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Before I show measurements I'll lay the basics down:
* This is my first time trying Dirac, and I have used a free 14-day trial license, only as software. My plan was to try it out and then buy hardware later. This free trial processes the entire audible range.
* My microphone is the MiniDSP Umik-1. I use the calibration file as well.
* I am aware that many aspects go into this (personal preference, habits, etc.) when hearing the difference that room correction makes, but I don't think this is the problem here. I sense that something has gone wrong somewhere.
* My speakers are GoldenEar Triton 1.
* I have acoustic panels from Gik Acoustics: Bass traps in all four corners (one corner has two) + one more bass trap behind one speaker, as well as thinner panels on the two side walls, and a thick panel right behind the listening position. When installing these panels I noticed a bit less bass, although what I mostly noticed was that the bass became less boomy and more "firm", and the high frequencies became less shrill, and most of the reverberation went away as well. Music became less "shouty".
* I have enjoyed my speakers, but I sense that certain frequency ranges are a bit too lively in this room. The lower treble can be a bit piercing, and bass is not completely even.
* I have remastered a lot of music, and I often (but not always) remaster it pretty much the same way, and I figured that this pattern was perhaps because I needed room correction. However, I often check my remasters on headphones as well and still prefer them to the originals. Also, I haven't felt any need to tinker with really good recordings.
So, unlike Dirac 2 that I tried to install once without any luck, installing and using Dirac 3 on Windows 10 was a breeze. I had installed VST in Foobar, but it didn't seem necessary. As you will see further down, the room correction was applied to any source I played. I don't know if this is what is going wrong.
I went through all the measurements, and I've tried both using "studio" and "home" settings, with the latter being "tightly focused", as I always sit in the same are of my couch.
No matter what I do, it just doesn't sound "right".
As mentioned, I am aware that preferences and habits play into this, but the stories I hear are usually that once you have listened to room correction for a short while, everything becomes clearer and just sounds "right", and playing music without it then just sounds "wrong". For me it has been the opposite.
To be specific:
The bass is gone, and the treble sounds very thin, "flat", dull, and lackluster. My speakers no longer sound "big". As you can see from the screenshots below, a lot of bass has been removed, as I also expected, but the treble also just sounds lackluster and a bit annoying. Without room correction the music is a bit too "lively", but also much more exciting to listen to. It sounds 3D and lifelike, whereas with room correction my big speakers sound a bit like this one:
I also noticed that with room correction imaging has tilted significantly to the left. Without room correction voices were essentially dead-center.
This could in part be because one side of the room is worse than the other, and also because there's more bass closer to the speakers than there is at the listening position.
Nevertheless, whether I complete all 9 measurement positions, or I only do one measurement for the listening position, it just sounds "wrong".
I think I'm doing something wrong somehow, because not only does it sound "wrong", but it also looks wrong - meaning when I do a measurement after applying the room correction, the measurement looks pretty much exactly the same as before.
So, here's a measurement from the listening position:
Although there are many peaks and dips, and some of them are wider than I had hoped, the general trend is still pretty much what I had hoped for, so no broad areas that go in the wrong direction, expect for the bass.
I then did all nine measurements (and I tried it several times), and then pressed "proceed to filter design" and got this filter:
As mentioned, there seems to be more bass closer to the speakers, so the lowering around 100 Hz in the filter is probably due to there being spikes in that region in other parts of the room, especially on the right hand side of the room, where the bass is audibly louder than in other parts of the room.
Nevertheless, if I export a filter after only doing one measurement from the listening position, where it should then remove less bass around 100 Hz, according to my first picture, the result still sounds pretty much the same.
So, after exporting the filter and naming it, I then choose Dirac as the output on my computer, and I'm wondering if something goes wrong there, when I make it the standard output. Whether I play music from Windows Media Player, Foobar, or Youtube, the Dirac filter is applied to all of it.
If I then re-measure just the listening position after making Dirac my default setting, I get essentially the exact same measurement as before applying the room correction, even though at least music sounds radically different. I have also tried exporting that resulting filter. Then measure again just from the listening position and export that resulting filter, then repeat for six generations. It all sounds (essentially) the same.
I have tried to move the microphone for the 8 other measurement positions and play around with the "curtains" before exporting the filter - avoiding that Dirac touches anything below 80 Hz or anything above 1 kHz, and although moving the curtains changes the sound, and perhaps more to my liking, it still doesn't sound "right".
Also, my speakers have a built-in powered subwoofer with a dial. I have had the dial set at 1 o'clock since installing the acoustic panels, and put it at 12 o'clock for these measurements. If I apply the room correction and then turn the dial all the way to the max it sound better, but the treble still sounds "wrong".
I have tried good recordings like Diana Krall (where the impact was the smallest) to somewhat average recordings to very noisy recordings like Black Label Society and Gojira, where the impact was the greatest.
The image shift to the left applied to all of them.
I'm hoping that I'm just doing something wrong, and all suggestions are very welcome, as I've been going a bit nuts over this these last few days.
