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Power Conditioners Electric Bamboo AC Line Purifier
Power Conditioners Electric Bamboo AC Line Purifier
Power Conditioners
| Electric Bamboo AC Line Purifier |
| Written by Jason Victor Serinus |
| Wednesday, 29 October 2008 17:00 |
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Page 5 of 5
Conclusions This leads me to postulate why some people like the Electric Bamboo as much as they do. If interconnects, source components, and/or speakers tend toward the bright and edgy, my hunch is that the Electric Bamboo may very well make a system sound “better” than power conditioners that do not filter the sound as much as the Electric Bamboo seems to do. But in a system whose components and interconnects are basically balanced and listenable from the get-go, the Electric Bamboo may very well have a negative effect. I would also venture to guess that folks who have low-powered SET amps and/or speakers that tend to be strongest in the midrange rather than on high or low may be pleased by the warmth the Electric Bamboo can impart to the midrange. Similarly, those with Class D amplifiers that tend to blanche the sound may appreciate the homogenizing warmth the Electric Bamboo lends to the sound. Finally, I note that my speakers not only have Bybee devices in them, but also use external Bybee Golden Goddess speaker bullets. The combination greatly lowers the noise floor, enabling me to hear details that other systems mask. The more I can hear to begin with, the more I notice what is altered or taken away. JASON VICTOR SERINUS REFERENCE SYSTEM Digital Front End Theta Carmen II CD/DVD transport Theta Gen VIII Series 2 DAC/Preamp (Benchmark USB DAC-1 when Apple Titanium Powerbook is in use on the main system) Amplification VTL 450W tube monoblock prototypes with KT-88 tubes Jadis DA-7 Luxe with GE 5751 Jan and Jan Philips 5814A tubes and cable from Pierre Gabriel Loudspeakers Talon Khorus X speakers MK. III (with latest upgrade and Bybee Quantum Noise Purifiers) Bybee Golden Goddess Super Effect Speaker Bullets Cabling Nordost Valhalla single-ended and balanced interconnects Nordost Valhalla balanced digital interconnects Nordost Valhalla bi-wired speaker cable Nordost Valhalla Power Cables Elrod EPS-2 Signature power cables Power Nordost Thor Power Distribution System IsoClean or other audiophile grade fuses in most components Dedicated line for system Analog Clearaudio Emotion turntable with Satisfy arm Soundsmith “The Voice” phono cartridge Benz MC-Gold phono cartridge Classe 6 phono preamp with better umbilical cord Symposium Platform under turntable Accessories Finite Elemente Cerapuc supports Ganymede ball bearing supports Michael Green brass Audiopoints Audiophile grade fuses in all equipment. Acoustic Resonators Michael Green Deluxe Ultrarack, Basic Racks and Corner Tunes Shakti stones on transport, DAC, amps, etc. Four Shakti Hallographs Echo Buster and Corner Busters Bedini Quadra Beam and Dual Beam Ultraclarifiers Marigo Signature 3-D Mat v2; Ayre demagnetizing CD Various CD sprays Main System Room Dimensions Living room is 24.5’ deep, 21.4’ wide in the listening area. It’s big enough to accommodate 16 members of the Bay Area Audiophile Society, positioned in four rows of four seats each. The distance from the front door to the end of the dining room is 37’. Sound extends far to the left and right of the speakers thanks to an 8.33’ wide archway into the dining room opposite the right channel speaker. Ceilings are 9’ high with heavy wooden crossbeams, each 17” in height. Heavy curtains cover windows behind the sound system. Floors are hardwood and carpet in front of the system, and hardwood elsewhere. Walls in the living room are a combination of plaster and wood, with a large granite fireplace in the rear. The dining room is all plaster. There is RoomTune and Echo buster treatment in corners, and either an Echo Buster or heavy tapestry at the two side wall first order reflection points. Comments (18)
Premier's
written by R Willis , October 31, 2008 What are your comments about PS Audio's PPP? I know that this is a review about the Bamboo unit, but you did mention that it was used.
