Per usual I am behind in reading Copper. I am sure most of you have moved on and may no longer be following the comments section in issue 61 of Copper. So I am deliberately posting this under tweaks here.
I felt it important to let you know for those of you who may not live near Princeton or may not attend RMAF. David Janszen, of Janzsen Electrostatic Speakers in Columbus, OH is a Dealer for BAACH. He was nice enough to do a home demonstration for some friends and I several months ago.
Unfortunately, my “Audiophile” friends could not attend. Instead in attendance were my friends a Clinical Psychologist, a Physicist, a Mechanical Engineer, and an Electrical Engineer. I have a well treated room, which has been professionally measured. We used high and low res digital files. We all took turns listening to the device after it was set up customized to our heads and ears. We all noted distinct improvements with experimenting with two different stereo pairs of speakers. We did not use the head tracking software, but the image remained fairly stable and the effect was essentially unchanged.
What we all individually heard was improved localization and clarity of instruments within the soundstage, with each instrument occupying more of it’s own space. The soundstage expanded from right to left and front to back. The soundstage did indeed take on a more 3D effect with certain sounds almost wrapping around you. On some tracks you went from the perspective of sitting in the audience to being on stage with the musicians. Every instrument and note had more of a distinct natural decay, with no digital sounding artifacts. The effect made a woman friend and former musician smile and comment favorably, but did not covert any of my four guests to wanting to be an audiophile.
As much as I respect professor Choueiri’s work and enjoyed the novelty of the BAACH system. I have not purchased it. To do so in my case would mean giving up my PSA DAC, purchasing a laptop computer and the BAACH system to the tune of over $7000. I know that might not seem like a lot of money to some people, but it is to me. The BAACH system never quite made my threshold for a must have break the piggy bank component. I tend to purchase things when they give me a “this sounds so good I got to have it, this is a game changer” sensation. I knew I had to have the Belden Iconoclast OCC cable when I heard them. After hearing them the first time I knew I would someday own a pair of KLH Nines. I now own three pairs. After hearing a single pair of upgraded and modernized KLH Nines in side by side comparison with the original Nines I without hesitation broke the bank . I’m now waiting not so patiently to have mine upgraded by David.
After hearing the BAACH system, it seems more of a tweak in my system then a must have. On some tracks I felt a desire to turn the system off. I did not want the perspective of being on stage and preferred the traditional sound of a good system and good speaker set up. If I was starting to build a system again with more modest components and speakers, without a dedicated audio room, or using it for home theatre. I would consider purchasing the BAACH system, even more so if the BAACH system was less expensive.