modest price. It takes the edge of aggressive recordings and gives the system a more organic presentation.

Conclusion

This is an interesting product that is far more potent than suggested by its small size and modest price tag. Used with a bit of careful thought, this could be a really useful weapon in your arsenal of tweaks.

The review sample was supplied by Mr. K.M. Poon of Horizon Acoustics.

Horizon Acoustics

144 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#03-15 Beauty World Centre
Singapore 588177
Tel : 91259149
Email : poon@horizonacoustics.com
Website : http://www.horizonacoustics.com


Bybee Technologies
Website : http://bybeetech.com/

Price

USD 119 per piece. Please contact Horizon Acoustics for local pricing in Singapore.
  

Sony's Latest Goodies - NW-ZX2 High-Resolution Walkman, MDR-1ABT Headphones, PHA-1A Headphone DAC/amplifier

Sony announced a slew of new products at CES 2015. Here are some of the products announced that are likely to be of interest to readers.

Walkman NW-ZX2

This is the Walkman for the discerning Audiophile. Compared to the preceding flagship model (ZX1), the ZX2 gains DSD support (2.8 MHz and 5.6 MHz).

Specifications

	NW-ZX2
Memory Capacity	128 GB
External Memory	microSD (card not included)
Key Features	High-Resolution Audio playback, S-Master HX Digital Amplifier, DSEE HX (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine), ClearAudio+, Clear Bass, Equaliser, VPT, one-touch listening via NFC and Bluetooth® connectivity
Compatible Audio Formats	MP3, WMA, FLAC (192KHz/24bit), Linear PCM (192KHz/24bit), WAV (192KHz/24bit), AAC-LC, HE-AAC, Apple Lossless (192KHz/24bit), AIFF (192KHz/24bit), DSD (2.8MHz, 5.6MHz)
Battery Life	MP3: 60 hours
	Hi-Res Audio: 33 hours
Charging Time	Approx. 4.5 hours
Operating Platform	Android™ 4.2
Display	4.0 inch FWVGA (854x480) TRILUMINOS™ Display for mobile
Communication Mode	Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b/g/n/a)
Bluetooth®	Bluetooth® (A2DP/AVRCP/OPP/HID/SPP) Supported Codec: SBC/LDAC
NFC	Yes
Included Applications	Media Go (for Windows), Content Transfer for Mac (for Mac OS)
Dimensions (W x H x D)	65.1 x 131.2 x 18.5 mm (excluding max. protruding section)
Weight	Approx. 235 g
Accessories	USB cable, leather carrying case, Spacer (headphones not included)

MDR-1ABT Headphones

Hmm - closed headphones with wireless capability via Bluetooth. The specifications seem to suggest that there is a built in DAC too with a sampling rate of up to 96 kHz.

Specifications

	MDR-1ABT
Type	Closed Dynamic
Driver Unit	Φ40 mm, Dome type (CCAW Voice coil)
Sensitivity	98 dB/mW (1kHz) (when using the supplied headphone cable)
Frequency Response	4 Hz - 100,000Hz (when using the supplied headphone cable) 20Hz - 20,000Hz (44.1kHz Sampling) / 20Hz - 40,000Hz (LDAC 96kHz Sampling, 990kbps)
Impedance	24Ω (1kHz) (when using the supplied headphone cable)
Power Handling Capacity	100mW
Plug	Gold-plated stereo mini plug
Weight (exclude cable)	Approx. 300g
Battery Life (continuous music playback time)	Music playback time: Max. 30 hours Communication time: Max. 26 hours Standby Time: Max. 200 hours
Supplied Accessories	Headphone cable (1.2m), Micro USB cable (0.5m), Carrying pouch

PHA-1A Portable DAC/Headphone Amplifier

The PHA-1A handles PCM sampling up to 192kHz with a maximum of 24 bit resolution. It is quite light and compact, with it's built-in rechargeable battery good for 6 hours of use. 

Specifications

	PHA-1A
Sampling Frequency/Bit	PCM: Max. 192kHz/24bit
Frequency Range	10 Hz – 100,000 Hz
Impedance	8Ω – 600Ω
Maximum Output	Approx. 148mW + 148mW (8Ω, 10% distortion) Approx. 80mW + 80mW (32Ω, 1% distortion) Approx. 16.4mW + 16.4mW (300Ω, 10% distortion)
Output(s)	Stereo mini jack (Only a 3-pole stereo mini plug is supported)
Input(s)	Computer/WALKMAN®/Xperia connecting port, iPhone/iPad/iPod® connecting port
ThBattery Type	Built-in lithium-ion rechargeable battery
Battery Life	Approx. 6 hours
Battery Charging Time	Approx. 2 hours
Dimensions (W x H x D)	Approx. 62 x 18.5 x 109 mm
Weight (Without Cord)	Approx. 145g
Supplied Accessories	Digital cable for WALKMAN®, Digital cable for Xperia®, Micro USB cable, Silicone belts, Protection sheet

Pricing and availability of the above products in Singapore will be announced at a later date. All photos are courtesy of Sony.

