Dirac and room correction software

[Hifi_swlon]

I am encouraged by what I have read in this thread to try adding room correction to my system via a MiniDSP DDRC22D.  Unfortunately, this lacks usb input so I need to convert the output from my Aurender X100L  to either SPDIF or Toslink.  There are two Minidsp converters available to do this, so that's not a big problem.  By far the cheapest is the bare board ministreamer having SPDIF output, or there's the neat USBStreamer B unit, which has optical output.  From the sound quality point of view, would the latter be a preferred option with better freedom from interference?  Any other suggestions for usb converters (preferably readily available in the UK) capable of handling up to 24/96 files?

Last week I would have thought that adding these sorts of boxes/processes after your Aurender would kind of negate the spend on such a good quality source.

However, now I've tried Room Correction - and quickly reached the best sound I've heard out of my current system - I'd be prepared to let it go as the benefits of RC are huge in my case.

That said, I'd still be very tempted to see of there's any way to do the processing before the Aurender, just so you're absolutely maximising its potential as a source.  Aurender-wise I don't think its possible now.  But next year, if you were using Roon,  I'm sure you'd be able to process your RC on your Roon server, and send the result to the Aurender as a RoonReady endpoint.  There are quite a few missing pieces that aren't released yet (including the ability to run AU/VST plugins in Roon for Dirac or whatever RC software you want), but I feel it will all come together in 2016.

Admittedly my Dirac relationship has only been with one set of speakers and over a very short time, but in terms of what I'm hearing I'm very much doubting this is going to be a one night stand*. Until I'm ever in the position to have a fully treated and dedicated listening room, I'm going to press ahead exploring all RC options.  Even with a treated room, you can change the sound characteristic of the system at the touch of a button once its all setup, which is really nice!.

[* apart from the stupid thing not remembering the Devialet as an output, which is hugely frustrating but not really the fault of the Room Correction per-se]