DIRAC on my Dad's rig

guyincognito

Well I finally made it to Louisiana to visit the family. I spent an afternoon helping my Dad run the DIRAC room correction on his new Rotel processor. The changes DIRAC made are instantly noticeable and we both are very pleased with the final outcome.

guyincognito

DIRAC has helped tame the bass modes and integrate the sub which is mainly what I expected. It also has "softened" the top end a bit. I previously thought that at times the Motion 60XT towers could sound a little bright but post DIRAC that appears to be gone now.

Clipdat

Nice looking setup!

BlueFox

Nice, but a little carpet will help.

guyincognito

They are moving back to my part of the country in the next year or so. The goal is a full on dedicated theater room in the next place. He may even separate the turntable (Rega Planar 6, Ania Pro, Aria phono stage) not seen in the photo and the digital source into a separate two channel system if space permits.

rooftop59

guyincognito wrote: »

They are moving back to my part of the country in the next year or so. The goal is a full on dedicated theater room in the next place. He may even separate the turntable (Rega Planar 6, Ania Pro, Aria phono stage) not seen in the photo and the digital source into a separate two channel system if space permits.

Nice!

By the way, I've got an Arcam SR250 on the way to try out (got a killer deal on it). How do you like yours?

guyincognito

The SR250 fits my use case very well since my system pulls double duty in the living room with a TV. I ditched multi channel surround sound in favor of a 2.1 system but still wanted to be able to watch TV/movies through the rig. The amplifier in the SR250 ended up being a little anemic for my Revel F208s but using the SR250 as a pre with my JC5 I am very happy. I had thought about going to a traditional pre, but after adding an external amp, I put those thoughts out of my head. It just sounds so damn good as it is.

The DIRAC room correction and the convenience of HDMI switching make it hard to beat for me. I have a cheap Sony blu-ray player that can play SACDs (but only through HDMI) and I was very suprised by how good the internal DAC on the SR250 sounded when a friend brought over some SACDs. The DSD layer with the Arcams internal DAC (via HDMI) sounded way better to both of us than the CD layer on the same disc going through my Benchmark DAC2 (via digital coax).

rooftop59

Thanks @guyincognito! I am running bookies with powered subs so I am hoping that the amp section is sufficient.

guyincognito

rooftop59 wrote: »

Thanks @guyincognito! I am running bookies with powered subs so I am hoping that the amp section is sufficient.

Let me (us) know your impressions once you get it. I highly encourage you to play with the DIRAC once you get it set up to your liking. It's well worth the effort.

jbreezy5

I’m a fan of DIRAC too. It’s kinda abstract how so many people claim to be “purist”, as a kind of knock against DIRAC, but they can tolerate the impurity of room nodes and poor driver integration.

Cheers to a variety of options!

guyincognito

jbreezy5 wrote: »

I’m a fan of DIRAC too. It’s kinda abstract how so many people claim to be “purist”, as a kind of knock against DIRAC, but they can tolerate the impurity of room nodes and poor driver integration.

Cheers to a variety of options!

This exactly! I have a friend with a very expensive system and it sounds good but I hear the room modes over everything. The idea of some sort of DSP is blasphemy to him but he also can't use any traditional room treatment due to WAF. A mini dsp would go a long way in addressing the problems but he can't get over the D to A conversion.

jbreezy5

guyincognito wrote: »

jbreezy5 wrote: »

I’m a fan of DIRAC too. It’s kinda abstract how so many people claim to be “purist”, as a kind of knock against DIRAC, but they can tolerate the impurity of room nodes and poor driver integration.

Cheers to a variety of options!

This exactly! I have a friend with a very expensive system and it sounds good but I hear the room modes over everything. The idea of some sort of DSP is blasphemy to him but he also can't use any traditional room treatment due to WAF. A mini dsp would go a long way in addressing the problems but he can't get over the D to A conversion.

Yeah, to your point, audiophiles will experiment with anything, down to special wood-block footers and RCA covers, but won’t even try DIRAC and let their ears decide.

I can understand where this could matter for someone who has certain gear in front of the DIRAC; for example, a certain dac or preamp they purchased specifically for its sonic characteristics, and they perhaps feel the extra d/a conversion negatively impacts that.

On the flip-side I’m currently running a PL Prologue Five tube amp on the back-end of DIRAC, and I’m getting all the tube characteristics I like with better L/R channel separation, minus the frequency response anomalies otherwise inherent in the amp itself.