You can use Apple Music, Tidal or Qobuz from app on mini.
Edgar can help you with Apps other than Roon.
Hi Darrell,
but do i have to use an app to see the mac on some screen to drive the bacch software or is it not necessary?
Jose,
Use your iPad as a second display for your Mac - Apple Support)&text=pop%2Dup%20menu%20on%20the,Center%20to%20set%20up%20Sidecar.
Thanks 
1 Like
Anyone know how to configure BACCH4Mac to output over Mac USB to a DAC without an interface between? There was a promised second intro video from âBACCH Labsâ four years ago. But said video did not appear.
I have USB out to my DS MK2 as âPrimary Play Interfaceâ on my Mac Mini. It is also the âDevice for audio outâ under âAudio Settingsâ in BACCH-dSP. But I am getting nothing. Other apps play fine. I have them closed too and rebooted a couple times and checked that the other music apps are closed.
Under âAuto Configureâ, I only get âDevice not foundâ messages. Which of course makes sense for the Babyface settings since there is no Babyface here now.
I have an appointment with Edgar onTuesday for Intro setup!
2 Likes
Solution found on ASR to set up BACCH4Mac without an external interface: âYou need BlackHole Loop Back software to re-route the sound on the Mac to the BACCH-DSP. Simply create an aggregate device in the Audio/MIDI Settings with BlackHole + your DAC as sources, set the clock source to your DAC and tickmark drift compensation for BlackHole.â Plus some fiddling with channel settings. I have no mic at present and have output as channels 1 and 2. I expect these will move to channel 3 and 4 with a proper (not by me) setup.
I am glad I donât visit that site.
Here is I simple tip for you: Edgar can easily talk you through any issue you have with a BACCH setup. ASR is pure foolishness no matter what you chose to believe. Trust that Edgar, a true genius, can help you with any question or issue in a simple, you can trust it way. He has some knowledge on all things BACCH.
7 Likes
Well, got some testing I want to do first before the setup phone call. I assume BACCH runs on PCM. Since I have lots of DSD, I tested pushing DSD through HQPlayer as PCM to a 2018 Mac Mini i5, with the Mac Mini running HQPlayer NAA. With the Mac Mini running BACCH at the same time, though, it seemed to choke a bit, glitching. So I might up the RAM from the base 8GB to see if that helps. Is a bit of a pain to open up / rebuild a Mac Mini. Was planning to do a changeover to linear power supply at the same time as upping the RAM. But would have to know I want to keep the machine as the upgrade would cost more than it did⌠350 clams including the external power supply.
You are being a total doofus.
BACCH converts DSD to PCM.
You go ahead and fool around. I called Edgar and we took care of everything in 45 minutes.
My guess is you will be the very first person to find BACCH unacceptable.
1 Like
Not at all. Why so negative?! I like to experiment. Please do not criticize that! Also, I thought you are running Edgarâs hardware. I am just a bit concerned that the discount Apple gear I have needs some help.
A brand new M2 Mini costs $599.
1 Like
OK. I tried again to get DSD through the Mac Mini. This time I used Plex and, boom, it worked! Picture below using a DSD512 source knocked down to PCM 24-96. My reasoning to use an older Intel Mac Mini was to try to get ATMOS to work by replacing the Apple HDMI drivers with different Windows drivers. No luck with that yet though. That a search for Tidal on the Apple App Store does not turn up the Tidal app⌠at least not here in Germany⌠is another reason for the EU to keep hounding Apple for anti-competitive behaviour.
Am very happy with BACCHMac, even just based on speaker distance measurements. For any particular piece of music or mix (e.g., prog rock items from SACD in stereo or surround, as well as the same pieces remixed decades later by folks like Steven Wilson on Blu-Ray), I either preferred the BACCHMac stereo version, or it came second. I expect that once I have the full-blown setup, more of those 2âs will move to 1âs.
I can still tell that there is room to improve the SQ through the Mac Mini. If a particular piece did not benefit so much from the 3D binaural filters of BACCHMac, better SQ of my normal data chain could win out.
And for some surround pieces, the decisions made by the sound artist / engineer on the placement and the movement of sound objects in the room are not to be found in the stereo data files. But still there were cases whereby, even if BACCHMac came second to the ATMOS playback over a 16-channel Arcam system, in stereo it beat the 5.1 surround of an 8-channel exaSound system. At least for my enjoyment. An example is: Rodriguez Jrâs âWhat is realâ from âBlisssâ. There was also an example of my preferring the exaSound SACD surround first, and then the BACCHMac second, ahead of the Arcam on a FLAC 5.1 [24-96], with no ATMOS. This was Cowboy Junkies âShining Moonâ and âState Trooperâ from âWhites Off Earth Nowâ.
Stereo generally was won by the BACCHMac though. Perhaps helped along by there being a PSA DS MK2 in the chain.
If in the future, if BACCH can make use of the object-oriented data in modern ATMOS recordings, then it could be a clean sweep for BACCH. Am looking forward to asking Edgar about this. Though I understand from exaSound folks that they need firms like Dolby Labs to be kind and to respond to queries from the small specialty firms favourably.
2 Likes
$799 with 16 GB memory upgrade.
Kuhl. Now I know. Thank you!
1 Like
Forgive me for interjecting, but you are mistaken about the Tidal app being unavailable in Germany. Maybe you ran into a glitch or mistyped, but I just went to Apple Deutschland and here it is:
https://apps.apple.com/de/app/tidal-music-hifi-playlisten/id913943275
Sure, maybe there are aspects where they want to keep their software on their platform, but to suggest they would knock Spotify or Tidal off the app store for competitive reasons is nonsense and would be pretty dumb to do when iPhones hardly crack 30% market share in Europe. I really donât see where they are anticompetitive in any real consumer-facing way, but am curious to know in what ways you have experienced this.
1 Like
It is called âpreferential self-dealingâ. It is a common âdark UXâ pattern to thwart or manipulate user goals. And it is not so blunt as to make a competitor app unavailable. Hence why all the court cases against Apple drag on and on.
On my Mac Mini⌠not my iPhone⌠multiple searches for the Tidal app in the Apple app store do not return a link to the Tidal app. This is not to say that the app is not available. The app is available as you point out. But I had to find my own way to the Apple app store link for Tidal for my Mac Mini.
also a guiding hand for those giving us advice, particularly our retailer/distributor
why is one component/brand promoted over others: better wholesale terms, excess inventory, limits of authorized product sales, lack of experience, markup, or sales integrity
2 Likes