Dirac Live Exclamation Mark issue

[levimax]

So my recent attempt was with 3.13.4, are you saying 3.13.4 wasn’t working for you but the Beta 3.13.9 did work?

Beta 3.13.8 worked for me, last time I tried was 9 months ago which not sure the version but it was much older than 3.13.4.

 

[TheKoC]

Do people running the Dirac processor on a PC or Mac also encounter the exclamation mark errors? Is this issue exclusive to people running Dirac on AVRs? Or does this problem occur across all platforms?

I for one have never seen the exclamation mark measurement error, running Dirac processor on a Mac.

I mainly use the PC Processor these days, but tested it with my NAD M33 again yesterday, I have no issues with the PC version, but got serveral "imprecise measurements" on the NAD... I use the UMIK-2 btw.

 

[dweeeeb2]

Do people running the Dirac processor on a PC or Mac also encounter the exclamation mark errors? Is this issue exclusive to people running Dirac on AVRs? Or does this problem occur across all platforms?

I for one have never seen the exclamation mark measurement error, running Dirac processor on a Mac.

Well my MiniDSP HTx is what's running the Dirac correction, but I need to use a laptop to run the Dirac calibration.

I tried the new Beta today and I'm still getting errors, but I did get a couple of good results (15% of sweeps). Will attempt again in a couple of days with a new laptop.

 

[Squirrel]

I tried the new beta and turned exclusive mode off, pleased to say it worked perfectly .

 

[levimax]

I tried the new beta and turned exclusive mode off, pleased to say it worked perfectly .

Have you had trouble with previous versions?

 

[Squirrel]

Have you had trouble with previous versions?

Yes, I had trouble with every version. However, I didn't try other versions with exclusive mode off?

 

[RenPa]

I tried the new beta and turned exclusive mode off, pleased to say it worked perfectly .

Well done! And it confirms Dirac advise to try this option if needed. In my case it is the contrary, exclusive mode on it must be.

 

[dweeeeb2]

Well done! And it confirms Dirac advise to try this option if needed. In my case it is the contrary, exclusive mode on it must be.

Dirac and minidsp advise was to try absolutely everything, it’s like they have no idea whats causing it.
@Squirrel when you say “off” do you mean the environment variable was set to off?

 

[RenPa]

Dirac and minidsp advise was to try absolutely everything, it’s like they have no idea whats causing it.
@Squirrel when you say “off” do you mean the environment variable was set to off?

This from Dirac changelog:
To improve the quality of measurements with microphones connected to Windows PCs, WASAPI Exclusive Mode will be activated by default in some cases.

To control whether Exclusive Mode is used or not in your case, and thereby override the default behavior, please follow these steps:

Click the Windows button, type “env”, and hit Enter

Click the "Environment Variables..." button

Click the "New..." button under "User variables for <user>" (or select DAUDIO_WASAPI_NON_EXCLUSIVE and click “Edit…” if it already exists)

Enter Variable name: DAUDIO_WASAPI_NON_EXCLUSIVE

Variable value "OFF" = Exclusive Mode enabled

Variable value "ON" = Exclusive Mode disabled (the old behavior)

Click “OK”

Restart the Dirac Live application

Verify that it is possible to complete a calibration

 

[dweeeeb2]

Thanks RenPa I was just trying to confirm if Squirrel has turned off exclusive or set the variable to off as they are not intuitive.

 

[Squirrel]

Thanks RenPa I was just trying to confirm if Squirrel has turned off exclusive or set the variable to off as they are not intuitive.

Sorry for late reply, been away on business. Will check and report back later.

 

[dweeeeb2]

********SUCCESS**********
wifi is the problem! (in my case)

I use a UMIK-2, HP laptop, and a MiniDSP Flex HTx. If I close all other programs AND turn off Wifi for the measurements I do not get the "Imprecise measurement" error anymore. Dirac needs internet access to confirm license and to generate the filters so if you leave wifi on during set up, disable it whilst on the measurement screen, then turn wifi back on before moving to the generate filter screen it all works.

Damn that took some stuffing around.

 

[Keith_W]

********SUCCESS**********
wifi is the problem! (in my case)

I use a UMIK-2, HP laptop, and a MiniDSP Flex HTx. If I close all other programs AND turn off Wifi for the measurements I do not get the "Imprecise measurement" error anymore. Dirac needs internet access to confirm license and to generate the filters so if you leave wifi on during set up, disable it whilst on the measurement screen, then turn wifi back on before moving to the generate filter screen it all works.

Damn that took some stuffing around.

That is so stupid. If that really is the reason, then Dirac could have saved themselves and their customers a lot of time by writing a better error message, e.g. "unable to verify license, please ensure you have internet connection" instead of giving you an error message that sends you barking up the wrong tree. It's like a car telling you that you have no engine oil when the tyres are flat.

 

[TimoJ]

That is so stupid. If that really is the reason, then Dirac could have saved themselves and their customers a lot of time by writing a better error message, e.g. "unable to verify license, please ensure you have internet connection" instead of giving you an error message that sends you barking up the wrong tree. It's like a car telling you that you have no engine oil when the tyres are flat.

