Sound United Rocks the Industry: Announces Dirac Live Functionality on Select Denon and Marantz AVRs and Pre/Pros

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(September 27, 2022) CEDIA week is always full of surprises, and this is a big one. Today, Dirac and Sound United announced a collaboration to make Dirac Live available in several new AV receivers and preamps from Denon and Marantz. Bringing Dirac functionality to these brands is a major blow to Audyssey's presence in the home theater space and a massive boon to AV enthusiasts around the world.

With six new mid-range and high-end Denon and Marantz units that are Dirac Ready to run Dirac Live, Dirac and Sound United will release an over-the-air software update in March 2023 that will allow customers to purchase a license to activate one of Dirac Live’s main functions - Dirac Live Room Correction.

Powered by patented technologies, Dirac Live stands as one of the most popular room correction solutions on the market. It automatically addresses audio issues that all home audio systems have, but hardware alone can’t address – or takes too much time, expertise, and cost to do so. Dirac Live allows users to easily achieve dramatically enhanced sound experiences to hear the best possible sound from their home theater systems. It achieves this through a patented mixed-phase impulse response correction technology that corrects not just magnitude response, but also time domain – which is exclusive to Dirac Live and critical for creating accurate staging, clarity, and tight bass. Dirac Live Room Correction also generates an auto-target curve based on the sound system's unique measurements, which makes it easier for users to get even better sound quality from their system automatically. This auto target curve is then fully customizable so users can get their speakers to sound exactly how they want.

Dirac’s Vice President of Home & Pro Audio, Erik Rudolphi, says “Dirac and Sound United have long been leaders in their respective areas of audio engineering – pioneering many of the solutions and technologies that have created, and continue to create, the home theater industry,” stated Rudolphi. “Now, with the release of Dirac-enabled Denon and Marantz units, we’re showcasing the combined engineering leadership to the benefit of home theater owners and enthusiasts across the world. It’s a seminal moment for our companies and the industry and we look forward to the first-ever release of Dirac Live-enabled Denon and Marantz home theater devices.”

With Sound United as one of the world’s largest home theater equipment manufacturers, this announcement blows Dirac’s market presence wide open. It also brings wildly powerful technology to Sound United's well-regarded processors and AVRs.

As of now, Denon’s Dirac Ready units will include the Denon AVR/AVC-A1H, Denon AVR/AVC-X4800H, and Denon AVR/AVC-X3800H. Marantz’s Dirac Ready models will feature the Marantz AV 10, Marantz CINEMA 40, and Marantz CINEMA 50.
 
We are LOVING our new Denon receivers! We set-up Denon's new AVR-X3800H 9.4 channel receiver in our showroom.

Next week we'll have Marantz's new CINEMA 50 9.4 Channel Receiver and the CINEMA 60 7.2 Channel series and Denon's AVR-X2800H. I have all of the new Denon and Marantz receivers, processors and amps on our website.
 
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(September 27, 2022) CEDIA week is always full of surprises, and this is a big one. Today, Dirac and Sound United announced a collaboration to make Dirac Live available in several new AV receivers and preamps from Denon and Marantz. Bringing Dirac functionality to these brands is a major blow to Audyssey's presence in the home theater space and a massive boon to AV enthusiasts around the world.

With six new mid-range and high-end Denon and Marantz units that are Dirac Ready to run Dirac Live, Dirac and Sound United will release an over-the-air software update in March 2023 that will allow customers to purchase a license to activate one of Dirac Live’s main functions - Dirac Live Room Correction.

Powered by patented technologies, Dirac Live stands as one of the most popular room correction solutions on the market. It automatically addresses audio issues that all home audio systems have, but hardware alone can’t address – or takes too much time, expertise, and cost to do so. Dirac Live allows users to easily achieve dramatically enhanced sound experiences to hear the best possible sound from their home theater systems. It achieves this through a patented mixed-phase impulse response correction technology that corrects not just magnitude response, but also time domain – which is exclusive to Dirac Live and critical for creating accurate staging, clarity, and tight bass. Dirac Live Room Correction also generates an auto-target curve based on the sound system's unique measurements, which makes it easier for users to get even better sound quality from their system automatically. This auto target curve is then fully customizable so users can get their speakers to sound exactly how they want.

Dirac’s Vice President of Home & Pro Audio, Erik Rudolphi, says “Dirac and Sound United have long been leaders in their respective areas of audio engineering – pioneering many of the solutions and technologies that have created, and continue to create, the home theater industry,” stated Rudolphi. “Now, with the release of Dirac-enabled Denon and Marantz units, we’re showcasing the combined engineering leadership to the benefit of home theater owners and enthusiasts across the world. It’s a seminal moment for our companies and the industry and we look forward to the first-ever release of Dirac Live-enabled Denon and Marantz home theater devices.”

With Sound United as one of the world’s largest home theater equipment manufacturers, this announcement blows Dirac’s market presence wide open. It also brings wildly powerful technology to Sound United's well-regarded processors and AVRs.

