Digital DIRAC Signal to Monitors with DSP

[robithinker]

In this thread Active Speakers for New Listening Room I queried which monitors for a room that is 128 cubic meters/4500 cubic feet, with a listening distance of about 2.5-3.0 meters. I have bought a MiniDSP SHD as the main source to feed either Neumann KH420's or Genelec 8361a's, haven't decided yet. These will be used primarily for stereo music, mainl streaming from Apple Music, and eventually a turntable and CD player.

THe MiniDSP has DIRAC that I want to use for room correction. If I use DIRAC for room correction, does that make the Genelec DSP redundant? Given that I cannot bypass the SAM system, do I risk any degradation in sound quality running both? This makes me lean more towards the KH420 since they are analog (and have a higher preference score), but I still have not decided.

 

[abdo123]

It’s not really a big deal if you stack processing. This shouldn’t deter you from making decisions.

However i think stereo setups are kinda outdated, and i would personally buy an AVR with Dirac processing instead.

 

[staticV3]

THe MiniDSP has DIRAC that I want to use for room correction. If I use DIRAC for room correction, does that make the Genelec DSP redundant?

Mostly, yes.
(There might be some features in the Genelec suite that DIRAC can't do, but fundamentally they do the same thing)

Given that I cannot bypass the SAM system, do I risk any degradation in sound quality running both?

Afaik, the 8361a will only apply room correction via SAM if you enable it. By default, it will only do regular crossover processing.
You can let DIRAC do room correction and let Genelec do its default crossover thing and it won't affect signal fidelity negatively.

I would choose the 8361A for it's smoother vertical directivity and feed it via the SHD's SPDIF output.

 

[robithinker]

It’s not really a big deal if you stack processing. This shouldn’t deter you from making decisions.

However i think stereo setups are kinda outdated, and i would personally buy an AVR with Dirac processing instead.

Thanks for the feedback. Re:stereo implementation, I'm coming from a 5.1 setup with Focal Aria 948 for LR and an Onkyo amp. We're moving to a more simplified setup.

Mostly, yes.
(There might be some features in the Genelec suite that DIRAC can't do, but fundamentally they do the same thing)


Afaik, the 8361a will only apply room correction via SAM if you enable it. By default, it will only do regular crossover processing.
You can let DIRAC do room correction and let Genelec do its default crossover thing and it won't affect signal fidelity negatively.

I would choose the 8361A for it's smoother vertical directivity and feed it via the SHD's SPDIF output.

Good to know regarding enabling SAM. And yes, I would use the AES connection for digital.