Pioneer SP-BS22-LR Speakers

Introduction

There is a high chance you would have heard of the SP-BS22-LR speaker - this speaker has been creating a lot of buzz since it's release.

Designed by Andrew Jones (who spends most of his time designing the delectable TAD speakers), the SP-BS22-LR is a compact 2-way bookshelf speaker. The woofer is a 4 inch structured surface woofer, while the 1 inch fabric tweeter handles high frequencies. This is a bass-reflex design, with the port located on the rear of the speaker.

Nominal impedance is stated as 6 ohms, and sensitivity at 85 db. Frequency response is listed as 55 Hz - 20 kHz (no limits stated).

5 way binding posts are provided, and the crossover is specified as a 6 element crossover. Looking at the photos of the crossover on the internet, this appears to consist of 2 sandcast resistors, one air core inductor, one iron core inductor, one plastic capacitor and one electrolytic capacitor.

Physically, the Pioneer is well built with the boat shaped MDF enclosure feeling solid and much better than suggested by it's price tag.

This is a small speaker, with dimensions of 7 1/8 " (W) by 12 9/16 " (height) and 8 7/16 " (depth) and a weight of 9 lbs and 2 oz each. For the metricised world, that is approximately 18 cm x 32 cm x 21 cm and 4.14 kg.

Coming back to the price tag, this speaker retails for the shockingly low figure of USD 129 per pair. If that is not enough to floor you, do be aware that this speaker regularly sells for far less than that, with Amazon offering these speakers a shade below USD 60 when it is feeling especially generous. Based on the bill of materials in this speaker, I am not too sure how Pioneer makes any money on this, especially after taking into account distribution costs and the like.

Herein lies the biggest problem with this speaker - it sells for SGD 399 in Singapore. This becomes a problem for reasons that will be explained later.

Sound Quality

I set up the Pioneer on my partially filled Partington Dreadnought Broadside 24 " speaker stands. The ideal position ended up with the speakers about 6 feet apart, and 2 1/2 feet from the back wall. The speakers were toed-in, firing almost directly at my ears.

The Pioneer was paired with my Gryphon Diablo integrated amp, and hooked up with Acrolink 7N-S1400III speaker cables. The source was my Antelope Zodiac Gold DAC, fed either with a Oppo 103D, or a Mac mini. 

Admittedly, the partnering equipment is not representative at all of what the Pioneer will be used with, but I wanted to see how well the Pioneer could perform, without having to second guess whether the rest of the chain was holding it back.

The Pioneer was fresh from the box, and I gave it a burn-in of 48 hours at fairly low volume, and then a further 3-4 hours at higher than average volumes.

Listening to a variety of music, I was struck by the quantity of bass produced by these tiny speakers. They had a full and warm bass, and sounded much larger than suggested by physical dimensions or driver cone size. Turning up the volume didn't faze these speakers one bit. On the contrary, they really came alive at louder than average volumes.

The grills darkened the sound noticeably, and I did most of my listening with the grills off.

Midrange was smooth and pleasant. This helped temper harsh recordings but smoothed over microdetail such as the vocalist's breathing or subtle voice texture. There was also an occasional touch of nasality, but this was very much dependent on the recording.

I found the treble to be a bit recessed. The information was all there, but with less prominence and presence. On drumwork, the Pioneer emphasized the kick-drum, rather than the cymbals. 

Detail wise, this is a big picture speaker. As an example, Double Bass could be felt and heard, but without the definition of the strings and resonance from the body of the instrument. 

Imaging and staging were done reasonably well, although by absolute standards, soundstage depth was a bit lacking, and imaging specificity could be better.

Moving away from absolute performance, these speakers were a lot of fun to listen to. They sounded big and pleasant, and took a good stab at a wide genre of music. From a value perspective, these speakers are excellent. I can see a lot of these being used in small bedroom setups, or as a replacement to the afterthought speakers supplied with most micro component systems. They certainly hold their own and would likely be competitive with most speakers below USD 250. 

Based on the local price of SGD 399 (that is about USD 300 at time of writing), the value proposition becomes less compelling. You could do a lot worse, but the Pioneer ends up competing with a lot of other attractive options, such as the Usher S-520, or the Monitor Audio BX2 for just a little bit more money. The Usher does sound a lot leaner than the Pioneer, but both the Usher and Monitor Audio have the edge in terms of detail, staging and overall refinement.  

Conclusion

The Pioneer is certainly the finest speaker I have heard below USD 150. However, it is far from perfect, and not the answer to all speaker problems in life.

It is definitely a slam dunk at the prices offered in the United States, but purchasers should be realistic and reasonable as to the performance of these speakers. At local prices, it becomes a bit of a tough call. 

 

The review sample was kindly loaned by Chris L. Thanks Chris !