dougi
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I now have Dirac and rp in the same system, with measurements. Happy to post them if there is interest.
Hi, please do if you dont mind. Did you integrate subwoofers with both or either?I now have Dirac and rp in the same system, with measurements. Happy to post them if there is interest.
Sorry, I don't currently have subs integrated with either. From memory, RP does a good job integrating, given a reasonable starting point in terms of level and manual delay entry.Hi, please do if you dont mind. Did you integrate subwoofers with both or either?
Great comparison @dougi, thanks for sharing this. Can you recommend something that explains how to read step/impulse response graphs and the spectrogram graphs?
Thanks @Holmz. I did start to look around, but couldn't quickly find an information source that I liked.From here you get to the other pages in the series.
Measuring Loudspeakers, Part Two Page 3
Fig.11 shows a good step response produced by a time-coherent, three-way loudspeaker, with the outputs of the three drive-units adding in-phase at the microphone position. There are not that many speakers that produce this good a step response. Of the speakers I have measured for Stereophile...www.stereophile.com
And in here the stuff starts around page 20.
And here:
Thanks, @Holmz. I just started that series on Measuring Loudspeakers in Stereophile - one of the best introductions I've seen, understandable even to someone without an engineering degree.From here you get to the other pages in the series.
Measuring Loudspeakers, Part Two Page 3
Fig.11 shows a good step response produced by a time-coherent, three-way loudspeaker, with the outputs of the three drive-units adding in-phase at the microphone position. There are not that many speakers that produce this good a step response. Of the speakers I have measured for Stereophile...www.stereophile.com
And in here the stuff starts around page 20.
And here:
Sorry, I don't currently have subs integrated with either. From memory, RP does a good job integrating, given a reasonable starting point in terms of level and manual delay entry.
Anyway, I can present a comparison between DIRAC live 3.3 and RoomPerfect (2.6?) in a 2.0 setup.
DIRAC chain: MiniDSP Flex digital -> RME ADI-2 PRO -> March Audio P502 -> Wharfedale Heritage Linton -> 8 x 12m+ room, largely untreated. Listening position about 3.8m from each speaker.
RP chain: Lyngdorf DPA-1 digital output -> (same as above).
Left speaker is in a fairly open position, about 1m from front wall. Right is next to a wall with large windows, one with drapes down for setup.
nb: measurements have been taken 3 months apart, but with an identical measurement setup, mic position and room furnishings.
Calibration notes: RP is very straightforward to setup, as long as you have a boom mike stand (normally included) and a 6m mic cable or so (normally included). Self-contained to the hardware so no PC connection required. The supplied measurement mike was used.
I had some issues with DIRAC calibration when using my Scarlet 2i2 gen2 and Sonarworks mic. It would not calculate delays and correct phase correctly until I reduced the audio interface driver sample rate to 44.1kHz and buffer to 64 samples. So unless you are using the recommended UMIKs, always measure with REW afterwards to ensure it has done the right thing. Mic cal used was o degrees so mic pointed towards the speakers (which is also what you do with RP for the initial focus measurement). DIRAC target curve was given a slight bass boost but detected ranges were left as is (I think saying ~33 Hz and 17 kHz).
Measurements presented for RP in "focus" setting and I setup DIRAC using "focussed imaging" measurement. Ignore SPL levels.
RAW IN-ROOM MEASUREMENTS WITH EXAMPLE TARGET
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You can see more variations in the right due to more reflections and note the difference in treble performance of the tweeters in the speakers (confirmed by other measurements). Bass is available down to 30 Hz or so.
EQ COMPARISON RIGHT SPEAKER
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I really should tweak the speaker position to help that 250 Hz dip that neither wanted to fix (but I have successfully with manual REW based EQ). Bother otherwise sort bass out nicely, quite similarly.
EQ COMPARISON LEFT SPEAKER
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RP sometimes given a bit of a 2-4k lift and has done a bit of that here. While RP is supposed to determine the speaker roll-offs and leave those alone, it has lifted the high treble here (probably a good thing).
NO EQ STRAIGHT THROUGH FLEX STEP RESPONSE EXAMPLE
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ROOM PERFECT STEP RESPONSE EXAMPLE
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The RP step never looks good due to it filtering the bass region (~500 Hz) separately then recombining. This may be different in newer versions. I haven't shown the impulse zoomed in, but if I did you can see that the tweeter is connected in reverse polarity.
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You can see the large correction in the time domain, with the tweeter inversion "fixed" and step corrected.
CLARITY EXAMPLE
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Clarity is slightly improved for both speakers with DIRAC cw RP.
SPECTROGRAM RP
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SPECTROGRAM DIRAC
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DIRAC certainly has a different spectrogram than RP, both in the bass and the decay in the treble also seems shorter. This may explain the slightly better clarity measurements.
CONCLUSION
Once you sort out setup issues, both are easy to do. To me, DIRAC does seem to focus imaging better than RP and, for me, the ability to tweak target curves makes it more suitable, but noting that newer RP versions do have that. Unfortunately Lyngdorf no longer sell a seperate preamp with RP, other than a Steinway version or the multi-channel processsors. The only niggles I have with DIRAC is the need to connect to see results and need to connect to their servers.