TOPIC:

So, I have a minidsp shd with dirac.

I also am building an active three way speaker, so shd will not do.

I was looking at the flex 8, but I understand I cannot transfer the dirac licence from shd to flex 8.

Can I do something like  digital source - usb in shd - apply dirac -  digital out - digital in - Flex 8 apply crossover  - analog out - three amps - speaker.

I'm not sure I want to bother selling the SHD, on the other hand, I'd prefer not to buy another dirac licence.



 

Maybe a passive crossover between midrange and tweeter in your system???

Dave.

ldarieut wrote:

Can I do something like  digital source - usb in shd - apply dirac -  digital out - digital in - Flex 8 apply crossover  - analog out - three amps - speaker.

 

Yes, using a Flex 8 without Dirac Live. You could also use a 4 output Flex if you used your SHD to provide two of the required 6 analogue signal channels. Using a Flex 8 would be more straightforward to manage rather than worrying about preset configuration on two devices though, and would also give you the flexibility to add a subwoofer or two later on as well. 

I'll add that there is one technical advantage of using the SHD for the Dirac part over a Flex is that the SHD does so at 96 kHz whereas the Flex models do so at 48 kHz. How audibly significant this may be I can't comment on from experience as I've only used DL on an SHD.

Thank you. 
so, a simple minidsp 2x4 hd would work too? One Dirac channel out to woofer amp with low pass filter, the second Dirac channel out via spdif to the 2x4hd which applies band pass for mid and high pass for tweeter? 
I read this kind of configuration added some delay which were a problem?

ldarieut wrote:

Thank you. 
so, a simple minidsp 2x4 hd would work too? One Dirac channel out to woofer amp with low pass filter, the second Dirac channel out via spdif to the 2x4hd which applies band pass for mid and high pass for tweeter? 
I read this kind of configuration added some delay which were a problem?

Not quite. Dirac channels are the left and right of the stereo recording. Dirac 1 is the full-range signal going to the left speaker and Dirac 2 is the full-range signal going to the right speaker. Also the 2x4 HD only has a Toslink digital input so you couldn't sent a digital signal from an SHD to it; it would need to be analogue. Delay isn't inherently an issue as you'd add delay to the channels used on your SHD to compensate.

Here's an example of someone doing the sort of thing I was describing, which also covers the signal routing with a helpful picture:

www.minidsp.com/forum/diy-hifi-projects/...using-tannoy-drivers

 

Thanks for the hint Ultrasonic, reading it I actually realized the SHD being a 2x4, I can prototype a three ways (single speaker, oubviously). 
Without Dirac live, I could do this:
digital source usb in SHD
ch1 out to mono hypex nc400 to woofer
ch2 out to mono hypex nc400 to mid
ch3 out to "some other random amp I have lying around" to compression driver.
That would be enough to make some measurements, define the filters & crossovers, before I invest into some more gear and time to actually build the two speakers?


 

ldarieut wrote:

Thanks for the hint Ultrasonic, reading it I actually realized the SHD being a 2x4, I can prototype a three ways (single speaker, oubviously). 
Without Dirac live, I could do this:
digital source usb in SHD
ch1 out to mono hypex nc400 to woofer
ch2 out to mono hypex nc400 to mid
ch3 out to "some other random amp I have lying around" to compression driver.
That would be enough to make some measurements, define the filters & crossovers, before I invest into some more gear and time to actually build the two speakers?
 

Yes, you  could do that for testing.

Ultrasonic wrote:

 

Here's an example of someone doing the sort of thing I was describing, which also covers the signal routing with a helpful picture:

www.minidsp.com/forum/diy-hifi-projects/...using-tannoy-drivers


 

I've since updated this system to use a Flex-8 - makes life much simpler, but the cascaded setup works well too.