The Power Plant Premier
written by Jason Victor Serinus , November 01, 2008 Hi. Because I am not ready to write my review, I regret that I must keep you in suspense. I certainly would not question anyone who loves the Premier and uses it in their system. Just be aware that many amps suck huge amounts of current, far more than their rated current output. Especially if you have powerhouse monoblocks, and you find that they sound cleaner and smoother with clean power, you may need two PPPs. I have two here, one for each of my VTL 450 watt Class AB monoblocks. I also regret that I'm a slow reviewer. My next review will be of the Theta Gen. 8 Series II upgrade. After that, the PPPs.
Power conditioners
written by Jack Bybee , November 03, 2008 Jason, my licensee to manufacture Bybee products has just completed a totaly new Power Conditioner utilizing some to same technology you currently have in your system, that is removing 1/f noise and puting current and voltage in synch. May I suggest you contact Sam Laufer of LauferTeknik for a review sample..his contact address is: \n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Thanks for the careful and thorough comparisons
written by SM , November 03, 2008 As in a lot of audio accessories, power conditioning is susceptible to a lot of hype. Reviewing a new system by comparing it against well known alternatives, especially with more than one, is very helpful to the reader.
The Electric Bamboo has improved.
written by Michael McNamara , November 04, 2008 I heard this unit at two BAAS events, and I believe that it had improved the second time I heard it(the BAAS event with the ribbon speakers and the Guru speakers). When did you hear it?
Thanks and another comment in favor of comparisons
written by Mark Wieman , November 04, 2008 Hi Jason, I also appreciated the review and thought your method of comparing it to other well-regarded units was excellent. Too many reviewers don't do this, it seems. Thank you for taking the time. Mark Wieman www.dailyaudiophile.com
A reply to Michael
written by Jason Victor Serinus , November 07, 2008 Hi Michael. I believe we were at the same BAAS event. As far as I know, there was no difference between my review unit and the unit used in the demo. In fact, the EB we heard may have been purchased before one was brought to me for review. I would also note that the speakers used in the demonstration have limited extension, and are not the best speakers to use when reviewing a piece of equipment. If you were in one of the rooms at the time I spoke up, you would have heard me say that the timbre of instruments in the orchestral and chamber music recordings I heard was way off. So was Rosa Passos' voice, Ron Carter's bass, etc. Nothing sounded the way it should sound. The tonal envelope was unbalanced, with some frequencies accentuated, some truncated, and others greatly recessed. To what extent the Electric Bamboo contributed to that experience, I do not know. My hunch is that it played a part.
Bybee Power Conditioner
written by Jason Victor Serinus , November 09, 2008 Thanks to Jack's message above, I will be reviewing this unit and comparing it to both the Thor and Power Plant Premier. There are MANY products ahead of it, however. jason
Bybee Power Conditioner
written by Jason Victor Serinus , November 09, 2008 I will be reviewing this unit, and will compare it with the Power Plant Premiere and Nordost Thor. There are many pieces of equipment ahead of it in my review pile, however. jason
Manufactures Comments
written by Dave & Jim from Amazing Audio , November 11, 2008 Please consider the following reasons why we do not agree with Jason’s harsh and negative review of our very competent Electric Bamboo Line Purifier. We are very perplexed as to the reason Jason’s official review was so contrary to his comments during the initial listening session. 1)We listened with Jason for over an hour and heard only positive changes in the music. If our Electric Bamboo did not outperform the Nordost Thor we would not have left it for a review as agreed with Jason. 2)Before we took the EB over to Jason’s we compared it against the Nordost at a respected high end store in the Bay Area. We ran it on very revealing and highly regarded Electrostatic speakers. The Audiophile owner and three of his audiophile friends, one of which is a professional classical musician, were sure after only a short listening time that the Electric Bamboo was far superior. They all said it was like removing a blanket from the speakers. The version that we took to Jason’s had 2 additional significant upgrades and was even a better performing product. 3)Jason mentions that other acquaintances were at his house listening with him but fails to share their opinions. One of those present owns an Electric Bamboo and does not share Jason’s evaluation of it. He in fact is keeping it and selling his new PS Audio Premier, and he will continue to share it at future BAAS events. 