BACCH4MAC Short Review / first impressions

[doorofnight]

I am using the ubacch4mac Intro for a week now. When I configure ubacch (enter the distances) the test signal of the Right speaker is obvious far from the speaker, close to my right ear. The test signal on the Left speaker is not close to my left ear and remains close to the left speaker. Is this how it should be? My listening triangle is 227 cms between the speakers and 245 to my MLP and I listen in a reasonable damped and symmetrical area.
I wonder if the effect of using ubacch can/should be not as subtle as it is now. It's there, it's nice and worth the costs.. But most times subtle.

 

[Korppi12]

Thanks for the answers! Now i have a next problem:

Mac routing problem

So question is how do i route audio in the system to be outputted by jriver? In windows i use wdm driver to route youtube, Spotify, every sound to JRiver After i use JRiver convolution to output diy 3 way speakers. (Active crossovers) So every sound on the system is played thru JRiver in...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Spenav]

I have a quick question about bacch4mac. Does it work only with streaming apps like Tidal or Pandora or can you apply it to a music library that resides on a server like a Melco N1A for example. Thanks in advance.

 

[Dialectic]

I have a quick question about bacch4mac. Does it work only with streaming apps like Tidal or Pandora or can you apply it to a music library that resides on a server like a Melco N1A for example. Thanks in advance.

It works with streaming apps and can be configured to work with an external music server as long as the audio data can run through the Mac. I play music off an 8TB SSD in JRiver.

 

[Gwreck]

I have a quick question about bacch4mac. Does it work only with streaming apps like Tidal or Pandora or can you apply it to a music library that resides on a server like a Melco N1A for example. Thanks in advance.

It can work with basically any input digital, analog, streaming.

 

[Keith_W]

I have a quick question about bacch4mac. Does it work only with streaming apps like Tidal or Pandora or can you apply it to a music library that resides on a server like a Melco N1A for example. Thanks in advance.

Actually, your question made me wonder what the limitations of BACCH4Mac are. I know it can work with any audio that you send through it. The only question is how you are going to get the audio into the Mac, and some type of audio is easier than others. Streaming, local files, and files stored in LAN are easy since the capability is built into the OS or easily added with software. HDMI and analog input would require purchase of hardware (HDMI extractor and ADC respectively) and more setup for audio routing, but that is a "general computer audio" problem and not specific to BACCH4Mac.

However there are some limitations I am aware of but I wonder if there are others.

- it can process 2 channels of audio only. Some versions have a built-in convolver that can take 2 channels and output 6 channels.
- no DSD as far as I am aware.
- PCM 16/44 is OK, I am not sure about higher sample rates. I have tested my uBACCH VST with up to 192kHz and it works, so I would imagine it's OK with BACCH4Mac.

I think the latter 2 are not real limitations. To me there is nothing wrong with 16/44. Inability to output more than 6 channels is an issue for me, but can be dealt with by adding a third party convolver to the chain, downstream of BACCH.

 

[Gwreck]

Actually, your question made me wonder what the limitations of BACCH4Mac are. I know it can work with any audio that you send through it. The only question is how you are going to get the audio into the Mac, and some type of audio is easier than others. Streaming, local files, and files stored in LAN are easy since the capability is built into the OS or easily added with software. HDMI and analog input would require purchase of hardware (HDMI extractor and ADC respectively) and more setup for audio routing, but that is a "general computer audio" problem and not specific to BACCH4Mac.

However there are some limitations I am aware of but I wonder if there are others.

- it can process 2 channels of audio only. Some versions have a built-in convolver that can take 2 channels and output 6 channels.
- no DSD as far as I am aware.
- PCM 16/44 is OK, I am not sure about higher sample rates. I have tested my uBACCH VST with up to 192kHz and it works, so I would imagine it's OK with BACCH4Mac.

