You can stream from Mini and have the video sent to Bacch. So you tube or amazon app not a problem. @Steve08226 does a bunch of you tube listening.
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Al, I am thinking of taking this plunge once my new room is up and running whenever that is. I have the MKII DAC and ARC LS28se pre. I have roon core and NAS. How does the the BACCH4MAc integrate into the system? What end point feeds the DAC? do you need to have streamer to use Roon or do you use the mac as the end point as well the BACCH endpoint?
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FYI/ We use the mac mini as our Roon core and as our (NAS) hard drive for our 18K tracks.
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Are you really thinking what Iâm thinking you are thinking?
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You would connect the macmini to your dac via USB. You could host roon in the macmini, and have it connect to the NAS for your music files.
In one shot, you get rid of all other boxes and will enjoy an unbelievable sound. I agree with @aangen, this is one you should not miss.
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With a Mac Mini right in front of the DAC, would a high quality source even make a difference anymore?
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It doesnât seem to make a lot of difference.
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Agreed. You can finally get rid of all this.
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How could that be? Iâve purchased a Mac Mini M2, installed Roon and compared it to my high end server.
Even though the Mac Mini M2 sounds a lot better than I anticipated, itâs far away from my server, which is engineered for best sound quality.
Does running the Bacch4Mac make up for the lost sound quality?
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You can only appreciate it once you have it. No words will convince you. Itâs not about the hardware. The fact that you have a Mac Mini means nothing. Itâs the software.
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@aangen is right. Provided that your dac has a good usb input (almost all recent dacs have one), the Mac mini is totally transparent. It is the software that really matters.
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In an attempt to highlight this, before I bought my BACCH gear I was using a Grimm MU1 as my Roon server and streamer. It is a very nice piece of gear to listen to and internally it takes care of a lot of the noise issues that other streamers do not take care of. I can feed the output of the Grimm MU1 into the BACCH and enjoy all of the benefits that the Grimm MU1 offers. Or, I can just use it as a Roon server feeding the Mac Mini as an endpoint via Ethernet. Doing it this way removes all of the wonderful things the Grimm MU1 offers. And that is how I choose to use the gear at this time. I can switch back and forth with a click and hear the differences. I donât hear differences. It doesnât matter.
BACCH is a great tool that minimizes the need for fancy this or fancy that. And I have the fancy gear to test that theory with. It is as close to magic as anything I have encountered.
BACCH Users, which one of you is unhappy with BACCH?
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Thank you aangen, I actually had the MU1 till last year as well, and hearing about your experience makes me think I could just sell my server, as I just use it as a roon core.
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Edgar makes me wince from time to time when he says things. He bet me a cigar that after using the Bacch4Mac setup I would sell me beloved Grimm MU1. âJust use the Mac Mini as an endpointâ he told me. Yeah right I thought. But he is correct. It makes zero sense to me. But it is obviously true.
If someone would have told me a year ago that I would add a Mac Mini to my system I would have busted out laughing. Not only do I have a Mac Mini in my system, I route all of my music, even vinyl through it. It is absolutely absurd. I use to read about people using Apple gear in their systems and I wrote it all off as fanboy absurdity. Apple doesnât make Audiophile products. But Apple is the platform Edgar has chosen to use for his magical software. I am glad he didnât choose a Commodore 64.
(but that would be easier for me than accepting the Mini)
(I am not selling my MU1, I am going to need it when I get my MU2)
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I wonder if source components are less influential. When I upgraded my DAC and then my preamplifier with BACCH4Mac already installed and in use, I definitely heard an improvement. I think the entire listening experience is so greatly improved with BACCH4Mac that you engage more with the music and less into âaudiophileâ sound qualities. Just my guess.
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Ganache you just read my mind, I was just wondering if other components would benefit as well.
Iâm sold, but still canât help thinking, how is that a nice server like the MU1 didnât make much difference and some other members of this forum stated adding a $400 power supply to the Mac Mini made a noticeable positive impact?
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When I added the LPS for the Mac Mini it made a difference because the noise level was reduced. I think you need a certain level of components to get to where the source may not be as important. The Mac Mini is just not designed to be an audiophile level component with the internal power supply.
I have the proper internal and external power supply upgrades sitting a few feet away from me. I am waiting until my BACCH-SP adio gets back from itâs upgrading before I do surgery on the Mini. Just in case something goes wrong. But someone recently posted here that they did the power upgrades to the Mini and they were underwhelmed with the results. They stated that putting an AQ Jitterbug in front of their USB cable made more of a difference. Which reminds me, I have to figure out where I stored my Jitterbug.
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I will be experimenting with my Innuos phoenix USB reclocker and will look into an external LPS. Maybe spending a bit more on the LPS will lead to better results?
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