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Who is using Dirac?

Like most others, I have been trying to squeeze perfect soundstage, imaging and detail out of my system. And like many others, I'm battling WAF ("why do the speakers have to be so far into the room?"), furniture, etc.. I'm reasonably happy with my system which is a Mac 352, C2300 (Gold Lion tubes), Dynaudio C1s and Clear Day cables. Using as my source a PC based system running thru Wyred4Sound DAC 2.

Just downloaded free trial of DIRAC and went thru the Mic calibration set up. I wont go into the hours of trying to figure out drivers etc. which has been posted here by others. I was however, a bit disappointed with the results. The delay and gain was OK (a minor improvement in balance)but the filters for optimization sucked the life out of the presentation.

I suspect with a lot of time investment I can get this to work to some level of satisfaction but in the end I also suspect the results will be a minimal improvement. Finally wondering if all of this is worth the purchase price.

Thoughts/experience from others? Thanks in advance!
dmm53
5 responses Add your response
wisnon
700 posts
 
A poster (DJ) jumped ship and is now using Acourate.

A dealer buddy of mine has said that every DRC he ever tried sucked the life out of the upper bassÂ…the foundation of the music.

For him, even the DSpeaker AM 2 hardware did this.
scvan
99 posts
 
I didn't have that problem because I just ran the digital out to a separate DAC. I was trying Dirac just for grins to see what it could do and I was impressed.

Many audiophiles don't realize or unwilling to accept that the future of all hi-fi will be DSP related with A to D and D to A converters that will tune the sound output of your speakers for not just room correction, but speaker correction. Take a look at the JBL M2 system, unbelievably flat EQ due to the active crossover and DSP. We are still at the beginning of this revolution in audio and will really improve the systems while reducing the cost.
dmm53 OP
63 posts
 
Scvan,

I did think the delay and gain adjustment was an improvement in imaging as you describe. I was hoping for a bit more pin point clarity. I think the filters are merely trial and error to suit my tastes

Biggest negative is figuring out the correct driver selections for my Dac 2. Can't get Dirac kernel streaming to work. Better luck so far with WASAPI but I additionally getting error messages that the sample rate is not supported. . I have emailed help desk and waiting for some guidance.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
To do what you're asking, you really need to build a system with those qualities in mind. Its not something you're going to fix with software. For good imaging, every piece in the system contributes, and if you mismatch even 1 component, it could have a big effect. Looking at your system, I would probably start with the preamp.
scvan
99 posts
 
Dmm,

Did you look at the before graph of your freq-resp of your system. You may have a bright system which Dirac is trying to calm. I found the imaging was drastically improved after running the dirac. The center image went from the center to a pinpoint image in the center. I was really impressed with the improvement. You can adjust the response curve to be whatever you want in the software. Some people prefer flat and others like a drop off in the highs, etc.

I would really consider buying this software if I ever consistently used my computer for streaming. I'm more of a physical media kind of guy, or just spotify from the sonos.
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