I’ve used ARC and Dirac both (as well as several other methods of auto and manual room EQ). They both give great results. I have two different systems doing what you want.
1. MiniDSP SHD. This is in our living room, a third system for us. I find the SHD’s interface a little clunky, but it is a very good quality unit at a reasonable price, and it has everything you asked for.
2. Auralic Aries G1 to Anthem STR Preamp. A far more polished interface than the SHD, but more expensive, as there is no streamer in the STR, and the STR is more costly than the SHD. One could replace the Aries with an RPi streamer and accomplish the same thing. The Anthem has -- in addition to ARC -- bass, treble, balance, and sub level controls, very useful in my opinion. They are transparent and a great way to touch up quickly the sound of problematic recordings.
Note that the Auralic Aries G1 is a certified Roon endpoint and has its own manual DSP (20 bands, I think). It upsamples to do its DSP and to my ears, is quite transparent. So if you wanted to do manual room EQ (I don’t recommend it), all you’d need is the Auralic and any DAC.
DSP has improved enormously in recent years. I find the newer systems transparent and without the hardness older systems could induce.
1. MiniDSP SHD. This is in our living room, a third system for us. I find the SHD’s interface a little clunky, but it is a very good quality unit at a reasonable price, and it has everything you asked for.
2. Auralic Aries G1 to Anthem STR Preamp. A far more polished interface than the SHD, but more expensive, as there is no streamer in the STR, and the STR is more costly than the SHD. One could replace the Aries with an RPi streamer and accomplish the same thing. The Anthem has -- in addition to ARC -- bass, treble, balance, and sub level controls, very useful in my opinion. They are transparent and a great way to touch up quickly the sound of problematic recordings.
Note that the Auralic Aries G1 is a certified Roon endpoint and has its own manual DSP (20 bands, I think). It upsamples to do its DSP and to my ears, is quite transparent. So if you wanted to do manual room EQ (I don’t recommend it), all you’d need is the Auralic and any DAC.
DSP has improved enormously in recent years. I find the newer systems transparent and without the hardness older systems could induce.