V15.3 which he installs with stratos definitely enlarges the stage, particularly making it deeper, even without stratos. Or rather when playing materiel which not Dolby encoded. The deeper staging allows each instrument to be more separated. Another thing I get with stratos is more clear articulation with lyrics. Stuff is clear now what I could not decipher over the 50 to 60 years I have been addicted.
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Bruno, Eelco, and Edgar. And of course the wonderful folks at Gryphon. Yummy.
I just ordered Stratos for both my B4M and BACCH-SP adio. I better like it! (LOL)
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@Philip_Gan I had the same observation as @Aubrey re soundstage being even bigger deeper with Stratosā¦ and this is my observation with stereo sources.
I did not trust myself though. What if it only sounded better to me because it sounded differentā¦
Conveniently with the holidays I could rope the family in and test with them ājustā using XTC, and just using XTC+ORC, versus all together as XTC+ORC+Stratos. I turned off the TV, using a monitor on the side, so they could not see which settings I had. And all three together won with everyone.
Whether ORC was on or off was the smallest difference. But ORC on was a winner too.
Note: My music room was a mess for the holidays though since too many family were using the back of my room for storage. I am trying to figure out now if I want to keep all the holiday ornamentation boxes as diffusers or not! The clothing racks and the dumbbells have to go though before I next have a session with Edgar and he asks meā¦ āWhat is that in your room?!ā Luckily he normally only looks at the numbers. And not at my rear as we make the rear speaker filters for Stratos!
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Let me know if you want some test files. Not for keeping of course. Just for test purposes. Or if you buy the Blu-Rays, I can help you with the 7.1.4 file preparation.
I loaded Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trioās A Shade Of Blue for Edgar knowing he would like that. My favourites are New Orderās Movement and Booka Shadeās Movements. Best of The Doors and Rodriguez Jrās Blisss are good too.
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Is v15.3 available for existing 15.0.3 users or is it exclusive to the Stratos upgrade?
Thanks!
Edgar and John installed 15.0.3, and the Nuprime unit earlier todayā¦ we already had Stratos installed.
We bought Stratos to get 7.1.4 Atmos for movies, we use Qobuz / Roon (so weāre not really interested in 7.1.4 music) IOHO/ Apple Music pales in comparison.
The last update (15.2 we believe) really made a nice improvement. 15.0.3 has just a few bug fixes with no sonic difference (like BACCH needs more improvement).
We were hoping that the 7.1.4 Stratos with the Nuprime unit would sound at least as good as our past 7.3.2 system (Onkyo RZ-50 Receiver, w/ GoldenEar speakers and subwoofers).
Before we got the Nuprime unit Stratos could only play 7.1.4 through our Mac Mini using Apple Music or Apple TV. It sounded real goodā¦ so good we bought a new 4k Blu Ray Player.
After Edgar and John got done doing some BACCH magic today we listened to some of their demos they sounded good, but it was music we never listened to before.
After they signed off we put on music from the world famous BACCH Qobuz playlist:
https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/18476652
There was no downside from installing the Nuprime unit to the mix, so stereo music was perfect.
The biggest surprise came when we played an Apple TV 4K movieā¦ It was considerably better than when we played it through the RZ-50 system.
Then we put in a few Blu Ray discs 4K Top Gun Maverick, 4K The Sound of Music, 4K Casino Royalā¦ unbelievable, just unbelievable you have to hear it to believe it!
We were worried replacing our 3 subwoofer system with just using our front 2 speakers (GoldenEar Triton Reference) nope all the bass you could ever want, not bloated, very spacious, you donāt just hear the bass, you feel the bass. The height and surround channels really work. With Stratos if you want more or less volume out of any of the 12 speaker channels you can tweak them up or down with ease. We turned up Top Gun height channels and when Maverick landed in the helicopter at the base it sounded like he was landing on top of our house.
We knew the score / music from movies would be great and we werenāt disappointed.
Now the vocals were truly amazing, when people sang the vocals were spellbinding, when people spoke you could tell depth, height, etc. etc. a true 3D sound pinpointed to exactly where they should be. All the Mrs. could say was OMGā¦ OMG.
To sum it all up, itās the best stereo sound we ever heard from our system, and Stratos produces the best 7.1.4 Atmos surround sound for movies we ever heard from a 4k blu ray disc anywhere at anytimeā¦ all with just 2 speakers!
Just Our Thoughts,
Steve
Equipment Used: Mac Mini-BACCH Stratos-Qobuz-Roon-Muon Pro Ethernet Filter-PS Audio PMG 512 DAC-Decware Zbit-Decware ZRock-Decware 300b Amp-Wathen CryoTone Tubes-18 assorted GIK Acoustic panels-Panasonic UB9000 4K Blu RayPlayer-Apple TV 4K-Puritan PSM156 Power Conditioner-Assorted Stealth and Decware cables, wires and plugs
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I donāt know Philip. Guess this is one you need to check with Edgar.