I think you misread the message. It's not Dirac's fault, it's his machine's wifi/network drivers and other running programs causing issues.

 

[dweeeeb2]

Thanks TimoJ, yes sorry Keith I may have confused you. My laptops wifi management is causing problems. It never came up in the problem solving with Dirac or MiniDSP because Dirac needs an internet connection to work. I’ve found though that I can deactivate my wifi just whilst taking the measurements. So at this stage I’ve taken about 15 readings with all sorts of background noise and had no “imprecise measurement” errors. Hopefully in a couple of days I’ll get the room to myself to do a whole new cal.

 

[TimoJ]

Thanks TimoJ, yes sorry Keith I may have confused you. My laptops wifi management is causing problems. It never came up in the problem solving with Dirac or MiniDSP because Dirac needs an internet connection to work. I’ve found though that I can deactivate my wifi just whilst taking the measurements. So at this stage I’ve taken about 15 readings with all sorts of background noise and had no “imprecise measurement” errors. Hopefully in a couple of days I’ll get the room to myself to do a whole new cal.

Do you have a wifi manager/wireless assistant etc. software installed? It may be the culprit. You could try uninstalling it and install just basic drivers for the wifi chipset.

 

[dweeeeb2]

Do you have a wifi manager/wireless assistant etc. software installed? It may be the culprit. You could try uninstalling it and install just basic drivers for the wifi chipset.

No wifi management software to my knowledge, its just straight windows 11, I think. I’ll have a poke around.

 

[UncleManuel]

Hey there! I'm here because of the obvious "The Google search lead me to this thread"...

I've read the start of this thread and a few pages back. Here's my little oddyssey (and observations) with my not-so-fancy living room setup:
NAD M10 V3 as 2.1 setup with Teufel Ultima 40 + Teufel S 6000 SW
microphone: included NAD USB-dongle puck
DiracLive (Full Bandwidth) on Mac Mini M4

My background: fault management for business fiber networks (telecommunications provider), so the search for the root cause is my dayjob. And I totally hate it when stuff doesn't work as intended (hardware & software)...

-short version: the error message with the "imprecise measurement (phase)" only appeared for me after the last firmware upgrade of the NAD M10 V3 two days ago. Rebooting the M10 worked only for one measurement point. Pulling the power plug for 10 minutes ultimately solved the issue.
The version of DiracLive caused no problem for me before above mentioned firmware upgrade.

Long version:
I bought my M10 V3 last year and did the room correction with the included puck. No problems even on standard settings in DiracLive (Full Bandwidth) - because I didn't have any clue at the time. So these measurements worked flawlessly even at -60 dB master volume and 0 dB mic gain (quiet appartment).
I never fiddled again with it until NAD released a firmware upgrade at the end of September that totally screwed my room correction. So I downloaded DiracLive v3.13.16 and did a new measurement on October 5th. Two days later NAD released another firmware upgrade that "fixed" their last screwup - so today I did a new measurement, again. Only this time I immediately got confronted with the annoying error message.
To make it clear: both measurements were taken with DiracLive v3.13.16, the only change was the firmware of the NAD M10 V3!

What I did try that failed every time:
-unplug the NAD USB-dongle and plug it back in the M10
-reboot the M10 both in software and by pulling the power plug (only 1 minute wait)
-of course closing DiracLive every time before a new try
-trying different volume & mic gain settings
-testing different distances of the microphone positions

What did work:
-pulling the power plug of the M10 V3 for 10 minutes

Like seriously, after that I could do all 9 measurement points in one session without any errors!
At this point I'm convinced that the latest firmwareupgrade from NAD did screw up something with the Dirac integration in the M10. In my case the phasing problem clearly was caused by the M10, not the DiracLive version or the microphone.

So hopefully this gives a slightly different perspective of the behavior. And help someone in the future with the same problem.

 

[UncleManuel]

Just a quick update, because I made some observations.

The only change to my setup mentioned in the previous post:
-UMIK2 microphone, directly connected to my Mac Mini M4 (3 m USB-C cable)

Observations:
-two measurements on two different days: no problems

I'm seriously surprised that it worked without hickups. At the last measuring session I even caused a short disconnect of the UMIK2 - because I did bump the USB plug...
But I was able to continue the session without any problems, a short disconnect of the microphone (while moving it to the next position) seems to cause no issues at all for Dirac Live.

 

[ppataki]

Just a quick update, because I made some observations.

The only change to my setup mentioned in the previous post:
-UMIK2 microphone, directly connected to my Mac Mini M4 (3 m USB-C cable)

Observations:
-two measurements on two different days: no problems

I'm seriously surprised that it worked without hickups. At the last measuring session I even caused a short disconnect of the UMIK2 - because I did bump the USB plug...
But I was able to continue the session without any problems, a short disconnect of the microphone (while moving it to the next position) seems to cause no issues at all for Dirac Live.

The UMIK-2 has its own internal clock source, probably that solved it
It was the same in my case too