4)Everyone (except Jason) who has heard the EB at BAAS events, private homes, high end stores, and professional studios has only said the music definitely sounds fuller, more organic, more 3 dimensional, more detailed, less aggressive and more airy in the high frequencies and correct in the low bass. 5)At the recent Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver this past October we had the privilege to install an EB into several great sounding rooms. Every room that had a line conditioner costing $3000 plus said ours was better without a doubt. In the rooms that had no conditioner they said we wowed them and made their equipment sound fuller and better that ever. 6)We challenged Patrick a recording engineer for Blue Coast Records in Belmont CA to listen to a couple of tracks from their famous Blue Coast Collection in our room at the show and see if we weren’t one of the best playing it back as he had intended it to sound. He took our challenge and said “After hearing these songs in many other rooms, your sound is the best. You are the only ones to keep the important high frequencies and to get them right. The music is clear, clean and just right on the mark. Congratulations for a job well done”. 7)Please do not accept Jason’s evaluations and conclusions as the absolute truth about the performance of the Electric Bamboo. There are far too many talented audiophiles who have come to the opposite conclusions. To settle the challenge between the Electric Bamboo and other great line conditioner’s we invite the music loving community to join us in our quest to prove that the Electric Bamboo is really one of the best line conditioners available. When you purchase one and if you do not truly love it we will give you a full refund including shipping cost (both ways) for an evaluation period of 2 weeks. We truly believe that you will want to keep yours. After your positive evaluation we hope that you will post your thoughts here and on our website.
I'm assuming that...
written by Reverend Chu , November 12, 2008 it's not UL Listed. How's about a picture of the inside?
Level-setting...
written by Bob W , November 14, 2008 Who I am: I organize BAAS events, sometimes listen to music/gear at Jason's, and own an EB Power Conditioner. I was present at one of Jason's many comparative listening sessions assessing the efficacy of the EBPC. I have no affiliation with Amazing Audio or this web site, but I periodically offer my opinions and advice to folks. Why I'm commenting: I feel compelled to set the record straight about my opinions, since those opinions are not accurately reflected above. (I'd rather be listening to Chopin or Counting Crows!) My "real" opinions/observations: 1. I think that the EBPC is an excellent product. I have heard it improve several systems in several venues, sometimes markedly. 2. Like all high-fidelity devices, it is not perfect. For example, in my current home reference system, I do not use it for my Manley mono-blocs. (I am using it to great effect on upstream components.) 3. In the listening session at Jason's house, after the initial rounds of comparisons, I thought that the EBPC was at worst tied for "best" with the Nordost. By the end of the day, however, I gave the nod to the Nordost as the clear "winner." Having said that, there were some differences of opinion about the qualitative impacts of the devices. Welcome to audio! 4. The Nordost Thor performance was good enough for me to consider purchasing one. This fact does not alter the basic goodness of the EBPC. It is more reflective of the compulsion that we all share. 5. Finally, IMO *all* PC's color the sound, just in different ways and to different degrees. Their effects in this regard are usually quite system-dependent. (For one thing, they alter source impedance and the line's FR in different ways.) Therefore, unless you truly have bad line power, the only unequivocal benefit that PC's provide is to prevent your digital components from mucking up your amplifiers. I have found this usage sonically important in virtually all cases. The Nordost and Electric Bamboo are top-of-class, isolating digital hash and sometimes much more. Remember, these are *opinions*. Peace.
Reply to Reverend Chu
written by Dave & Jim from Amazing Audio , November 14, 2008 You are correct it's not UL listed. It is totaly a passive device with a fuse. The entire inside is incased in epoxy. We sorry but the inside is proprietary, no pictures
Additional Manufacture Comments
written by Dave & Jim from Amazing Audio , November 17, 2008 You mentioned in the past that you had problems setting up other audio equipment and had manufactures work with you on speaker setup and placement to no avail. After detailed conversations with acoustical engineers and knowledgeable audiophiles we now believe that your listening environment is not conducive to evaluating audio equipment (hard wood floor in front of the speakers, exposed ceiling beams, etc.) We suspect that you will never get a completely satisfying musical experience from any system regardless of price or quality. We understand why you thought we did not out perform the Nordost Thor and did not make the music super exceptional like we have in other listening environments that were more acoustically correct.