I think the latter 2 are not real limitations. To me there is nothing wrong with 16/44. Inability to output more than 6 channels is an issue for me, but can be dealt with by adding a third party convolver to the chain, downstream of BACCH.

the professional version of BACCH4mac can take 8 inputs and downmix to the 2 channel. For multichannel input it’s more of a limit of the input device than the program. BACCH4mac runs are various sampling rate but 96khz is the preferred for headroom. I’m not sure about up or down sampling. BACCH needs PCM to process the audio so no DSD.

 

[Spenav]

Thanks everyone for the quick reply. I am probably going to jump in soon.

 

[Gwreck]

Thanks everyone for the quick reply. I am probably going to jump in soon.

It is definitely with the money. If you have the ability get the UCX vs the BFP as it is a much more flexible unit and better preamp.

 

[jimbill]

Has anybody been able to run a SACD player using the optical input of the Babyface? I've got a large CD collection I hate to lose.

 

[Keith_W]

What is your SACD player outputting? PCM or DSD?

 

[Gwreck]

Has anybody been able to run a SACD player using the optical input of the Babyface? I've got a large CD collection I hate to lose.

I don’t think that any CD players output DSD over optical so you should be just fine. The Babyface has an optical in and out.

 

[jimbill]

I have a Marantz SA-KI Ruby SACD player. I ran an optical out to the optical in of the Babyface. Sometimes the BACCH recognizes it and but most of the time not. I'm telling by the volume meters on the BACCH reacting or not. Sometimes the meters go up and almost immediately fall back down.

I know next to nothing about this stuff. I set the Marantz to optical. Is there something else I should be doing or in a certain order.

 

[Gwreck]

I have a Marantz SA-KI Ruby SACD player. I ran an optical out to the optical in of the Babyface. Sometimes the BACCH recognizes it and but most of the time not. I'm telling by the volume meters on the BACCH reacting or not. Sometimes the meters go up and almost immediately fall back down.

I know next to nothing about this stuff. I set the Marantz to optical. Is there something else I should be doing or in a certain order.

I’d make sure your cable is solid. If you have another device with optical output check that see about its connection with the BFP. Also B4m can be a bit fussy with the settings so I’d also suggest a call with Edgar. I was reading the manual for your disk player(BTW nice unit) and it states digital audio output stops during the playback of the DSD layer of SACD’s and playback of pcm files with sampling greater than 352khz.

 

[Keith_W]

If you are using an RME Babyface, you should have Totalmix installed on your computer. What you need to do is set BACCH4Mac to accept input from your RME. I am sorry but I have no idea how to do this on a Mac (I use PC).

As a first step, open Totalmix and set the sampling rate to whatever your SACD player is sending out (I can't remember if RME auto-adjusts its sampling rate to match incoming signal). Use your SACD player to send signal to your Babyface. Watch the input on Totalmix, you should start seeing dancing bars. This confirms that your RME is receiving signal. If you don't see any signal, then there could be a number of reasons - e.g. faulty cable, faulty electronics, mismatched sampling rate, and so on.

If you do see dancing bars, take note of which channel it is coming from (probably ADAT 1/2) then you have to set BACCH4Mac to use the the RME as the input. I will leave that to Mac experts, @Gwreck should know how to do it as he owns the Pro version.

 

[Gwreck]

If you are using an RME Babyface, you should have Totalmix installed on your computer. What you need to do is set BACCH4Mac to accept input from your RME. I am sorry but I have no idea how to do this on a Mac (I use PC).

As a first step, open Totalmix and set the sampling rate to whatever your SACD player is sending out (I can't remember if RME auto-adjusts its sampling rate to match incoming signal). Use your SACD player to send signal to your Babyface. Watch the input on Totalmix, you should start seeing dancing bars. This confirms that your RME is receiving signal. If you don't see any signal, then there could be a number of reasons - e.g. faulty cable, faulty electronics, mismatched sampling rate, and so on.

If you do see dancing bars, take note of which channel it is coming from (probably ADAT 1/2) then you have to set BACCH4Mac to use the the RME as the input. I will leave that to Mac experts, @Gwreck should know how to do it as he owns the Pro version.

The BFP has automatic configuration settings in BACCH4mac for optical in and out.