Has any audiophile gizmo ever got a bad review?

Sorry, but Excel and Multiplan were concurrent with multiplan being Microsoft’s DOS offering and Excel being on the Mac. Excel didn't move to the PC until later v2.0. There were actually quite a few of us running CP/M via Z80 cards in our Apple II’s. CP/M stuck around for quite awhile on the strength of Wordstar and Supercalc, though dBase was the killer app for CP/M.

For home use, it would be years before Microsoft released an app with the simplicity, power and flexibility of AppleWorks. Even then, they finally released Microsoft Works, basically copying much of the functionality of AppleWorks.

The 5MB hard drive I mentioned actually came out in 1981 for the AppleII. My first Apple was the //c in 1984. I cold not afford the Mac. The little //c, 9” green monitor, and an Imagewriter was $2500. It was the first instance of a theory I have held ever since that the computer you REALLY want is always $2500. That number has been pretty solid for me for over 30 years.

 

I'm agnostic about this guy. At least he shows photos of what is inside his products - and they are all very nicely made, whatever they do. And peering at the innards suggests they might actually be effective in some way.

However I'm always suspicious of any company that bandies around the word "quantum". Anything of a quantum nature exists in a superposition state whose value is totally uncertain until you measure it. Then it is always in one state or the other - called "collapse of the wavefunction". It applies to small scale things like atoms, molecules, and photons, and very occasionally to groups of such things like a Bose-Einstein condensate.

So using the word quantum as a descriptive term for anything in audio is pure bovine ordure.

 

Did someone say "Jack Bybee"?

Bybee Technologies LLC - Innovative Audio and Video Upgrade Products

You can read the reviews.

Product Reviews- Bybee Technologies

 

This quackery is reminding me of the KEF Hydro Blaster. The only difference is that this was done as an April Fool's Day joke, while the other folks are apparently serious about their products...

 

Yeah. The infamous Jack Bybee. Earlier versions of his site says he invented them when designing electronics for submarines, but he seems to have gone silent on that now.

He claims that the new Quantum Purifiers use Spintronics (what nonsense) and follows that with this scientific mumbo jumbo "In short, our new technology is energized by surrounding energies and then creates an electric and magnetic field of force. In this electric and magnetic field, the polarity of all electrons and protons are altered, affecting their oscillation by making them more aligned with each other. This reaction creates an affect that makes the transfer or sharing of electrons between atoms more streamline and efficient; and air molecules less resistant."

Alternatively using an on-line technobabble generator, and a bit of editing gets

"Our new power purifier is based on a radical new technology. It has a phase-locked envelope-tracking resonance subsystem incorporating quasi-orthogonal synthesized advanced-enabled current-sources. The interconnected intelligent feedback uses a partially truncated, but an otherwise freely enabled circulator. The jitter-free module uses several linear incremental sensors driving the phase-noise matrix."

Which makes as much sense as Bybee's random words in a sentence.

 

No, Multiplan was released on the Mac, having already existed on the PC, it was later renamed as Excel.

Naturally Excel had to wait for the PC to have a graphical user interface before migrating to the PC.

I had Wordstar from version 0.95 on my 8080 based CP/M Processor Technology SOL 20, which I built in 1977. Used Supercalc and dBase also. I had dual 8" Micromation floppy drives with 250k on each disk.

I did buy an Apple II and bought the Z80 card, hoping for a lower cost alternative than the CP/M machines, but for many reasons, it turned out not to be a workable solution for my business applications.

Appleworks was a standard on the Apple II, being released in 1984 and on the Mac in 1991.

As far as Microsoft is concerned, everything graphical that they did, they copied from Apple, who copied the idea for a graphical interface from Xerox.

When the graphical user interface came in to the business market via the IBM PC's, Lotus 123 went away, along with Word Perfect, which had became the predominant business word program under DOS, in favor of Word and Excel.

I had bought a couple of IIc's for my friend's children. It was a really nice machine, being self contained.



Before the IIc, an Apple II was expensive, once you added everything you needed, the first 90k floppy and card was $900 adding a 2nd floppy was another $600.

 

It's hard to believe how 'space age' this looked back in the day!

 

To answer the OP: Yes but rarely.

 

In an ideal world - reviewers would be "assigned" products to review. Richard you get Magnepan - Fred you get Krell - etc etc.

And regardless what we write it gets printed and regardless what is said - we get the next iteration of the amp to review - all the products are in a hat and are drawn at random as to which reviewer covers the item. Blind and no negative impact to the magazine - magazine goes under jobs are on the line. So no matter the BS about Chinese walls that's the reality. I was told that Stereophile operates like this but of course it is total BS - If it were true why does Art Dudley always get Shindo and Audio Note and no one else - because he LIKES Shindo and Audio Note. Krell goes to the Krell lovers. So they choose the stuff they like just like every other magazine print or e-zine. Hell if you are as mighty as Magnepan you can even manage to get a review without measurements even though measurements are supposed to be a guarantee no matter the protestations of the manufacturers - but hey...whatever.

