I’m not a frequent poster here, but I’m dying to tell about my remote training session a few days ago with Professor Edgar Choueiri (Princeton University) training me on the process to create a virtual speaker presentation through my Hifiman HE1000SE and my Susvaras.
I tend to ramble, but I’m tired and just want to strongly encourage anyone who doesn’t want to disturb the people around them late at night or you just want a convincingly real sounding stage presentation located as if your were listening to a real live musical event coming at you, but wait there’s more as it also does this with the option to turn on or off an even more immersive 3DHP mode that adds a breathtakingly detailed or pure inner detailed enhanced sound and sonically preserves all the three dimensionality and spatial cues and unlike cross-feed (The antithesis of what BACCH does) it’s able to do all this and so much more without any hint distortion, gimmicky ambisonic rendering plugins I’ve tried, and no perceivable deleterious tonal or frequency shifting related to the original signal.
I would finish with my initial impressions, I don’t wish to repeat the litany of joyous expletives that was provoked by from how amazed that night and every night has been from this unbelievable initial experience.
This is the next level.
I searched for 38 years to get to the summit.
I am certain I have reached it!
Yes the beauty of the software is that whether you want 3D realism through your home audio speakers or to virtualize them through headphones and/or add 3D to your virtual speakers, the source and associated equipment need only be two channel stereo.
This technology is protected by ten patents.
You may try any package you wish, the intro package is $980, but it’s limited to U-Bacch filters which are not custom to your room/ears, are measurement based, and this only allows for speaker playback and not headphone.
There’s also fully equipped turn key hardware packages starting at $20k-$50k.
If you want a cheaper alternative, (relatively speaking), but also want all the features and benefits including unleashing the sound purity and 3D spaciousness in any new or old recordings that is custom for your ears and speaker setup in your sound room and the required and included $1600 binaural in-ear styled stereo microphones to facilitate taking ear specific measurements to generate the necessary custom room sweeps and speaker impulse measurements as well as to generate the custom ear-specific cross-talk cancellation filters. This enables all the features including the virtual-speakers with and without 3D for headphones and of course the 3D/purifying your music using just a decent 2ch speaker playback system then you’ll probably want the Audiophile+ version of the software or if you’re a recording professional or savvy Audiophile you can explore the BACCH4Mac Pro Package which fully unlocks the entire software along with the upgraded BM-PRO in-ear recording grade binaural microphones if you wish to record your own music.
You’ll also get a RME Babyface Pro 14CH I/O hardware interface as well, which is costs $1000 retail and a pair of Calibrated $1600 in-ear capsuled microphones in the Audiophile+ package which is around $6k or around $7,000 for the Pro version with the BM-PRO upgraded microphone, and $5000 for the plain audiophile version
OR Head over to Theoretica.us for up to date pricing on their turnkey hardware solution.
I’m just a passionste audiophile and happy customer and not affiliated with them in anyway.
OH, I totally forgot to mention the head-tracking feature which requires a basic usb camera to adjust the sound to where your head is whether in the center or not. It works flawlessly (Enhanced after the latest update IMHO) at maintaining the 3D effect within a couple of feet of you moving you’re head from left to right or 45 degrees L/R yaw with cans!
How does it sound? Greatest damn thing to happen highend in 38 years of being in this hobby!
Yep, but if you’re not doing recording you can get by with $5-$6k or spend even more for the BACCH-SP for a turnkey solution for between $20k-$50k sold by dealers and is made through MSB.
Training is via one on one remote sessions. You will not get a manual. It’s hands on and as a person with adhd that works for me quite well, though I will admit covid related insomnia and a foggy-brain gave me a much steeper learning curve because I had the memory of a goldfish.
