Anyone good with Dirac? I'm having a heckuva time getting it to work.

[PersonalTriumph]

As the subject says, I cannot get Dirac to work on my NAD C658. Crutchfield's help desk is useless and NAD's is unresponsive.

Whenever I try to run it on my laptop I get a message that says "low signal-to-noise level" and says turn off HVAC, etc. The room is DEAD QUIET and I've tried every combination of microphone gain and speaker level to correct this.

As evidence that it's not the room's fault or room noise, when I run Dirac either my Ipad or Iphone, I am able to successfully get through all of the measuring points. But when it processes the measurements, I get a message that says "Invalid argument. Restarting the application may be necessary." It happens every time.

Any ideas/help you can offer would be appreciated. It's getting to the point where I'm so frustrated I'm getting ready to send the NAD back to Crutchfield.

[racrawford65]

That's a bummer. I've not used DIRAC and you already tried changing the microphone gain. Maybe try a different USB port or USB cable on your laptop. Also, double check the mic gain after each measurement - seems that is a work-around for some with Anthem's ARC on certain laptops.

Also, is DIRAC on your laptop able to access the mic? Found the following via a quick Google search - not your hardware but possib
https://www.minidsp.com/forum/dirac-series-support/17179-volume-calibration-bugs-and-low-signal-to-noise

or lower mic volume/increase master volume? I've not read the entire thread so maybe more suggestions. Again, not a NAD but for DIRAC - which is probably where the issue is (some setting in the software or laptop)
https://emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/57395/dirac-signal-noise-level-error

[PersonalTriumph]

I tried it with my wife's Mac. It worked. Go figure. No idea why it didn't like my Windows laptop.

That said...I prefer the straight sound to the equalization Dirac cooked up. Everything sounds dead...it took all the excitement out of the music.

Takeaways for anyone visiting this thread in the future: don't bother with the mobile apps, they haven't been updated in years (something I discovered while troubleshooting.) Use a Mac if possible. I still don't know why it wouldn't run on my Windows laptop.

[racrawford65]

glad you got it to work. perhaps one day you'll figure out why it wouldn't run on Windows.

Interesting that you prefer no EQ to Dirac. I'm the same with Anthem's ARC (which is supposed to be close to Dirac). I did give ARC sometime but did seem to take the dynamics from the music. It's fine for movies but not music.

[mikesiskav]

One of the great thing about Dirac is you can use the curve editor to customize the curve. You can also adjust the "curtains" to limit the correction to certain areas (20hz - 400hz for example).

[natetg57]

One of the great thing about Dirac is you can use the curve editor to customize the curve. You can also adjust the "curtains" to limit the correction to certain areas (20hz - 400hz for example).

My brother and I had some issues with REW running on Windows. There were some sound settings that needed turned off for the microphone to work correctly. Maybe a similar issue

[Pogre]

Could be Dirac flattened out your response (generally a good thing) and what you're missing is a room curve. I know Audyssey does that. Audyssey also has a Dynamic EQ setting that adds varying degrees of boost to lower frequencies, which I use and prefer. Without it my bass does sound kinda lacking, even tho it measures almost perfectly flat down to 16 hz. Most of us prefer a li'l bump in bass to make up for our hearing insensitivity to lower frequencies.

Either way it's really hard to say what's going on without some fr charts tho.

[rickm]

Interesting thread! I love my Yamaha A-S2200 with the Towers (RAAL) but have been thinking about a newer amp with room correction. Looks like room correction may not be the panacea it is advertised to be.

[Pogre]

I dug up some old sweeps to illustrate. This first one is after some manual tweaking, but Audyssey's goal is to get the fr as even as possible.

2188

That's pretty flat and linear. Dirac could possibly have the same goal. Flat is technically accurate, but because of the way we hear it can sound thin. At least it does to me. A lot of folks (me included) prefer a little bump in bass with a room curve. There's more than one way to do it too. After calibrating flat in deepest extension mode I open up the ports on my subs, flip my subs' amp's onboard switch to EQ 2, turn on DEQ and I get this.

2187

That's my room curve, and to me sounds much better than flat. You can see there's a gradual rise and a peak around 25 - 30 hz. A little more energy in the audible range where we can hear it a little better, but still has plenty of tr. Like I said you can build a room curve in more ways than one too. If your sub doesn't have variable tuning you can always use dsp and do it manually, or Dirac might have some options built in like Audyssey's DEQ.

[racrawford65]

those curves look pretty good.

I've gotten similar results with REW & miniDSP, and have a config that is flat and one with a house curve.

@rickm you may want to consider room treatments (eg GIK Acoustics) before investing in a new amp with room correction. If you go that route, GIK (and others) will make recommendations based on your room. I'd start slowly, though, eg bass traps first, then add as may be necessary. Don't want to over treat your room.

You could also consider a miniDSP or dSpeaker, depending on your setup and which would work best for your needs.

[curtis]

I have used Dirac and currently use Anthem's ARC/Genesis.

For each, I only did/do correction below about 400hz or so, and in my room they made noticeable improvements. Doing the room correction above that range it started to sound artificial to me.

That said, room correction, IMO, is a must have...with and without room treatments. I am very happy to see Dirac starting to be offered in equipment at lower price points.

BTW...for Dirac, it is important to note that the full version gets you much more "tuneability", but that usually isn't included when you buy the pre/pro.

[rickm]

Certainly not trying to hijack this thread with my comment - although I do want to thank racrawford65 for the advice.

[racrawford65]

You're welcome, rickm. Robert

[PersonalTriumph]

Some of the folks in the community expressed interest in seeing the measurements. I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at, so I'm going to do my best to post these in a sensible order.

Here is the left speaker with no EQ, as measured by Dirac:

2189

Right Speaker with no EQ:

2190

Left Speaker after Dirac:

2191

Right speaker after Dirac:

2192

No idea what these are:

2193
2194
2195

[Pogre]

Do you have any actual "after" sweeps? I'm not familiar with Dirac, but the after charts you posted look like predicted responses and not actual. Plus I was a little more focused on your bass fr with your sub(s), not your main speakers since you mentioned it seemed thin.