What about Bybee Filters?

I have been experimenting with the bybee filters for the past 3 weeks and my experience has been quite unsettling. I had my perpetual tech. p3a and monolithic sound modified by Modwright 3 weeks ago. I had the level II upgrade and power supply upgrade (in addition I had bybees placed on analog outs on DAC and purchased another pair for my tweeters). Upon first listening something was completely out of wack, my system though smooth was utterly uninteresting.
I decided to remove the bybees from the analog outs on DAC. What a difference! I believed transparency had returned to its pre- mod state. I listened to my system in this configuration (bybees on AC ins on Monolithic and tweeters) for a couple week, still it seemed something was missing, the emotional involvement just wasn't there (even to pre modified configuration). Finally a couple days ago I removed the bybees from my tweeters, air and ambience returned as well as my emotional involvement.
At this point I am very happy with my system (bybees still on Monolithic AC ins), all the good things others say about monolithic mods are there, but I'm now considering taking the bybees out of the monolithic. IMO there is some masking of detail and/or transparency with bybee filters and it is also additive. Perhaps 1 pair are good, but 2 are not necessarily better. Quality of AC may be important as well. I have done much to improve the quality of my power (dedicated circuits, upgraded power outlets, ps audio ultimate outlets, PS300, segregated digital and analog, power cords) and perhaps the additive effects of bybees makes things worse. My recommendation for those considering bybees is be careful, buy 1 pair at a time and listen closely as each pair is added. I believe they are best on AC ins and much less useful, perhaps harmful elsewhere. Of course your milleage may vary. Also you may want to read what others have said concerning bybees at some of the other forums.

that's consistent w/ what i've heard. on AC, a no brainer, but elsewhere it might not be an improvement...then again, it might.
rhyno

Sns, I'm sorry to hear that you had trouble with the Bybees. I've heard these accounts from others, but I did not experience the same result. Mine work great. My system is ultra revealing. It consists of a Sony DVP-S9000ES SACD/CD player direct input to a David Berning MicroZOTL with NOS tubes running direct to single-driver Fostex TL speaker system. This system has huge amounts of "air" and detail. If I lost any with the Bybees, I sure didn't notice it. I specifically payed attention to air, detail, soundstage, imaging, and musically emotional involvement, as these are things I read about before trying the Bybees out. These are the only pair I ever heard, but I like them. With the inclusion of the Bybees, all I have between the output tubes and the drivers is 3 meters of speaker cable(and now the Bybees). I don't know why some systems respond differently than others. It seems strange. The ones I got were the discontinued ones with the Nordost SPM cable pigtail and Cardas spades and Cardas Gold binding posts.

I am very happy with the old style Bybees in my system. So happy in fact, that I use them on both ends of most of my ICs and speaker cables ( here reverse phase on the amp end ). I tested them first by simply adding them to just one channel ( got the idea from TAS) and found, that the soundstage somehow shifted to the channel that was "bybeeized" and the difference was not subtle. I found no change in transparency, also no change in the soundstage with both channels modded, the highs and lows were the same as before, but the entire musical rendering seemed more lively, transients were better defined, voices seemed more lifelike. Where I could not discern any difference in performance were the AC filters. So generally I had a very positive impression and I've kept them in my system.

As far as the internal bybee mod is concerned, I think one has also to test the hypothesis, that some of the detrimental effects described above, could well be caused by sloppy soldering as well. Just a thought. Cheers,

After a couple of days of marathon listening sessions, I have concluded that the Bybees(at least the ones I have) are everything they are advertised to be. This pertains to the Bybee Ultra Quantum Speaker Filters with Nordost SPM Reference tails, Cardas spades, and Cardas gold posts. In my system, there was no down side. The best way for me to describe what it was like, is that everything seemed to get "broken-in" all at once. That smoothing out you get after break-in of a component, is kind of like what happens. The level of smoothness is killer, with all the air, detail, dynamics, layering, frequency balance, naturalness, emotion, and everything still there. IMHO, they are worth every penny spent.