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Dirac and room correction software
I listened to the "Amethyst" from Trinnov Audio (french, not russian) on the Northern Germany Hifi-Days and it was the first digital room correction sytem that convinced me not to loose the musical flow in its system due to immense digital meddling. The microphones arrangement for calibration consists of 4 capsules sitting next to eachother enabling the system to triangulate position and timing. Very nice and absolute unique.
Also it can drive two active subwoofer just to eliminate roomresonances. It's a complete preamp with many inputs and a very good phono stage...naff we don't need them.
The sound was very transperant for my ears, but you can hardly tell on a Highendfair.

http://www.trinnov.com/products/hi-fi/am...lang=en_us

The setback is its cost... 10k€.

gui
"Oh, you can buy the other. But then it is a cost intensive learning process"
berlin
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So i have just placed an order for a MiniDSP UMIK-1... should be with me in a few days
is there any of you kind folks out there that would be willing to hold my hand through the whole room correction process? pretty please Smile
.
Foobar2000/Win10 ~ Devialet 440Pro ~ Tannoy Precision 6.4 ~ Auralic Taurus Mk2 ~ Sennheiser HD700
The Missing Link Cryo Reference Mains Cables / The Chord Company Silver Plus USB / Townshend Isolda Bi-Wire Speaker Cables / Townshend Isolda DCT 300 Interconnects / Quadraspire Q4 EVO Rack

The Cotswolds England
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(01-Apr-2016, 05:41)tyefighter Wrote: So i have just placed an order for a MiniDSP UMIK-1... should be with me in a few days
is there any of you kind folks out there that would be willing to hold my hand through the whole room correction process?  pretty please Smile

It's very straightforward tyefighter - thats what's great about Dirac, they've put a lot of effort into taking away the complication from the users POV.

The one bit I was unsure about was the calibration file, which you download based on serial # once you get the mic. If you point at the speakers, you use the normal calibration, if you point at the ceiling, you use the 90 degree. Unfortunately there's a bit of confusion on the web which didnt help when I was reading about it. There also doesn't seem to be much consensus on which way to measure. I did it pointing at ceiling, if I do it again I might try 'at speakers' (although mine are relatively wide at listening position).

You plug in the mic and put it in the 'hero' position, on a mic stand.
start dirac
set volumes (start low on the amp and work your way up)
(remember to disable tone controls/SAM as required)
measure the hero position
then follow the diagram to do the other 8 positions (Dirac say avoid using too small an area)
save project fort those measurements, and build filter using its default target
save default target.
(experiment with other targets as required, saving the target and making a new filter for each).

test with the dirac audio processor
- load in your filters and then you can toggle between the different curves and between with and without Dirac.
If you care to, you can also adjust your attenuation and delay timings as required.

I found setting the volume with the white noise very distracting - it needed to go pretty loud for me, far louder than I ever use the amp. and i was barely into the green. But actually the measurements aren't too bad. Now I just use the white noise to 'test' it works and then use the volume I know is safe. The only other gotcha I found on a mac is when you use the Dirac gain to set the initial volume, it actually lowered the Macs system volume, which seemed a pretty sloppy way of doing it.

Anyway, writing it down makes it sound more complex than it is in reality.

Just be careful with the volume until you get used to it, and remember to turn it back down after measuring. Other than that I can't see what else you could do wring thats actually important. Give yourself time to have a couple of goes.

And you might need a USB extension cable for the mic - I did - its pretty short.

Good luck with it.

(also, note, I'm a novice in RC terms - RodneyG on this forum, and many others, are much more experienced so this is more of a noobs guide!)