As of now, Denon’s Dirac Ready units will include the Denon AVR/AVC-A1H, Denon AVR/AVC-X4800H, and Denon AVR/AVC-X3800H. Marantz’s Dirac Ready models will feature the Marantz AV 10, Marantz CINEMA 40, and Marantz CINEMA 50.
wow, that's amazing, wouldn't have thought that they would use Dirac live
 
It’s such a fabulous move for them. In my opinion, it allows them to resume control as top dog in the space. Hopefully Yamaha is paying attention!

I’m sure this announcement is going to bring questions about the availability of Dirac’s Bass Module. As of now, this launch only includes Dirac Live. Future inclusion of the Bass Module is being reserved as a “wait and see” topic.
 
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^ Always appreciate your technical knowledge! Very cool of you to follow these brand new bleeding edge a/v receivers and coming up with that off the top of your head gives me a nice entry on my conversations with the fine folks at Sound United.
 
Here's Denon's new AVR series:

- AVR-X2800H 7.2 Channel 95 Watts per channel $1,199

- AVR-X3800H 9.4 Channel 105 Watts per channel $1,699

- AVR-X4800H 9.4 Channel 125 Watts per channel $2,499

- A1H 15.4 Channel 150 Watts per channel $6,499

We have much to discuss here with the new enhancements of more HDMI inputs and outputs and supporting HDMI 2.1 with HDCP 2.3 on most inputs and outputs along with upgrades in the amplifiers, power supplies, and the overall design changes. All of the new receivers also support Auro 3D.

Here's a quick picture of the back side of the AVR-X3800H
Denon-X3800H-back-1.jpg


Marantz's new line of receivers also includes the flagship AV 10 15.4 ch PrePro a/v processor and their new multi channel amplifier.
 
Here's Denon's new AVR series:

- AVR-X2800H 7.2 Channel 95 Watts per channel $1,199

- AVR-X3800H 9.4 Channel 105 Watts per channel $1,699

- AVR-X4800H 9.4 Channel 125 Watts per channel $2,499

- A1H 15.4 Channel 150 Watts per channel $6,499

We have much to discuss here with the new enhancements of more HDMI inputs and outputs and supporting HDMI 2.1 with HDCP 2.3 on most inputs and outputs along with upgrades in the amplifiers, power supplies, and the overall design changes. All of the new receivers also support Auro 3D.

Here's a quick picture of the back side of the AVR-X3800H
View attachment 55185

Marantz's new line of receivers also includes the flagship AV 10 15.4 ch PrePro a/v processor and their new multi channel amplifier.

With three of those models having four, presumably independent, subwoofer channels, you’ve got to believe Dirac Live Bass Control will be forthcoming.
 
I was just able to confirm that all of Denon's and Marantz's new receivers and the pre-amp processor will have the Dirac Live Bass Control updated via firmware, but after we see the 1st update to enable Direc Live.
 
I was told by a Dirac Live insider that any Denon/Marantz AVR/AVP which will support 4 independent subwoofer outputs, will be eligible for a paid DLBC upgrade which will be available mid-2023. The top-end models, such as the A1H will also receive Dirac's upcoming spatial room correction (SRC), which is the full range version of DLBC. So DLBC is coming even for the X3800H !

Also, if one chooses not to upgrade to BLDC, then both Audyssey's Sub EQ and Dynamic EQ/Vol will work side-by-side with the conventional Dirac live filters (they're not compatible with DLBC, so to use Dynamic EQ/vol, DLBC must be bypassed and replaced by Audyssey's Sub EQ)
 
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I’m hearing something similar here at CEDIA, though I’ve been fed a much more of a “maybe” line. I think SU and Dirac still have some ironing out to do before they go live with any info pertaining to the Bass Module and beyond.

What I do know is that Audyssey isn’t going anywhere, even on the top models (for the time being, anyway). Marantz/Denon are keeping it in play for those just looking to get setup and roll. That means the Audyssey mic will continue to ship ;-). Those paying for Dirac Live will need to buy their own mic.
 
Update, it’s looking SoundUnited will infact be supporting Dirac Bass on its Denon and Marantz products… and the rumor is this gear will also support what is expected from Dirac late this year/early next year: Spatial Room Corrextion.

of course, we’ll have to wait and see what kind of support those add-one actually receive from a timing perspective. But this is really exciting news for owners of the new Denon and Marantz gear!
 
It will be exciting to see user feedback on the new Dirac room correction and a big plus for sound united if it works well. The potential is a game changer.

Best preview I’ve found of the feature is

@toddanderson , do you know if your Storm Audio processor will get this upgrade?
 
I believe so… but getting confirmation.

Matt did a great job with the breakdown. He’s really hit his stride with streaming discussions on tech topics.
 
I wish I could share some insights into this, but any sort of discussion is going to need to wait until our friends at Dirac make a move. If/when something happens, we’ll cover it!
 
Great CEDIA coverage! Love your YouTube Channel!!
 
Thank you, Robert!
 
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