Flex minidsp Dirac Live

I use a mini DSP unit.  I think you have to use your ears to judge the validity of the results and experiment with the different curves.  I spent maybe 2 hours doing this and haven’t looked back since the day I installed it.  My listening room is relatively small and if I move out of the sweet spot the settings sound less valid, but I if I am out of the sweet spot it’s because I am occupied in a task that distracts me from listening so I don’t care much.

  There is no absolute truth here.  You are digitally manipulating the signal in an attempt to correct for quirks in the listening room.  If it sounds right, stop, relax, enjoy 

 I think you have to use your ears to judge the validity of the results and experiment with the different curves.

Absolutely.  Honestly, you shouldn’t be asking us if it sounds better or not.   You should be telling us if it is. :)  Of course purists will rage against any EQ at all, and find some reason to make you question your choices, but I find their arguments only focus on tiny, possible negatives and ignore significant, actual benefits.

One thing I’d love to know from you is how you feel the preamp sounds using this path?  I’ve found the preamp sections in Luxman integrateds to be absolutely outstanding and comparable to their stand-alone brethren.  Excellent extension in bass and treble, liquid midrange.  How has the introduction of a miniDSP in the chain between preamp and amp affected any of this for you?

The only thing I’d add here is that I’m looking into a Dirac alternative, Audiolense from Juice.   Besides being cheaper than Dirac, it supports miniDSP and Roon.  The advantage with Roon is the ability to do corrections entirely in the digital domain, while leaving the signal from DAC to integrated untouched.  Since I’m a digital only person this pathway is perfect for me.

Id say it sounds really good. I have mine connected to the pre-out from the Luxman so all Luxman goodness reamins. Then back to the Luxman after Dirac processing to the main in. I had read that you want to turn up the volume on the amp to almost max and let the Flex( it has a volume control and a remote too) control volume. This was bad advice. It meant that at -46.5 db on the minidsp i was putting out over 95DB. I typically listen at nite between 70 and 80 up to 85. I found some good advice. Set the minidsp volume to -10db then adjust the Amp volume until it is 80db peaks at the listening position. Then change the minidsp to -5db and see if that increases to around 90db at peaks. Then at 0DB on the minidsp shoul be peaking around 97db or so. It takes some adjustment with the amp volume to get it right but then you stop using the amp volume and just use the volume control of the mini dsp. What this does is allow bit perfect playback without any loss due to over driving the minidsp voltage wise. At -45.5db i was losing data. After making the adjust at -10DB down to 0DB the improvements took another leap in quality. With the wonky room Im in it made a big improvement in sound, the Luxman preamp goodness still applies and I get room correction. I dont do any other PEQ etc.