* This is my first time trying Dirac, and I have used a free 14-day trial license, only as software. My plan was to try it out and then buy hardware later. This free trial processes the entire audible range.
* My microphone is the MiniDSP Umik-1. I use the calibration file as well.
* I am aware that many aspects go into this (personal preference, habits, etc.) when hearing the difference that room correction makes, but I don't think this is the problem here. I sense that something has gone wrong somewhere.
* My speakers are GoldenEar Triton 1.
* I have acoustic panels from Gik Acoustics: Bass traps in all four corners (one corner has two) + one more bass trap behind one speaker, as well as thinner panels on the two side walls, and a thick panel right behind the listening position. When installing these panels I noticed a bit less bass, although what I mostly noticed was that the bass became less boomy and more "firm", and the high frequencies became less shrill, and most of the reverberation went away as well. Music became less "shouty".
* I have enjoyed my speakers, but I sense that certain frequency ranges are a bit too lively in this room. The lower treble can be a bit piercing, and bass is not completely even.
* I have remastered a lot of music, and I often (but not always) remaster it pretty much the same way, and I figured that this pattern was perhaps because I needed room correction. However, I often check my remasters on headphones as well and still prefer them to the originals. Also, I haven't felt any need to tinker with really good recordings.
So, unlike Dirac 2 that I tried to install once without any luck, installing and using Dirac 3 on Windows 10 was a breeze. I had installed VST in Foobar, but it didn't seem necessary. As you will see further down, the room correction was applied to any source I played. I don't know if this is what is going wrong.
I went through all the measurements, and I've tried both using "studio" and "home" settings, with the latter being "tightly focused", as I always sit in the same are of my couch.
No matter what I do, it just doesn't sound "right".
As mentioned, I am aware that preferences and habits play into this, but the stories I hear are usually that once you have listened to room correction for a short while, everything becomes clearer and just sounds "right", and playing music without it then just sounds "wrong". For me it has been the opposite.
To be specific:
The bass is gone, and the treble sounds very thin, "flat", dull, and lackluster. My speakers no longer sound "big". As you can see from the screenshots below, a lot of bass has been removed, as I also expected, but the treble also just sounds lackluster and a bit annoying. Without room correction the music is a bit too "lively", but also much more exciting to listen to. It sounds 3D and lifelike, whereas with room correction my big speakers sound a bit like this one:
I also noticed that with room correction imaging has tilted significantly to the left. Without room correction voices were essentially dead-center.
This could in part be because one side of the room is worse than the other, and also because there's more bass closer to the speakers than there is at the listening position.
Nevertheless, whether I complete all 9 measurement positions, or I only do one measurement for the listening position, it just sounds "wrong".
I think I'm doing something wrong somehow, because not only does it sound "wrong", but it also looks wrong - meaning when I do a measurement after applying the room correction, the measurement looks pretty much exactly the same as before.
So, here's a measurement from the listening position:
Although there are many peaks and dips, and some of them are wider than I had hoped, the general trend is still pretty much what I had hoped for, so no broad areas that go in the wrong direction, expect for the bass.
I then did all nine measurements (and I tried it several times), and then pressed "proceed to filter design" and got this filter:
As mentioned, there seems to be more bass closer to the speakers, so the lowering around 100 Hz in the filter is probably due to there being spikes in that region in other parts of the room, especially on the right hand side of the room, where the bass is audibly louder than in other parts of the room.
Nevertheless, if I export a filter after only doing one measurement from the listening position, where it should then remove less bass around 100 Hz, according to my first picture, the result still sounds pretty much the same.
So, after exporting the filter and naming it, I then choose Dirac as the output on my computer, and I'm wondering if something goes wrong there, when I make it the standard output. Whether I play music from Windows Media Player, Foobar, or Youtube, the Dirac filter is applied to all of it.
If I then re-measure just the listening position after making Dirac my default setting, I get essentially the exact same measurement as before applying the room correction, even though at least music sounds radically different. I have also tried exporting that resulting filter. Then measure again just from the listening position and export that resulting filter, then repeat for six generations. It all sounds (essentially) the same.
I have tried to move the microphone for the 8 other measurement positions and play around with the "curtains" before exporting the filter - avoiding that Dirac touches anything below 80 Hz or anything above 1 kHz, and although moving the curtains changes the sound, and perhaps more to my liking, it still doesn't sound "right".
Also, my speakers have a built-in powered subwoofer with a dial. I have had the dial set at 1 o'clock since installing the acoustic panels, and put it at 12 o'clock for these measurements. If I apply the room correction and then turn the dial all the way to the max it sound better, but the treble still sounds "wrong".
I have tried good recordings like Diana Krall (where the impact was the smallest) to somewhat average recordings to very noisy recordings like Black Label Society and Gojira, where the impact was the greatest.
The image shift to the left applied to all of them.
I'm hoping that I'm just doing something wrong, and all suggestions are very welcome, as I've been going a bit nuts over this these last few days.
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