>>> 1st Place Award: Devialet, last decades most disappointing technology purchase.  <<<

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Just bear in mind that Dirac etc applies a minimum -6db lowering of levels so as to avoid digital clipping and give it headroom to boost .. defualt is -10db , but you can select -6/-3/0 -- -3 and 0 is not adviseable
One other thing I would suggest is to track down buzzes and rattles in the low bass before the measurement
I use the umik pointed at the speakers .. the first measuring point is critical .. it has to be in the sweet spot and at your ear level and so on
At the end of it all , the curve you define that you want to correct to , must NOT be flat..it will sound awful
You need some bass boost below 100-150hz and you need treble droop .. otherwise the sound will be bass light and shrill
The target curve is subjective , ie its up to your ears what sounds good to you.. no universal truth
You also dont have to correct full freq , ie you can correct for bass only etc.. a lot of folk dont want or need to correct Full freq
Roon/tidal > Squeezebox touch  > Trinnov St2 or DIRAC (minidsp ddrc-22d) > Dual mono D premiers > Vivid Audio Giya G1 Spirits  ...fully treated  dedicated 6x8m room
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A few notes from my experience, which isn't perfectly parallel because I use Amarra Symphony with Dirac and the XTC microphone they bundled.

I adjusted the input gain so that I didn't need the volume too high, but also wear hearing protection to make it more comfortable.

The measurements are most effective when given enough of a difference between positions. I think that they recommend a minimum of 1m in total but I found better results (even in the sweet spot) when measuring the full width of my couch than a chair's space.

The graphics for measurement position can be confusing, but the concept is to take the initial critical measurement where your ear would be in the sweet spot then additional measurements are creating a sphere around that point for offset calculations.
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awesome replies guys, i really appreciate it
sounds simple enough to take the measurements

my fingers are crossed for it to delivered tomorrow so i can have a play at the weekend Smile
.
Foobar2000/Win10 ~ Devialet 440Pro ~ Tannoy Precision 6.4 ~ Auralic Taurus Mk2 ~ Sennheiser HD700
The Missing Link Cryo Reference Mains Cables / The Chord Company Silver Plus USB / Townshend Isolda Bi-Wire Speaker Cables / Townshend Isolda DCT 300 Interconnects / Quadraspire Q4 EVO Rack

The Cotswolds England
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Hi Guillaume,

A long time ago, you posted a measurement made of your room with Dirac software, which was showing a huge peak at 30 Hz. Could you share with us how you were able to get rid of this, knowing that bass-traps are not efficient at these frequencies ?
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(17-Apr-2016, 12:56)SwissBear Wrote: Hi Guillaume,

A long time ago, you posted a measurement made of your room with Dirac software, which was showing a huge peak at 30 Hz. Could you share with us how you were able to get rid of this, knowing that bass-traps are not efficient at these frequencies ?

Perhaps my brain adjusted for this? Lol

Last time I measured with the Trinnov it was quite a bit lower... this was after I installed the GIK panels.

I would need to take more measurements since my speakers are now on Stillpoints and also I have made small adjustments to their positioning. 

Guillaume
Industry disclosure: UK distributor for Shunyata Research

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UK
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(17-Apr-2016, 13:04)GuillaumeB Wrote: Perhaps my brain adjusted for this? Lol

Last time I measured with the Trinnov it was quite a bit lower... this was after I installed the GIK panels.

I would need to take more measurements since my speakers are now on Stillpoints and also I have made small adjustments to their positioning. 

Guillaume

Thanks Guillaume.

You might not be able to directly compare measures made with Dirac and measures made with Trinnov ; by default, Trinnov smooths the curves to 1/3 octaves. Dirac smooths at 1/8 octaves (http://www.dirac.com/faq-technical). The later offers more details on the defects. You can adjust this parameter in Trinnov and the curves I posted on the other thread were 1/12 octaves, so even more detailed and therefore unfavorable.
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I installed the recent Dirac 1.2 update for OSX (I'm using 10.9.5) and recalibrated from scratch.

All worked fine.

It now remembers (and reconnects to) the selected output device, which was a major issue for me with a headless server. SmileSmile
the added clip indicator is helpful.

I'm sort of regretting ordering a microrendu now, as if it sounds good it's going to put me back at square one as it won't be easy to use Dirac with it. Anyway, this week I can just enjoy my free trial (again) and not worry about it.

>>> 1st Place Award: Devialet, last decades most disappointing technology purchase.  <<<

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