Interesting. My friends BACCH goes through a baby face pro. As I understand it. Vinyl is always converted to digital when attached to the BACCH. So your not bypassing the digital processor. Just the affect processor.
Is it the BACCH you really like, or the ORC.
I'm mostly curious as I would use ORC to control a swarm of subs. If it can do it. Not sure yet. I need to ask Edgar.
Those are really good questions that I answered for myself. My BACCH-SP adio was quite old and needed to be sent home for an upgrade. The upgrade was going to take awhile. I didn't want to be without Bacch so I decided to buy a Bacch4Mac setup so I could become familiar with it and what it does. When I learned the Bacch4Mac was going to get ORC long before the adio would, that sealed the deal. The B4M arrived. I believe I was the first customer to get ORC. I got a version that required an external software piece to make it work Then shortly after the proper release version.
When I used the B4M setup I ran unbalanced cables from my Legato Phono Preamp to the Babyface Pro. I bought a fancy Farad power supply to power the Babyface Pro. I used a Stealth USB cable between the Babyface and the Mac Mini.
When I listen to vinyl I use the full processing the B4M system offers. ORC and XTC. I also had the Legato connected to the Commander Preamp via Stealth V17 Sakra LE interconnects. The unbalanced cable from the Legato to the Babyface was nothing special. I could then assume listening to vinyl direct between the Legato and Commander should have a significant advantage over the B4M route. As you can probably imagine, this turned out in favor of the B4M over the *correct Legato to Commander setup. *My audio Guru HATES that the fact that I run my vinyl through DSP. I don't have to, but I prefer it.
Do I really like the XTC? Do I like it more or less than the ORC process?
XTC, as you know, is super pleasing. It just brings me a little closer to what the music should sound like. ORC, on the other hand corrects room issues quite well. As many have said, good gear in a bad room might be a waste of good gear. I get that. The ORC process, when done correctly using the two runs of the filter making process, the first for ORC and the second for XTC with ORC applied is extremely effective. What is nice is you can switch ORC in and out to be aware of it's effect. Without ORC isn't suffering. My room isn't too bad. And of course ORC offers so many options to tailor its sound to your particular twists. To sum up, I would possibly give up XTC and keep ORC if I had to make a choice between the two. But I don't have to make that choice, happily. But it does speak to which is more impressive to me.
So XTC was a huge jump. ORC was a huge jump. Believe it or not, Stealth V17 Sakra LE balanced Interconnects are a BIG jump. What is so weird to me, and I fully believe it, is the Gryphon Powerzone is a bigger jump than any of those things. It took me three weeks to get used to it and not be sitting with my jaw on the floor. It was so impressive out of the box! And a week later it made day one sound weak. And after three weeks it got better still. I am used to it now, and I fear the only way to demonstrate just how powerful a change the Powerzone is would be to remove it from the system. I may try that some day just to hear the difference. But today is not that day.
I believe the BACCH-SP adio is sonically superior to the Bacch4Mac setup. I have been using my Grimm MU2 to stream to the endpoint in the BACCH-SP adio and a SPDIF cable from the adio to the MU2 DAC input. I love the DAC in the MU2. It is very pure. Tonight I hooked up a new pair of Sakras between the adio and the Commander. Now I can compare the adio DAC to the MU2 DAC. I level matched and when I switch between them they are extremely close. I haven't picked a favorite yet. I will say listening to the MU2 without Bacch processing is quite enjoyable. But I prefer the Bacch route. It is so easy to switch between the two.
As for the swarm idea, a friend of mine owns a swarm system with four relatively inexpensive subs and a special controller that configures each sub based on what it needs for its position in the room. All four subs are programmed very different from each other. The overall effect is quite good. The system costs about $10k. It includes four subs, amplification for each sub, all cables and the control system and software. An additional $2k is charged as the person wo created this system comes to your room and sets it all up correctly. So $12K for a full sub swarm system.
I use a pair of REL N31 subs and the ORC and XTC software. I think a swarm would be a tough call. Edgar knows best and I would be interested in what he says about a swarm.
When I got my Powerzone I shut my subs off. They didn't seem necessary anymore. They are back on now and with the Powerzone they blend so well I have to drop to the floor in front of them to make certain they are working. As my Vivid Spirits are true full range speakers, I only added the subs for when I was in the mood to go all teenager with the bass. They blend so well now that I just leave them be. Crossovers are set at 31Hz. They don't have a lot to do. Setting the crossovers higher makes the whole Teenager bass thing go crazy. Too much, too much.
gryphon-audio.dk
