TOPIC:

May be that I am wrong in this topic and moderator will kindly shift it elsewhere.

I am a newbie in this forum and have just received my DIRAC DDRC-22D/A. I write "D/A" because I bought D-version which I had to change to A-version (with an extra AN-FP) because actually I am using a pure analog system.

As an old, retired guy I inherently hate all digital stuff; may be that at my birth God has refused to supply with an according brains winding ... therefore I was a little afraid about setup procedure... but even for me it was an easy task..
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Even unpacking all items was a pleasure - miniDSP has thought about everything: all cables, 2 (!!) tripods for microphone, sturdy chassis, etc., a complete package - I was really impressed!

Installation was finished just only 30 minutes ago; now I sit here an hear music and feel forced to report instantly. And though the unit is brand new out from the box like the extra needed analog cables, and amps should have warmed up for an extra hour, I can only report: marvelous! Highly recommended! My cheapest improvement during the last years. And it's so tiny, has excellent WAF - if I think about large pillars, tubes etc. for room treatment - horrible!

My sincere compliments to miniDSP!

Wished improvements: a powerful analog supply (remember: I am an old analog guy-of course I will build one for myself), XLR-contacts should not be gold-plated, and a more rigid cinch connector for SPDIF -I/Os. But of course miniDSP had to keep an eye to total costs....

Excellent. I'm going to pick mine up today from FedEx.

@hm4nine,

Thanks so much for the positive feedback and we're certainly glad to hear when we're able to convince an analog guy.. It's really neat to see how quickly you've been putting things together and certainly glad to hear you're happy of the end result! Dirac software is very powerful as you'll learn, lots of things can be done with it.

Thanks also for the feedback, very well taken and we'll see how we can improve things for future. We look forward to maybe a short showcase of your setup in the HIFI showcase section of this forum. Will certainly give end users good feedback of your setup.

DevTeam

hm4nine, glad you are pleased with your unit. I am thinking of purchasing the digital version. Can you describe in words the effect the processor has had on the sound of your system. I can't be bothered with the whole two week Dirac free trial. I just want to plug and play (and pay). I would greatly appreciate your or anybody else's insight.

Thank you.

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John, I am thinking of purchasing the digital version. Can you describe in words the effect the processor has had on the sound of your system. I can't be bothered with the whole two week Dirac free trial. I just want to plug and play (and pay). I would greatly appreciate your insight.

Thank you.
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I have a rather unsymmetric listening (=living) room: on its right side there is a big window (6 metres long) which let me look into my garden. On its left side it is opened because of a (open) staircase. And though I treated ceiling of this staircase with dampening material I could hear some resonances when clapping my hands. Nevertheless I was not unhappy with my sound and several friends confirmed that I have a top sounding system.
Having measured frequency response with DIRAC I was rather surprised to see much more tips and dips in the right channel. DIRAC helped to equalize frequency response resulting into reduced booming and improved overall clarity. Though response correction had only to be done at lower frequencies, room resonances must have a masking effect on mids and heights - so I think at least.
In a few months I will have re-configured my audio system because my 6 mono amplifiers will be finished.; then I can tri-amp my Tannoy TD12 loudspeakers (I have already removed original X-over and put it into an external box). And then I will try to use the DIRAC only in the lower channel....
Actually I am waiting for a new board to build a linear supply for my DIRAC as announced in my starting comment. If somebody has identical intentions he/she should know that my analog DIRAC has a (measured) current consumption of 424mA at 5V.

Well, on my digital prototypes, which are actually quite good, I've been tweaking some issues and such with the parametic EQ on the MiniDSP with debatable success, but getting there. The problem is...I have no better reference by which to judge them. They spank everything else i have laying around. So with Dirac used ONLY anechoically (measured outdoors), I got the following changes:

1. Fixed a natural dip at the crossover region where both drivers naturally are rolling off. I needed to do more work in the EQ area here, clearly
2. Gave me better, more articulate bass. Not by a lot in this case, but I can see how it could be good on a peaky speaker.
3. Fixed a slighly sibilant sound I was getting.
4. Improved the imaging and sense of space.
5. Improved the clarity of the midrange.
6. Generally created a more "liquid" sound, less digital sounding, less gritty sounding, more enjoyable.
7. Made my Rush CDs sound actually less than crappy on a high-end system, which is no small feat. More natural and less compressed sounding.

But this is good because I know more of where I can tweak the speaker. The REW measurements, in room, showed a more accurate sound, but then, I need to gate them, which I did not do. I also found that a 275Hz peak was actually a room effect, not a speaker flaw. So it unEQed what I'd EQed.

And it doesn't sound harsh and thin like Audyssey, so that's a big thing. Because Audyssey's attitude is "we're mathemacians, we know what we're doing, you don't."

John, the magic question: Is it worth the $899 price?

Rich

I feel free to answer instead of John: yes, every cent IMHO

Well, I would say yes. It would be nice it were less, obviously. That was one of my objections at first, especially given my bad experience with Audyssey. I would say it's most obviously useful to anyone who has a bad room or can't position their speakers well. Perfect for wall mount speakers that never move, for instance. But even if you have high-end speakers, set up properly, this is a heckuva an upgrade. Especially compared to the old paradigm of buying monoblock amps and $1000/pair cables and a tube preamp. The reality is that it would be worth it even at a much higher price.

The question is.....do you have $900. And of course, how happy are you with your setup? If you want to spend $900 to make your system better, it's going to be hard to find anything that would make this big of a difference, if at all. The only things that I might consider first would be better speakers or digitally biamping. But even then, it would be interesting to take a crappy pair of Yamaha speakers, EQ them, and then run them against something much higher end. Because I've heard a lot of expensive speakers with ridiculously bad problems.

As an example, if you had Thiel speakers ,I would HIGHLY recommend ditching the crossovers and running them digital active and see how amazing they get. Their problem isn't so much the FR, or impulse response, but the 1st order crossovers add a lot of lobing and distortion. Or if you have Bose speakers, well, get better speakers. But aside from those extremes.......

The great thing about the Dirac though, it would be useful no matter what you have and what you change over time. What I don't know is how it handles multiple curveballs, like say a dipole ribbon speaker in an oddly shaped room, echoey room. If you have that, you're in trouble, the question is, do you EQ out of it, or go to a different solution. It is a huge improvement for me and I can't see it making anything worse given my results.

The only thing I would like to see is more control over the time and gaiting. And the ability to correct your speakers on one setting, then do speaker/room correction on the next. I mean, you can, but you have to drag your speakers outside as I did as I haven't found any way of gating out the room reflections as REW allows (and why would they if they're selling as room correction?).

So, yes, totally worth it from my experience. What I don't know is how well it works on horns or dipoles or ribbons or first order speakers, so someone else might have a different experience than me. . But with the ability to tweak the curve, or if you want, only correct the speakers, you have plenty of flexibility to make sure it's worth it. And it seems like their algorithms are on solid ground.


Also! I apoligize for not being super effervescent about it, I probably should be. I just get really analytical when people ask me things and so I try to be more cautious about it. I think if you heard my experience, you'd run out and get one.