I was on a path to becoming a movie critic - don't be fooled - a lot of critics are flown out to see films wined and dined and give the glowing reviews. Indeed, Sony was caught hiring people to review and shill their movies. Reviews will have no effect on the mindless action/marvel films but on certain kinds of movies - the big reviews will get people to say - hey such and such got 2 thumbs up from Siskel and Ebert - 2 thumbs down and that could kill an independent. Rottentomatoes probably helps because it is harder to buy off a large number of people. And Ebert and Siskel were a cut above because they were actual journalists not just reviewers and had good salaries and were wealthy enough that a free bottle of wine would not sway them.

Here is the other point I would make which is kind of a truth about audio gear - the non silly stuff - you know speakers, amps, sources. These companies employ people - if a negative review could put people out of business that is not a responsibility I want when it is based LARGELY on a subjective opinion. Giving a bad review to a Tom Hanks Steve Spielberg movie - no one is losing a living on this.

And the problem with audio is that every component takes a signal and outputs a signal - it reproduces music - even the Bose Wave Radio! And as much as everyone makes fun of the Bose it does recreate music better than a $3 radio and Radio Shack - and if the thing is built well and it reproduces sound what can you say? I can say - holy cow this thing is way overpriced for the money - OK. But then a lot of people would say all audio components on these boards that we discuss are way overpriced for the money. Some woofers in a box and some wood - and you want $6,000? Are you CRAZY?

Lastly - the negative review. It may seem like a negative review is more credible - it seems that way because there are so few of them so when one comes along everyone gasps and says - well at least that reviewer was honest. Think about that though. Why would that be? Just as reviewers may be corrupt and saying nice things because they get "free stuff" they could also be giving negative reviews because the manufacturer did not "play ball." I have heard rumblings of this about certain reviewers in the past and some on the present.

Rottentomatoes is sort of a consensus review site - and so it is generally a useful thing if the majority of critics who can read, write, and think likes or dislikes a movie - it saves you $20 and a few hours of your time if a movie gets 9% out of 300 critics. I can't remember a single one that was lambasted that I felt was a good movie.

With audio gear - you either
1) Find reviewers who hear it like you or like the same audio camps - are they a SS and Planar magnetic guy like you or are they a horn loving SET amp loving kind of guy which you can't stand.

2) get a consensus like rottentomatoes. Okay that nutty Richard guy likes Speaker X - so let's see if anyone else does - you look around and you say well 8 other reviewers from 8 other publications also like it so maybe there is something to that speaker X

3) longevity - Speaker X has been selling continuously for 25 years! And it's not cheap. You can only fool people for so long so if Speaker X has been selling for 25+ years - regardless of any reviews - the market has deemed it to be a good product. It is therefore worth exploring.

4) You find the Dynamic Duo or The Holy Trinity. If you find it to be the case that Speaker X has met 2 or 3 of the above - speaker X has sold for 25 years - AND lots of reviewers at lots of publications have raved and or bought them AND the reviewer you are generally on board with likes it - then booya - you just found a speaker that is probably a safe blind buy or one that should be on the short list.

 

Nope. Microsoft Windows was originally conceived as a reaction to VisiCorp's Visi On, the first graphical user interface and integrated application suite for the IBM PC, which was demonstrated at the Fall 1982 Comdex computer show. This pre-dated anything by Apple with a GUI, including both the Lisa and Macintosh.

VisiCorp Visi On

 

Like any review site, it still comes down to the opinions of the reviewers. Critics on RT is a largely undefined term and their consensus on any movie can be spot on or completely off base.

Sometimes they rave about completely unremarkable movies or popular movies that I feel are really bad.

Other times they give mediocre or poor reviews to well made entertaining movies.

 

No, IBM did not seek to copy Visicorp's GUI program which nobody used.

Apple came out with the Lisa in January 1983 and the Macintosh a year later.

Windows 1.0 came out in November 1985, which ran on top of DOS on 16-Bit IBM PC's.



Apple copied the idea from Xerox.

"Several people went from SRI to Xerox PARC in the early 1970s. In 1973, Xerox PARC developed the Alto personal computer. It had a bitmapped screen, and was the first computer to demonstrate the desktop metaphor and graphical user interface (GUI). It was not a commercial product, but several thousand units were built and were heavily used at PARC, as well as other XEROX offices, and at several universities for many years. The Alto greatly influenced the design of personal computers during the late 1970s and early 1980s, notably the Three Rivers PERQ, the Apple Lisa and Macintosh, and the first Sun workstations."

