Dirac and room correction software

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I've since done quite a bit of work on integrating my sub-woofer more carefully, and have added the DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 which subjectively does a better job than Dirac of sorting out the sub-150 Hz part of the spectrum.

That's disappointing because I had high hopes of Dirac based on what I read on their site. It will be interesting to hear Rodney's conclusions. I just looked at the DSpeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core spec on the web-site and it seems to have integral DACs. Are these always in the signal path?

Well, I would encourage you to try Dirac anyway -- it's fairly easy to get started using the trial version to see what it does in your system/room, and there's nothing to lose except a bit of time.

The Anti-Mode has analog and digital inputs and outputs, so I understand that if you use it in a digital-in, digital-out mode there is no conversion taking place. That could work nicely if you use it in line between a digital source and the Devialet, I guess. In my case I'm using it in analog-in, analog-out mode so there will be a DAC and ADC in the signal path. However since it's in line between the Devialet's sub-out and the sub-woofer input, I doubt the conversion is causing any significant artefacts within the sub's frequency range.

As I recall, the miniDSP Dirac boxes are a bit less flexible: you choose when you buy them whether you want digital in and out, analog in and out, or digital in to analog out. This slightly limited flexibility was one of the main reasons I opted for the Anti-Mode instead.

My impression so far is that full-range computer-based room correction is probably not a "set and forget" operation, but something that one might want to continually tweak in an attempt to flatten out ever smaller kinks in the measured response.

Oh no, that's the last thing I want. I just want 'set and forget'

Perhaps a better way to say this is that the nature of the process and in particular the visibility of the frequency response measurement could encourage frequent tweaking if one is of that bent. Maybe you are more disciplined than I and could resist the temptation!

I hope you don't let my conclusions put you off, but try it out and let us know how you get on.

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Thinking aloud...it occurs to me that it would be very useful if the Devialets had a digital pre-out and power-amp in, like an old-fashioned tape loop. This could be the perfect way to integrate an external room correction box. Maybe their architecture makes this impossible?