Just don’t forget to turn off the 48v phantom power (except if you want a really good excuse to get a new pair of - aham - gryphon speakers).
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I heard BACCH for the first time under the right conditions (sitting in The Chair) at Axpona.
It is stunning. There were sounds flying all over the room–including behind me.
And–Edgar is a pisser; love the guy.
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Unfortunately I won’t be able to hook up the turntable as I am using the builtin phono stage of the Luxman CL1000 pre. I don’t see any tape out kinda thing so I will need to get an external phono to enjoy Baach with vinyl. Another unexpected cost for me going to Bacch lol.
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I’ve come to the conclusion that the BACCH is not for me - us I should say. This is the fourth time I’ve heard the BACCH, at shows. In the four times I’ve heard it I’ve been “calibrated” to it two of those times by Edgar. It does everything everyone says it does, of that there is no denial. But this time around I asked Edgar “what if two people are sitting together, can the algorithm account for this?” He said no, that it is optimized for a single listener at the calibration location. He did say that the effect is still there, but falls off, as one moves away from that location. And that’s true, too, as I’ve heard it myself. But ultimately it is designed to work its best magic for a single person in a single location. IOW, most audiophiles (which to me is kind of a sad commentary on our hobby). That’s not us. In my audio world it means either my wife or I would be in a fall off location. Granted, it probably won’t be too impactful, but until Edgar figures out if there’s a way - should he choose to do so - to create a solution for groups larger than 1, I’ll have to pass. I could easily get a dio, but for me it just doesn’t answer the mail. My mail, that is. Everyone else’s MMV.
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That is about what I would expect Edgar to tell you. We are not too fussed about it ourselves though. We do sit closely together. And the head tracker does get confused. Here she was being tracked and still is being tracked despite leaving the left-right frame. It still sounds real good. That is all that matters. Note: We tried to get the cat to participate for this picture. But the tracker did not seem to want to pick him instead of us.
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Hey, that’s good to hear. It will be worth reconsidering then.
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I have seen the same thing happen during head tracking. i have still been impressed with sound when others are fully in the sweetspot. Me being the pickiest is still enjoyed stereo better than I had prior to head tracking
The closer you squeeze your honey that better music sounds.
I use this to add a bit of diffusion in my absorbing panels. But says it all.
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I love that your wife is in this with you.
In my case, I’m the only one who cares enough to call shotgun for The Chair.
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Yep. I count myself lucky. 
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You could consider putting the bacch between your pre-amp and you amp. Then all output from the luxman would go through the software.
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Hmm… I don’t think I like that. The synergies between pre and amp is important and this defeated that point. Also I really like the sound of the TVC in this preamp. Going that route means using the volume control in the Babyface. If Bacch is thay impressive I have no problem spending the money for a dedicated phono stage, but we’ll see. Haven’t heard Bacch yet.
I see your first point, and I agree with you. But it would be a matter of trying out. The Babyface seems very agnostic in its output. The second point I believe it is moot. You would leave the Babyface at unit gain (0 dBFS) and control the volume via your pre-amp.
But your last point settles the deal.
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The only real purpose of the BabyFace is to provide microphone inputs. I am using Bacch4Mac right now and the BabyFace isn’t in the chain.
(With the TotalMix program you can actually mute the BFP inputs)
Use the Roon Endpoint function of the B4M, it is all one needs and it’s built right in. Then out to the DAC it goes.
The BabyFace gives me other inputs that I do use. I plug my phono preamp output into its analog ports. It works swell. I am listening to vinyl now. Press a button, BACCH is gone. (Phono preamp balanced outputs are connected to the Preamp) Press it again and it’s back. I prefer back.
Straight old analog is a blast and has its charms. But DSP for me.
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What is this Roon endpoint function? I think I’ve never seen it. I am using with either BFP or Blackhole to route the audio through bacch software, and it would be nice to get rid of both and keep things simpler.
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The Bacch4Mac and BACCH-SP adio and dio have a Roon Endpoint built in. It is fairly easy to get working with Roon.
I have a Grimm MU1 that I can connect to the BACCH gear via SPDIF. The Grimm MU1 is said the be a Roon Correction device. i.e., if Roon has a problem that you can hear, the Grimm MU1 corrects it. Listening to the Grimm MU1 as a streamer, streaming to the B4M or adio sounds wonderful. But it has some issues that most likely will not be addressed. The Grimm has an FPGA processor that removes jitter and upsamples with very good audible results. One of it’s features is a very fine clock. This clock takes over the clock in DAC and helps it provide a very clean signal. But the BACCH gear is not a DAC, it doesn’t like to use external clocks and prefers to use it’s own. This is where the trouble lies with the MU1 BACCH combination.
The solution is to tell the Grimm MU1 to stream to the Endpoint in the BACCH gear. Edgar doesn’t believe in special servers. Any server will do. Any NUC based server is just as good as any special server in his view of things. When I use the Grimm MU1 to stream to the BACCH Endpoint, the Grimm MU1 loses all of its special features to make things sound better. Oh no! Can’t have that, can I? Why yes, I can. I cannot hear any appreciable difference between using the Grimm via SPDIF or simply streaming to the Roon Endpoint in the BACCH device.