"In 1981 Xerox introduced a pioneering product, Star, a workstation incorporating many of PARC's innovations. Although not commercially successful, Star greatly influenced future developments, for example at Apple, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.[4]"

Xerox Star workstation introduced the first commercial GUI operating system (photo below).

 

IBM didn't, but Microsoft did. According to the GUI Gallery, "Bill Gates saw a demo of [Visi On] running at the 1982 Comdex running on an IBM PC. He freaked out because Microsoft didn't have anything like this yet, ran back to Microsoft headquarters, and had them start work on what, several years later, became Windows."

Yes, Apple, Microsoft, and VisiCorp all copied Xerox -- that's why Apple's lawsuit against Microsoft got thrown out of court, because Apple did not invent the GUI.

The first public demo of Microsoft Windows was at the Fall Comdex show in November 1983. The Apple Lisa was already out by then, but it cost $10,000 and was of no relevance to the PC market. The few people who bought Lisas probably also had $10,000 stereo systems back then -- which was a better investment!

 

Sorry - I'm getting confused. I thought this thread was about audiophile gizmos not who introduced a windows GUI system first.

Perhaps it needs a separate thread for that.

 

Every thread eventually becomes an Audio Note UK thread.

 

Thanks for sharing! At least one person who has actually tried a (Uber)gizmo, albeit by chance.

Clearly, the design and production quality were not mature. Curious, though that it did sound good/better than some others.

 

Bybee is only one of countless examples that in high end audio you can literally dream up ANY claim, no matter how ridiculous or obviously suspect, and audiophiles, including reviewers, will find "it makes a difference!"

This is precisely what you get when pure subjectivity is your only standard of "evidence." And just as in astrology, or spirit reading, psychics, or new age healing energies, the reply to the skeptic will focus on the mind-set of the skeptic: "you need to come to this with an open mind! Science hasn't explained everything you know!"

 

Well, I don't think a digital cable is really a gizmo because we all need them. I traded a pure silver Audioquest Digital Pro to my buddy for the Marigo. Yes, it had a liquid, pure quality to the sound compared to my others (MIT, Kimber) connected to an Adcom GDA-700 DAC. Inside the Apparition, there were solid core metal rods literally surrounding the inner conductor. You had to bend it into the exact shape you needed! Then a mesh outer sleeve. It did take quite a few years of cable pulling before I snapped one of those rods while wrestling with it and poof...no signal after that.

 

OK, thanks for the correction.

Sounds like this company does make (also) serious products in spite of the mysterious in the name. One wonders why they would risk their reputation by producing such costly feet and dots.....Or if no one would buy them why having them still in their product line?

 

Actually, the DOTS are about $35 per package for 12 of them. Different types for different components. Cheap enough to try out I guess. I can see how they might be useful on a tonearm to kill resonances. Those 3 feet for $1,500 is off the deep end for sure. They sell the new Apparition cable for over $1k now I see also. Marigo has been around a long time actually.

 

After its initial enthusiasm, I think the crowd turned on Armor-All.

 

I loved my //c. I had the Applied Engineering Z-ram card installed so it was amazingly capable for a self contained machine.

As for Excel, the bottom line is that It was developed with the graphical interface for Apple then released to PC later when their interface caught up. I loved it because it was the first opportunity to develop real applications across platforms.
Appleworks never really worked on the Mac as it was not a good port, Not really on the IIGS which I also owned and was an excellent machine as well. I've pretty much used them all except the early, early PC's. Even had a really early laptop that connected to our mainframe via Modem.

 

The Macintosh is the ultimate Audio Gizmo. Just does everything right, but some will choose to ignore the benefits and write it off as snake oil!!!

 

Use your ears, man!!!! His products affect the polarity of all electrons and protons within their magnetic field, affecting their oscillation by making them more aligned with each other, creating an affect the makes the transfer or sharing of electrons more streamline and efficient!!!!

 

That is what I liked about it. Simple easy to set-up, only the power cord and the monitor cords were external, very clean.

One of the earliest cross-platform applications was Filemaker II. Thought the software itself was unique to the platform, the data files could be read on either platform. It was the first truly GUI functional database for both the PC and the Mac.

I sent one of these to an ex-girlfriend, for her children.

The GS was the first high resolution GUI based machine. It was out when the IBM only had their low resolution graphics and was out before the color Macintosh.

I used to sell the hell out of them to people with children. Educational software on the GS was the most impressive at the time, it blew IBM's away.

It was the first personal computer to have a polyphonic synthesizer chip integral to the machine, provided to Apple from Ensoniq, who made the ESQ-1 synthesizer.

I had one like in your photo at one point, it was my first laptop, I think it was made my NEC?