Ridiculous
written by Jason Victor Serinus , November 19, 2008 I stand by my review. I also reject this statement about my room as hogwash. My set-up is at least equal to if not superior to virtually any in store or home demo that I have ever attended in all my years in BAAS. My room has been measured by several people in the industry, all of whom have concluded that it has far fewer problems than other rooms they have measured. You have been to my home several times, including at the Reference Recording demo. That's where you first heard the system, and the Thor, and challenged me put the Electric Bamboo to the test. It's more than a little late to raise this objection.
response to manufacturer comment
written by Tyler , November 20, 2008 This is HILARIOUS! On page one of the review, Jason quoted from a letter from the manufacturer to Jason, stating - We are asking you to please give it a listen and give us your evaluation. You are the first reviewer we have approached because we believe that you have the listening skills to hear the amazing power of the EB and have the uncanny ability to describe in words what this extraordinary component does in a great audio system. We also discovered that you are fearless as to what others think of you honest opinions on an audio product. Funny how after the negative review is passed, suddenly Jason's hearing is leaden and his room is terrible. Just hilarious. Quite frankly, the manufacturer is looking quite silly here...
Manufacturer claims
written by Tyler , November 20, 2008 I'm not going to comment on the review, I just wanted to comment on the manufacturer's spiel on page 2. I have rarely seen such a load of BS. There is so much contradiction and barely concealed lies/falsehood, it made me ill to read it. Qoute - We’re glad that covering it with epoxy works, because it also conceals our secret knowledge. - hilarious! Quote - On the sine wave that transmits AC, you’ve got ghost waves following it that result from other people’s refrigerators and computers. Those little ghost waves are not 60-cycle. If they’re not eliminated, they get into the power supplies of your components, and eventually put a blanket over the sound. - followed by - The problem is that the only way to measure high quality components such as the Electric Bamboo is with the human ear and brain. You can’t put these power conditioners on scopes and measuring tools and say that one will sound better than the other. It’s not possible. - even more hilarious, you can measure these ghost waves (wow, scientific term there) but can't measure the device removing them. Quote - The double-element, 15-amp, gold plated, ceramic body industrial and audiophile grade fuse we use is from Little, a manufacturer who builds appliances for heavy-duty industrial applications. Hence, it is non-current limiting. -- does this genius even have a basic understanding of electronics? A fuse isn't current-limiting? Oh really. Quote - All our metal parts except for caps are cryogenically treated in a proprietary manner that takes several days to do properly. The person we use to do it does a better job than others. - fascinating! I honestly don't see how anyone could think this product is anything other than a cheap bamboo box with some hospital-grade outlets from Home Depot. Since everything is epoxied on the inside, one can't even determine if there is the same level of filtering on a $60 Panamax surge protector or just plain serial wiring. My guess is that the box costs about $100 to make and took about 10 minutes to design. Nice profit margin for THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS.
Snake Oil
written by Eric , December 31, 2008 ...while switching back and forth between two radically different-sounding sets of cables. - Unless one set of cables was 12ga copper and the other was 87ga tin, there is no difference. Sign #1 of snake oil. The EB has eight Hubble star grounded receptacles, four of which are designed for digital, the other four for analog. Plugging an analog component into a digital outlet, or vice-versa, will not yield optimal results. - Electricity is electricity. Unless the voltage is different on the different outlets, they cannot make your system sound different. Sign of snake oil #2. We also tried different woods, and found bamboo the best for absorbing excessive energies that were vibrating around in there. When we’ve put it on brass cones and a slab of maple, and competed it against other line conditioners in showrooms around the Bay Area, it’s been head and shoulders above the rest of them. - Sign of snake oil #3. ...cryogenically treated... - 4 strikes and you're out. SNAKE OIL!!! Write comment
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