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Perhaps this is one of the highest validations! 
Oh dear, I think Iām going to have to order it and tell my wife later. My birthday is coming up, so that will helpā¦
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The Mrs. and I already uninstalled the other surround sound system at her request. Carolyn is extremely happy with the move.
Yes, I have a great wife!
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Carousel, just tried setting up myself (IN ANOTHER BIN). This time I did both right and left. I think it a bit more immersive now.
Itās fairly simple to do yourself. Go to stratos, click CALIBRATE, then go down the screen and click on the appropriate speaker settings. Then down again on same screen and click arm and fire the same way.
Head positions for each setting are indicated in the pictogram and in a small text box that pops up.
Hope useful.
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@Aubrey Thanks for the impetus! I copied the bin with Edgar filters to my least favourite other bin and played from there. Front right virtual barking dog is right where it should be now. Was interesting to see that the real cat ignored the virtual dog.
Was reminded as wellā¦ I had misrememberedā¦ that it is for the centre speaker calibration that one looks at the left speaker.
BTW, looks like I am on 15.0.2, not on 15.0.3. Will write to the generic info-at-theoretica email to find out what is up.
Oh well, see what you guys have done! Iāve just ordered the Stratosā¦
I think Edgar will be busyā¦.
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Curious to see what others might think. Iāve learned about BACCH here and a few other places.
What are your concerns about the apparent reliance on this Edgar fellow?
I think that compared to most audio upgrades, this one requires software setup of BACCH4Mac and TotalMix. The latter is used to route the audio signals received by either the Mac Mini or generated within the Mac Mini to the BACCH4Mac software. If one purchases the BACCH-SP units I think some software is still required. After setting up an appointment, Edgar walks you through the setup and makes sure everything works. He will also create snapshots of important settings. If something changes, updates or if you change the audio interface (most use RME products), you might need help to get it working again. If you donāt change anything, you probably wonāt need his help in the future. As his product becomes more popular and when he is at audio shows, his available time becomes more limited. The software has been improved to have auto settings for the most popular RME audio interfaces.
I recently changed to a different RME interface and it took me about a week of tinkering before I got the routing to work with the new device. I asked by email if Edgar could help me and he called when I was out. He sent an email saying he would call back that day as soon as he got another window. However I never received a call back or an email to set up an appointment. I finally figured it all out today 9 days after I sent my email. My case is probably unusual because most people would not change their audio interface.
I think that Edgar is trying to make sure that it works perfectly for each customer after purchase. This is very special customer attention and I think it works well. Whether his time will be as available in the future is what some are concerned about. He has also answered my emails rather quickly whenever I had questions that he could answer via email. Hope this helps.
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I probably have been using BACCH longer than anyone else here. Some times I feel I need Edgarās help and he isnāt available. Strangely enough, when I need him the most I get him. The single most important thing I can say is if you have an uncontrollable desire to tweak, changing settings, adding power sources, changing cables, adding external software, you should maybe stay away. Edgar puts a tremendous amount of thought and care into his products. I am a firm believer in using his products as delivered. I donāt worry about trying to make upgrades or improvements to his hardware and software. This makes it a lot easier to live with his work. Some of you have tried this and that and may disagree with me. More power to you.
I wish Edgar would train someone else to help with support. I wonāt hold my breath. It is something to be concerned with. To all the BACCH users here, anyone who wants out because of this, raise your hand.
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@ganache and @aangen have said it all perfectly!
Knowing what I know, and with all the key person risks that ride on the shoulders of Edgar being a true genius, I still placed my order for the Stratos today.
Anything can happen to any of us at any moment. Itās not breaking my bank and BACCH has given me great pleasure!!
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@christophervalle Same comments from me too.
Some extrasā¦ Edgar seems pretty phone-orientedā¦ at least compared with me. Helps to have WhatsApp on your phone. And Edgar has trained a number of grad students to take some of the installation / support load. Like for Stratos now. But no surprise, good help is not easy to keep. Email addresses are usually āfirst nameā at theoretica though. At least in my experience as a text-based person.
And this group here is pretty excellent as back-up support and/or if only to find out who is already on Edgarās appointment block for the day. If items get involved, private messaging is available here too. I assume, maybe wrongly, most folks here seem to be US-based. Regardless, they seem to be online 24/7!
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My phone number is available for texts. If you are interested, pm me.
I am not on a regular schedule, canāt live that way. So you never know how soon I will see a message. I might surprise you.
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I hope no one thought I was being critical of Edgar. I consider his product the biggest bang for the buck - it transformed my listening experience. I think potential buyers of his products have no idea of how transformative the change is. I just want them to know that it is not a plug and play product like most other audio equipment one buys. The customer support given to properly setup the software in oneās system is beyond what any other company has ever provided to me.
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@Steve08226 by saying 15.2, do you mean 15.0.2? I have 15.0.3, which I suspect some are referring to as 15.3??