November 18, 2014
-
Tale of Two Bybees, Part 1
This installment will cover two versions of the “Bybee” Nano Reference Golden Goddess power cord. The reason for the quote marks around Bybee is due to the fact that the provenance of these two cords is not certain.
The Bybee cord terminated with Oyaide M1/F1 connectors was purchased first in February, 2014. After some conversations with the seller post-purchase I learned that in fact the cord had been assembled from parts purchased from Bybee and put together by an audio salon that carried Bybee products. The cord terminated with Acrolink Carbon Fiber connectors was purchased in August, 2014. This cord was purported to be a prototype model subsequently purchased by the original owner who also happened to be an audio reviewer.
Fit and finish of the M1 power cord is what would be expected of an upper echelon product. The CF terminated prototype model, on the other hand, looks like a prototype.
The cords employs quantum physicist Jack Bybee's Golden Goddess filtering technology embedded in a carbon fiber tube selected to reduce noise and the impact of vibrations.
The photographs below depict various aspects of the two cords.
Oyaide M1/F1 Connectors
Close-Up of Carbon Fiber Barrel
Close-Up of Cord
Bybee Nano Reference Golden Goddess CF
Close-Up of Acrolink Female Connector
Close-Up of Acrolink Male Connector
Carbon Fiber Barrel
The cords were originally purchased with the thought in mind that they would hopefully augment the efficacy of the Bybee Large Gold filter housed in my Audio Excellence AZ Power Wing II. In addition, the contemplation was that the filtering technology of the Bybee cords would be a natural match with noise prone/producing digital source components. Thus, the two cords were utilized on my Oppo BDP-105D universal player and Olive O3HD media server.
I was also curious as to what, if any, differences could be attributed to the Oyaide M1/F1 connectors versus the Acrolink CF.
So, how did the sound? That will be covered in the next installment.
Comments (2)
Excellent job! I wonder if these can be Cooked. Once in a while, there's a product (such as Tara Labs' power strips), which won't pass the Cooker's signal. Three's never any harm to the product or the Cooker. The latter merely indicates (well, the LED remains unlit) that signal isn't being passed.
Thank you.
I guess the question as to whether they could be cooked would be one for Alan. I know he cooked the R-1 outlets in the Power Wing II but I'm not sure if that was done while the PWII was assembled or if he did them individually. If it's the former then I guess they could be since the PWII contains a Bybee Large Gold Bullet.