I can’t really bash this product… it may be very very good… the problem I have after going to its website is the prices are ridiculous … an example is the $3000 for the mics… those are maybe $100 worth of materials…
Anyway… like I said I have not heard the results of using the software… but it reminds me of another company who has a product that does what the Theoretica product does but perhaps better and half the costs… it supports external speakers and headphones with your choice of speaker emulation and its 24 channels… has built in support for Dolby Atmos, DtsX and Auro3D in all formats and 2 ch stereo if you don’t want to listen to 3D audio… its a fantastic product that started out with the model A8 and is now updated to the model A16 by Smyth Research…
Thanks for your reply and the info on the Smyth A16 REALISER. I spent a year looking at various solutions and I’ll be damned if you didn’t find one I hadn’t heard of. From a cursory look it’s a great product assuming you have the 16 channels of speakers and amplication to generate the various locations of impulse responses required, and I don’t see anything that indicates it can do crosstalk cancellation filters per se, but correct me if I’m wrong.
“Horses for Courses”, comes to mind regarding the professional BM-PRO which has a wider frequency response and is calibrated accordingly. It’s customized/modified and made to be rugged and it’s assembled in NJ which is more costly to do.
It’s best suited for recording work. Chesky Records and Hifiman use Edgar’s software and his BM-PROs, but maybe they use other pro binaural mics at $2k. Cheaper wearable binaural mics are at $600.
Keep in mind it’s just an option as it’s offer via ala Carte pricing. BYOB or go for the standard measurement version at $1600 is perfectly suited for the measurement task.
The current version of the A16 is 24 channel output… here is a sight where the owner has created the virtual listening rooms for you and you get to chose the speakers from a collection he has created… you can easily mix the speakers too… the A16 comes with two professional studios built in to the memory… https://3dsoundshop.com/ You mentioned Genelec powered monitors… he has a 15.1.8 Genelec
Model : 8351b *Virtual Price $95,880 that he charges $159 for…
$2600 for the one-person custom PRIR at a studio is the Smythe’s chink in the armor. Makes the $3k for the BM-PRO seem like a deal as you can create personal filters and store them for people who come and visit.
The ability to profit from and share your actual Sound System’s Speaker Setup is something I thought about and have wanted to see for years of trying to convey with words to my Audiophile buddues around the world how my system sounds is difficult. When me or any visitor who comes over first hears the Virtualized speaker (I trick them by leaving speakers on until they put on my Hifiman HE1000SE and then I kill the speakers and pretend to ask them (silently) mouthing the words so they take the head phones off and the facial reaction and amazement is like a kid watching a magician and being fooled.
I then can engage a my custom and personal 3D crossover-cancellation filter onto the virtual speakers to preserve the original recordings ambiance and reverberant field localization info for an encore. It only takes about a minute to create the person’s custom filter.
I wish Smythe explained more what they are doing to 3D an old recording. If it’s additive and synthetic I would prefer the BACCH’S non-additive filter which never shifts tonal balance so it’s like a purifying filter, giving more original information and subtle micro-dynamic details typically obscured by a speaker presentation due to crossover from the left speaker reaching the right ear and vice versa with the Right speaker.
It doesn’t sound like the Symth is suited really for preserving 3D and audio detail for a two channel speaker system playing regular two channel recordings both old and new because it’s headphone features aren’t applicable for a two-channel speaker application, where as I get excellent results playing-back anything downmixed to two channel or any native stereo file through my speakers without giving up 3D and needing lots of speakers or additional amplification.
For the two channel speaker option you have to get that version from the Dealer in France… as to the cost of the PRIR there are free PRIR files from various people who share their audio rooms/studio… sounds like your happy with what you have so you should enjoy it… probably no reason to experience something better as you would feel like you wasted some money… enjoy what you have…
Are you up for a test ? Playback the song from the Doors, the song is Riders On the Storm … during the song Jim Morrison does something in the overhead channel called the Voice from God… can you listen to the song and tell me what Jim does in the voice from god channel… you can’t hear it in a standard two channel playback… you can hear is quite well if you listen for it… lets see how it goes with your software… I’m betting you will get to hear it… if not ???
