So will this new Dirac ART version work with a 2.1 or 2.2 setup ? I'm currently playing around with HouseCurve (iOS) app and Roon Convolution filters.
If I want to go to the next level would a Dirac license and a microphone be enough to implement this into roon?
In a YouTube video of storm audio they mentioned 299 USD for the ART license. + A microphone and this would be a affordable " upgrade". Probably better than spending a lot on new speakers .
My reading of Dirac's explanations of the way it works, is that yes absolutely it will work with 2.1 or 2.2, but the nature of the beast is, the more speakers you have the better it works.
Even if the additional "supporting speakers" are receiving no primary signal, they will still improve the ability of the system to reduce undesired reflections.
I think we may be looking at a paradigm something like this: "each additional speaker reduces overall reflections amplitude sum, by X db"
So 2.1 will reduce reflections by perhaps 9db, where 5.1 would achieve 18db reduction.
At a guess, due to the way our ears/brain work, there will be a point of diminishing return.... just like channel seperation... yes 80db is better than 20db... but with the 20db we achieve with Vinyl LP's we get 99% of the desired effect.... with digital we get 90+db of seperation, but only a marginal affect on imaging.
I would think at 4 speakers, L/R/SL/SR you will probably get 90% of the benefit... with the positions of the surround speakers being advantageous - L/R/Sub, might be down at 60% of the benefit... and 5.1 or more might crawl its way upwards in incremental improvement steps. (all of this is a gut response from reading the descriptions, I look forward to in depth reviews and measurements!!)
I also think that the "supporting" role of the speakers active together is likely to substantially reduce the benefit gained from subs...
As I have said elsewhere, I think we are looking at a complete paradigm shift in how we optimise our Audio setups, whether straight stereo, full surround, or hybrids thereof.