DIRAC Live as a game changer

[fjhuerta]

(Disclaimer: I've measured and built speakers for 20 years, using specialized software and measurement gear, and my reference system uses DIRAC and a pair of Revel FE206 speakers with an M&K sub).

Regarding the Onkyo NR7100 thread on this site, I decided to get it - since I was getting a set of Mono Amber in-wall speakers, and I thought the speakers might need a little help, EQ wise.

Right from the start I just knew something was very wrong (in a completely acoustically treated room). The speakers measured terribly - up to 2 KHz they were somewhat tolerable, but they had a 4 dB dip at 4 KHz and above they were around 5 dB hotter. If I dropped the treble with the onboard switches I lost the upper treble. This was pretty bad since changing in-wallls after the cutouts is definitely not a simple thing.

I wondered how much help would DIRAC Live be..

Much to my surprise - it did a night and day difference. The response was seriously flattened from 80 - 16KHz. Bass integration was perfect. The room went from shrill and piercing to balanced. and following the room curve I designed. My Dolby Atmos setup's tone is basically the same as my reference system. That's pretty amazing.

I always wondered if DIRAC Live fixed room issues or speaker issues. It decidedly does both. I would NEVER recommend the Mono Amber speakersand I'd definitely start with other speakers, but thankfully DIRAC Live solved my implementation issues.

 

[anphex]

Is it true that DIRAC doesn't come with "equal loudness EQ" like Audyssey's "Dynamic EQ"?
If so, I would be very suprised at this price point.

 

[dlaloum]

Is it true that DIRAC doesn't come with "equal loudness EQ" like Audyssey's "Dynamic EQ"?
If so, I would be very suprised at this price point.

Yes it is true...
Dirac Live does Room EQ... that's it.

On an AVR with loudness EQ that functionality is seperate.... Dolby processing includes "late night" modes (which incorporate a form of loudness EQ), those with THX processing may have the THX loudness feature, and some (Monoprice) have their own loudness feature.

Audyssey has their own Loudness processing feature, and wherever you find an Audyssey licence, you will typically find the Audyssey Loudness EQ available...

But each of those loudness features is linked to its respective licence - hence you can only use the Dolby feature when using Dolby Surround, same for THX, and Audyssey.

Monoproce is the only one I know of that has an independent AVP based loudness feature, which can be overlayed / combined with any of the other EQ and processing/mixing features.

My Integra AVR has the Dolby and THX loudness functions, I use the Dolby one... Dirac has improved my sound quality over my previous Audyssey based system - sadly I have had to sacrifice the Audyssey loudness function .... I miss it for Movies - but for music it was never much good, and I used to turn it off on music.

In a perfect world, I would like an adustable loudness feature on the AVR that can be overlayed, same manner as used by Monoprice.... perhaps a Monoprice AVP is in my future.... or perhaps the next generation of AVR's will include such a feature - there's plenty of us out there asking for it.