If Foobar on Mac to BACCH4Mac is not working after having done the BlackHole SF4BACCH setup, try using another app to see if playback works with them. I tend to use Tidal and Plexamp myself. Foobar in Mac has not always worked so well for me.
The Bacch4Mac was purchased used (sale can be viewed via HiFi Shark/Audiogon). It arrived last Friday and I immediately sent Edgar an email message asking for information on purchasing the annual application maintenance, officially recording the license transfer, and getting the latest versions of the software. There were followup emails. This is the Audiophile+ version with headphone support and pro microphone (neither of which I needed or would have purchased otherwise). Everything was already set up on the Mac Mini, but I needed to reinstall the BFPro drivers and update the firmware. I have three BINs configured (uBacch, calibrated w/o HT, calibrated w/ HT). I can test all this with the internal player (10 tracks I think). The uBacch sounds the same as the Windows VST uBacch. Iām not sure this is the exact same filter though. At AXPONA Edgar mentioned something about averaging the filters from a group of his lab workers. Was this same filter shared with BacchLabs? I donāt know.
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My normal digital playback is using foobar2000 on Windows. I donāt stream, local file playback only. The Mac version of foobar2000 is crippled, mostly because it doesnāt support the hundreds of third-party components available on Windows. The only setting that should have an impact on BacchDSP is the output device, so I would be very surprised if foobar2000 is not compatible. Iām open to another music player, but it must offer a folder view for local files (tagging related, but also for organizational reasons). Theoretically, I could use Finder for the folder view and manually send the files to the player, but I would prefer not to do this. Iām not really seeing a lot of options for the Mac.
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This might be the problem. The crippled macOS. Does black hole work with any other player (such as Apple Music or Spotify or hqplayer)?
You might want to rule out foobar2000 issues from the equation.
If it is, you may try audivana or even hqplayer. Very nice players, should Apple Music not be enough.
I doubt the problem lies with foobar2000. I think Iām just not getting the audio routing correct with Blackhole. I tried routing youtube/system audio to BacchDSP and was unsuccessful, although I didnāt spend hours fiddling with that like with foobar2000. Audiovana Origin ($149) is a possibility, and supports folder-based views (unlike Roon). Free is better of course.
Has anyone got Youtube/Blackhole/BacchDSP/DAC to work? If so, please share the configuration.
That is a good question. Supposedly this worked at some point, and it seems to be the most popular (free/donation) audio routing option for the Mac. I wouldnāt mind using some other method. Who has ANY local music player hooked up to the BacchDSP application and external DAC? The same method presumably should work for all players.
Sorry. I was not clear. I am right now using black hole with Bacch, using hqplayer as player. Spotify and room also works. The config is as described here, using SF4Bacch aggregate device.
My question for you was if you had tried black hole with any other player besides foobar2000
Awesome. Can you fill in/correct these settings ā¦
Apple/Settings/Sound/Input device (default) = ???
Apple/Settings/Sound/Output device (default) = ???
HQ Player output device = BlackHole 2ch ???
BacchDSP input device = SF4BACCH
BacchDSP output device = SF4BACCH
SF4BACCH aggregate device
Clock Souce = DAC
Input Channels = 12 (BlackHole 2ch)
Output Channels = 12 (BlackHole 2ch) 34 (DAC)
Thanks!
I will double check. But it is easier.
Create the aggregate device with black hole as first device, and dac as second. Right click the aggregate device and select āuse this device for inputā and āuse this device as outputā.
In Bacch, run the script sf4bacch, in the Dropbox. Do not change anything else. In hqplayer, select core audio default as output (or sf4bacch).
If you select blackhole directly as input or output, it wonāt work. Everything must go through the aggregate device, and you must set it as system default for input and output.
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Thanks for the details. This isnāt working for me with foobar2000 or Apple Music. Iāll probably try another player while waiting for Edgar to respond to my emails.
That is weird. Works perfectly well for me with Apple Music. Let me try install foobar2000
Yes. Foobar works for me.
Step by step:
- create the aggregate, with black hole first and your dac second. Name it SF4BACCH (it is case sensitive)
- set the aggregate as default for input and output
- allow microphone access when prompted
- start Bacch
- in āaudio settingsā, select sf4bacch out of the auto configure drop list
- in foobar, select sf4bacch as output (careful not to choose the āexclusiveā option)
I can play YouTube, Apple Music, Roon, and even stream direct from the Tidal app on my iPhone to the Mac Mini which runs BACCH. But all was set up by Edgar, and Iām not familiar with the other software you describe.
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āThere isnāt even a thought of upgrading any of the other equipmentā
Wellā¦ maybe one more thing 
We just ordered a Network Acoustics eno2 1 Gb/s Ethernet Filter and an Aardvark Ultra ethernet noise isolator to compare. Weāre trying to get better sound from our streaming sources.
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I have tested four different streamers from under $1000 to insane cost and I have found when you use BACCH as an endpoint the difference between them is very slight.
Either the BACCH makes them all sound the same or it makes them all sound great.
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Al,
We were thinking that might be the case with BACCH.
We are also thinking about putting the one we keep just before our ethernet switch that also feeds our TV, Apple TV and surround sound system to see if it helps there.
Thank you,
Steve
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Sorry about the delay in responding. I hit a maximum post limit for new users yesterday.
Iām happy to hear that foobar playback is working for you (as expected), which means this will also work for me eventually. My configuration is exactly as you describe, but I still am not getting audio routed to the Bacch. One difference is that my Bacch-dsp version is not current (version 12.4.1, installed 5/23 as part of a pre-configured package). The SF4BACCH auto-config option is available, so should presumably this should be working. I think this issue will sort itself out when I install a newer version (or even if I reinstalled the current version). There is a 13.0 package sitting in the Downloads folder, but I wary of blindly installing this. I will wait for Edgar (or staff). This is a strange support model which is obviously not scalable. If they provided even minimal documentation and a few videos, the support load would go down dramatically. A discussion forum at the TAP site would also help. I guess this thread is the defacto location for community support.
Does Edgar publish a periodic news letter or monthly. Well, does he have time?