TOPIC:

Hello Everyone,

So I found myself in the world of room correction, and want to make it a permanent fixture in my setup. I currently have

NAD M12 Preamp with Bluesound Card (which is my primary streaming source)
Luxman MB-3045 Tube monoblocks
Zu audio Druid MK5 speakers

The system has always been a bit bass lean, so I built a sealed subwoofer using an Eminence driver and a MiniDSP plate amplifier. The MiniDSP amp is great, and made getting the sub setup using REW very simple. However, the system was still a little lean, and considering I now own the calibration mic, I decided to do the trial of Dirac Live on my iMac, feeding the NAD via USB...

WOW! Not only did it give the bass more presence, but it got rid of some congestion in the mid/upper range. Very impressive. I was so against things like this (thinking more pure is better) but now I’m a convert.

So.. I want to integrate Dirac Live into this system, and I am not sure what the best unit would be:

The 24 series is unbalanced (the Luxman amps are unbalanced) and has more features. It may serve to control the sub better if I elect to keep it. (I cant say its adding that much although my room sweeps show a lot more bass response in the sub 35hz space) However, it does not have as powerful a ADC/DAC. Just for reference, right now the NAD is doing the subwoofer/main speaker crossover points.

The 22A would fit between the NAD and the Luxmans. However, I am not sure how this would work with a balanced output to the unbalanced input on the amps. (Conversion cable?) It’ does have a better ADC/DAC.

Option 3 is get the 22DA, lose the NAD completely, and use the 22DA as a DAC and room correction. This seems simplier because its doing everything digitally, and I am avoiding the ADC portion of the equation. I don’t really want to lose the NAD (it has a phono stage which I occassionally use, for example) but I could find a way around the phono issue if need be.

Any and all opinions welcome. I’m not sure what portion of this is simply academic, vs what is going to make a bigger sonic difference.

Thanks!

@richp4003

Sounds like a neat setup and glad to hear that you're enjoying Dirac!
The beauty of the DDRC_24 is it the simplicity and the ability to do a fully tuned 2.1 setup. i.e. with all the slopes and time alignment you'd want to tune as per this app note. www.minidsp.com/applications/digital-cro...4-hd-sub-integration
To our mind, it's the best way to tune a 2.1 setup (Rather than hybrid or doing only the L&R. I think that you'll hear a major improvement (going well above DAC specs on a datasheet..

Our 2cts based on our experience...

DevTeam

@devteam

Thank you for your feedback.. my Dirac trial just ended so its time I get the right miniDSP. I spoke to NAD as well, and they recommended if I were to use a miniDSP product to put it between the pre- and the amps.

Just to confirm, you are saying the best bet is to go with the DDRC_24, functioning with both dirac and subwoofer control, and this would be better than the 22A, even though its specs are higher? If I went with the 22A, the NAD would be feeding the sub directly, and as you said I would only have room correction on the L/R. The sub does have miniDSP control, but it wouldn't be part of the dirac curves..

haha, its hard to believe the little, cheaper one with "less" specs is the better choice!