Is Dirac the frog who aspired to become as big as the ox?

[Todd Anderson]

I may be wrong, but the way I've always viewed Dirac is that they have a technology and a server-side software and they license to hardware manufacturers the API to communicate with their software, but the user hardware-side integration is the responsibility of the hardware manufacturer to develop. If Dirac works with some products but not with others, that seems like a hardware manufacturer responsibility to address.

Similarly, I think we're finding hardware manufacturers discovering that when they licensed the tech, promised customers the feature, and sold them hardware and licenses, they did so before implementing Dirac and later found their hardware to be incapable of performing the task at hand. I've been watching this happen since Emotiva started implementing Dirac in the XMC-1. Big promises, underpowered hardware, shampoo rinse repeat.

Admittedly I don't know anything about the crossover bug mentioned in the first post.

This is how I understand it as well. This isn't sold as a plug and play solution, but rather something that manufacturers implement. Its up to them to code. A company like StormAudio is likely unique, where the coding is done in-house. I don't think you can say the same for brands like Onkyo. Not picking on Onkyo - just using them as an example.

When you outsource, it's a lot more difficult to quality control.

Following this.

 

[Skylinestar]

Arcams, etc have a DSP inside to execute long FIR filters. x86 with AVX/2/512 etc is also a capable FIR executioner. You can, of course, have 8/16 channels audio interfaces like Focusrite 18i20 (or 3x cheaper alternatives) to take in many channels with ASIO, filter/combine them, and output the audio the way you like it. If you have a stereo input and want to get a 7.1 output, you may get away with $100 Creative sound card. Everything will be under your full control.

There are a few programs to run FIR /etc for audio if you don't want to bother coding, like Equalizer APO.
You do not need a dedicated laptop; a mini PC with N100 ($200) will suffice.

May I know your suggestions for the 3x cheaper alternatives?

 

[perceval]

I wouldn't go cheaper than Focusrite. That's the bottom of what is "good enough".
Better is MOTU, best would range with RME.

A PC (or Mac mini) is very easy to set up, including apps like JRiver, that does music and video, including pretty much all the codecs.
JRiver is very nice to use for routing channels, balancing, applying EQ / FIR filters / or correction files (convolution) and delay to individual channels. All you need is a mic, REW and willing to spend an afternoon setting it all up. It will be even better than Dirac, which all those "click a button and let our AI find a correction for you" kinda app.

Sure, those correction apps cater to the crowd that doesn't care spending time understanding their room and wanting the best sound possible, but for the enthusiast, it is quite exciting to come up with your own filters and sit with a big smile to your perfectly set up system.

It's not a voodoo act that will magically make any room better. Remember that first, we need to treat the room, then let correction take care of the last few gremlins.

Sorry to derail a bit here, but there was a couple of questions regarding integrated preamps vs a computer and audio interface.

Good luck with Dirac, but myself, I could not give complete control to an app that phones home with your data to give you their filters, because if something happens along the way, they decide to close their servers or shift business, you are stuck with a virtual door stopper in your system.

 

[FSAF]

May I know your suggestions for the 3x cheaper alternatives?

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UMC1820--behringer-u-phoria-umc1820-usb-audio-interface

But - stability of interface and drivers is a huge headache. Recently, I got Creative FX V2 to run crossover into 3-way and found that its app crashes MATLAB. Good grief... I was told by pros that Focusrite is the most tested and reliable interface. I would support @perceval suggestion that going cheaper is not undebatable.

 

[Ettore]

I bought DLBC on release. Ideally it works well, but in practice I have always got exaggerated GD increase on my two subs, definitely audible and unwelcome....

I apologise for my ignorance, but I am absolutely interested to understand what you mean by ‘definitely audible’. I too have two subs (soon to become three) and the DLBC licence, I too see in the REW graphs a not inconsiderable GD for my subs, but I have never noticed any obvious and audible problems. Perhaps I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to be listening to though, so help would be greatly appreciated!
Ettore

 

[perceval]

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UMC1820--behringer-u-phoria-umc1820-usb-audio-interface

But - stability of interface and drivers is a huge headache. Recently, I got Creative FX V2 to run crossover into 3-way and found that its app crashes MATLAB. Good grief... I was told by pros that Focusrite is the most tested and reliable interface. I would support @perceval suggestion that going cheaper is not undebatable.

The MOTU has much better DAC and hence a better D/A than the Focusrite. MOTU drivers are also very stable, and there's updates when new OS comes out pretty quickly. Lots of home movie setups went with MOTU, you also see a unit at an audio fest sometimes. I have the MOTU M4 for L/R channels + two for low end units.

Still can't touch RME in drivers responsiveness and low latency, but latency is not something so important for music playback, and easily fixed within a player for synching video and audio, whether it is JRiver, VLC, etc... but that's another price bracket.

 

[madFloyd]

I apologise for my ignorance, but I am absolutely interested to understand what you mean by ‘definitely audible’. I too have two subs (soon to become three) and the DLBC licence, I too see in the REW graphs a not inconsiderable GD for my subs, but I have never noticed any obvious and audible problems. Perhaps I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to be listening to though, so help would be greatly appreciated!
Ettore

I'm also very interested in this. By the way, what does GD stand for?

And a couple other questions:

1) Are we able to revert to an earlier version of Dirac?

2) Are we better off just using Dirac Live and not DLBC?

3) Should we get around the bug by making every crossover the same value?

Thanks...

 

[Ettore]

I'm also very interested in this. By the way, what does GD stand for?
......

GD stays for Group Delay.
Ettore

 

[FargateOne]

I would like that this thread stay focused to the subject of the title because we are in a very critical moment in our (mine) struggle of more than 2 years to finally get a fix of many bugs between DLBC and Harman Luxury line of receivers. The CEO of Dirac posted here. It is not enough for me because the CEO of Harman Luxury should have posted also here.
To be perfectly honest, I fear a lot that Harman will refuse to make the softwatre updated in Arcam probably needed to make DLBC working again. I am also afraid that Arcam/JBL will abandon there rights to use Dirac and DLBC condemning us to stay stuck with defectives units and no compensations at all.
For Dirac to offer us a repay of our DLBC licence would seem enough in case of a total failure to fix their mess. What can I say about buying a receiver thousands of dollars with the sole aim of getting DLBC to manage 2 subs and then being faced with the fait accompli that you don't get what you paid for? I fear that Arcam will tell us to settle for v3.4.4 it would be adding insult to injury.
Up to date none of those 2 companies ever said: we will do ALL what is needed to fix the mess we have created. We only read, we are doing our best but you know it is difficult....blablabla.

We already know that Denon/Marantz will be fixed because Dirac worked only on those unit since the beginning...Arcam blaming me to fail to tell them sooner the problem...can you believe that????