The BACCH device should show up in your Roon Setup under settings >>> Audio:
See the upper left hand corner “BACCH-dSP”. You may have to enable this device to be able to choose it.
You can set this input up and set what the upper end it will accept. I have let it go to 24.192 but lately I just run it 24.96. You have to understand that the digital signal is converted to analog, “Purified” with XTC and now ORC, and then sent to a DAC. If you force the ADC in the BACCH to read over 24.96 you make it work much harder, and for very hard to hear benefits in my experience. I ran 24.192 for awhile but lately I have been listening with this set to 24.96 I don’t seem to miss anything. You may have a different experience.
In my experience, using the Roon Endpoint built into the BACCH gear is very easy, and the sound seems just as wonderful as using any other Roon streamer as a source. It is the great equalizer. If you don’t want to spend a lot on a streamer, don’t. An expensive streamer doesn’t really add much to the sound I hear. I believe this, you can prove it one way or another for yourself.
*added note as it is really wonderful
When Eelco Grimm designed the MU2, which is basically an MU1 with a built-in FPGA DAC and Analog Preamplifier, he did a very wonderful thing. The MU2 has a sensational DAC built into it. The rear of the MU1 has inputs for external devices so you can use them with it’s wonderful DAC. In the case of BACCH gear, Eelco made it so you can stream to an external Roon Endpoint, while listening to an external source on the MU2 Internal DAC. For me, this means I can use Roon on the MU2 to stream to my BACCH device Roon Endpoint. I then take the Digital output from the BACCH device and feed it into the MU2 to take advantage of its Jitter Removal, Upsampling, and most Excellent DAC.
The Bacch4Mac setup is limited to a USB output for DACs. Unfortuantely the Grimm MU2 doesn’t have an audio USB input. It just has a USB port for external drive connections. So with the Bacch4Mac setup I use a Matrix to convert from USB to AES/EBU or SPDIF as the MU2 has those inputs. Now that my BACCH-SP adio is back home I can just use it’s SPDIF output and set the Matrix aside.
Some interesting things happen with this setup. The Balanced outputs from my Grimm MU2 feed into my Preamp. That means, when I choose to listen to the rear input of the MU2 from the BACCH setup I hear all the benefits of the BACCH DSP. But when I choose to stream from the MU2 to the MU2 DAC, the entire BACCH DSP chain is now completely out of the picture. I can listen to the MU2 as it is intended to be heard, with no external processing. But I love BACCH external processing so I tell the MU2 to stream to the Roon Endpoint and listen to the output of the BACCH through the rear input. It’s easy, and it is fun. But if you use BACCH ORC there is a big difference in the output level from the MU2 alone to using the BACCH. I could explain why that is but choose not to do so at this time.
I am surprised you didn’t know about the built-in Roon Endpoint. BACCH also supports UPnP and HQPlayer. Or anything you can run from a Mac. The only connection you really need to the BACCH gear is Ethernet and Power and USB for the DAC on Bacch4Mac, with many other options with the dio and adio.
When I hookup multiple streamers to my adio, Grimm MU1 via SPDIF, Eversolo DMP-A6 via USB, Pink Faun via USB, whatever, they all sound just as good as each other. Yes, even the A6. When I use the built-in Roon Endpoint in my BACCH gear I hear just as good of sound as using anything else. I just don’t need anything except a nice Ethernet cable perhaps.
Does this mean the BACCH gear limits every source to the same level of sound? Perhaps. But it an extremely enjoyable sound to listen to. I can easily choose to listen without BACCH and just the pure sound of the device in my reference system, or I can enjoy the BACCH processing. My favorite is to use BACCH. (Although DSD256 without BACCH is pretty special sounding)
Next week, what are girls and why aren’t they interested in me?
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By the way, for many of you who have not had BACCH gear in your very own system, a lot of what I said in that last post should cause you to see RED FLAGS all over the place. “Oh hell no I don’t want anything like that!” you exclaim. But you need to hear the BACCH gear to see that those red flags aren’t something you have to worry about. It sounds wonderful.
Measurements have no place in this discussion. It is all about what you hear.
RED FLAGS are fun, and you are so very smart for seeing them. But in the end they don’t matter.
Not to me at least.
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I think this post answered that question. 
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Grimm MU1, MU2, DMP-A6, Pink Faun, Bacch Adio etc……
Al’s Dac Shack is now Al’s Dac and Streamer Shack sponsored by Bacch!
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Very cool post. A ton was said, and it gets pretty hairy to follow, but answers one of my big questions. spend 5-6k on new streamer or get B4M and just run to my MKII DAC via usb. I think I have my answer. Now I just need to build my room.
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Thanks for the detailed answer. I think I talked past you, and I am sorry for this.
I do see in my system what you are calling “room endpoint”. But it is a result of a composite device created in mac os mixerz that sums the BFP as input and the dac as output, or the black hole driver as input and again the dac as output.
I don’t know of any option to use the bacch as a roon endpoint standalone, without the help of BFP (and totalmix software) or the black hole driver.