TOPIC:

Possibly there's another thread with the details spelled out. Either way, learn to walk before you can run as you'll need to get your head around the basics of configuring your SHD and running Dirac Live first. Don't expect to just get it and have everything all sorted in an afternoon. You'll be learning and tinkering for a while.

100% that's what I'm most excited for. I'm a constant tinkerer. I literally adjusted my speakers and listening position 1cm at a time throughout my room while measuring with REW to nail best placement. Took hours and days. This is even more fun as you have the ability to adjust any frequency any amount. It's like having infinite possible sets of speakers to play with. From my current measurements I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get a perfect flat Harmon slope from 20hz-20khz since my placement and room treatements are already as dialled in as they can possibly be. I have NO BASS DIPS at all, which are the things Dirac can't touch. Everything else is fair game. Stoked to tinker for weeks. Again, thanks for all the help you've been a fantastic resource. 

Just to mention an option you may not think of at first, personally I don't like the effect of using Dirac Live at higher frequencies and only use it to smooth the response in the low-bass region (below 150-200 Hz). Note also that Dirac Live targets an average response over a volume, so don't expect to see a perfectly flat response at any single point. This would be easy to achieve but not a good idea. For starters it's impossible to have both of your ears at the same point  .

I will try a 0-300hz or so only sweet but to be honest, as you can see in the photo, my particular speakers are flat in my room all the way up to 10khz so that's where I want the attenuation the most (from 2-8khz). Otherwise they can be fatiguing over time like any speaker with flat response at the listening position in this region. What we perceive as equal volume is actually lower in the highs. As I'm sure you know, if you listen to a frequency sweep at even volume it sounds loudest between 3-6khz. 

If you just want to roll-off the high frequency part of the spectrum note that you have the option of doing this with a low-pass filter in the miniDSP plugin rather than doing this with Dirac Live.

Yeah I want to use Dirac for the time-domain correction as well as opposed to simply EQ which I can already do in my streamer (albeit rather crudely atm). 

Ultrasonic wrote:

Possibly there's another thread with the details spelled out. Either way, learn to walk before you can run as you'll need to get your head around the basics of configuring your SHD and running Dirac Live first. Don't expect to just get it and have everything all sorted in an afternoon. You'll be learning and tinkering for a while.

Hey man, I connected my SHD to my macbook via USB and ran REW sweeps with SHD as input and output audio sources in both macbook soundcard and REW. It gave me odd graphs as below. Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Setting in macbook sound card and REW are below. 

 

Two quick thoughts are that you want to measure each channel separately not L+R, and I also wonder if you might have a high-pass filter active?

Below I'll copy and paste my own notes on how to do this, but they're for Windows not Mac. 

How to Make SHD ‘loop-back’ USB Measurements in REW
 ·        Set the SHD output ‘default format’ to 24 bit 44,100 Hz, rather than my normal 24 bit 96,000 Hz. (I don’t understand why but asx77 posted about needing to do his on the miniDSP forum and it does seem to be needed.) To do this:
o   Open the Windows Control panel (by typing Control in the Start menu search to find it)
o   Click Hardware and Sound, and then Sound.
o   Go to the properties option for the SHD and then go to the Advanced tab to find the required option to change.
·        Set the SHD to its USB input (can be done in Volumio), and of course have a USB lead connected!
·        Open REW and go to Preferences. Set the Input Device to Line (2- SHD Series) and the Input below this to LINE_IN (Master Volume). The Input choice of L or R will dictate what is used for the RTA, but if a sweep is going to be measured then this can be set there. (The Sample Rate set on this Soundcard Tab doesn’t seem to matter.)
·        When making measurements the left and right speakers correspond to the Dirac 1 and Dirac 2 inputs in the SHD routing, and the (usually microphone) Input L and R correspond to SHD outputs 1 and 2 in the signal routing. What is going on in terms of the corresponding SHD plugin for the corresponding routing block is therefore critical, most obviously if something is muted!
·        Note that when working properly it is possible to use the signal generator and RTA and see results, and this runs OK with the SHD plugin open and connected to monitor what is going on there too.
·        If running a sweep in REW then set the sweep sample rate to 44. kHz to avoid getting an apparently rolled off (is smoothed) high-frequency response. Setting both REW and SHD to 0 dB generates some distortion but dripping to as little as -0.2 dBFS in REW gives a sensible looking result with about 120 dB from signal peak to noise floor. T

Ultrasonic wrote:

Two quick thoughts are that you want to measure each channel separately not L+R, and I also wonder if you might have a high-pass filter active?

Below I'll copy and paste my own notes on how to do this, but they're for Windows not Mac. 

How to Make SHD ‘loop-back’ USB Measurements in REW
 ·        Set the SHD output ‘default format’ to 24 bit 44,100 Hz, rather than my normal 24 bit 96,000 Hz. (I don’t understand why but asx77 posted about needing to do his on the miniDSP forum and it does seem to be needed.) To do this:
o   Open the Windows Control panel (by typing Control in the Start menu search to find it)
o   Click Hardware and Sound, and then Sound.
o   Go to the properties option for the SHD and then go to the Advanced tab to find the required option to change.
·        Set the SHD to its USB input (can be done in Volumio), and of course have a USB lead connected!
·        Open REW and go to Preferences. Set the Input Device to Line (2- SHD Series) and the Input below this to LINE_IN (Master Volume). The Input choice of L or R will dictate what is used for the RTA, but if a sweep is going to be measured then this can be set there. (The Sample Rate set on this Soundcard Tab doesn’t seem to matter.)
·        When making measurements the left and right speakers correspond to the Dirac 1 and Dirac 2 inputs in the SHD routing, and the (usually microphone) Input L and R correspond to SHD outputs 1 and 2 in the signal routing. What is going on in terms of the corresponding SHD plugin for the corresponding routing block is therefore critical, most obviously if something is muted!
·        Note that when working properly it is possible to use the signal generator and RTA and see results, and this runs OK with the SHD plugin open and connected to monitor what is going on there too.
·        If running a sweep in REW then set the sweep sample rate to 44. kHz to avoid getting an apparently rolled off (is smoothed) high-frequency response. Setting both REW and SHD to 0 dB generates some distortion but dripping to as little as -0.2 dBFS in REW gives a sensible looking result with about 120 dB from signal peak to noise floor. T

Thanks so much. So you got it to work with the SHD specifically? @asx77 said he couldn't get it to work on the SHD, only the DDRC-24, and he couldn't understand why. I don't see how I could have a high pass filter in. I only have Dirac in the chain. I will set output to single channel and see if that changes anything. Hmmm . . . 

I'll reply in the other thread...