Dirac Live
At first I had trouble keeping a connection to the Dirac server due to my ancient computer and operating system. I bought a new one, loaded 32 GB of ram and the connection was steady as a rock.
I then loaded the equalization and crossover settings provided by POS in the output section as Dirac will not allow you to load equalization in the input section in the minidsp. Using a minidsp UMIK-1 mic as recommended by Dirac I proceeded to the volume calibration settings setting the output and mic settings. If these settings are too low Dirac will let you know. I then went to measurement section and chose the 13 position measurements which record data from the front, back and both sides of the listening position. It is important that these measurements are equal for both sides of the measured position and room needs to be as quiet as possible. After that I went to the filter design section where you can accept the preliminary settings or customize them by the use of shelving and/or individual equalizer control points. You can then export the project to a slot on the MiniDsp. These settings can be edited at any time.
Upon playing music using Dirac I noticed a great reduction in room resonances without sacrificing bass response. Instruments and voices had a greater degree of separation with a spatial quality in the music. I verified this by toggling between the regular Flex module and Dirac. Two of the recordings I used was The Who's, Eyesight to the Blind from the album Tommy. Keith Moon's drumming and crash cymbals sounded more life like. The other recording was Pink Floyd's Pigs (three different ones) from the album Animals(2018 remix). The spatial quality was excellent with David Gilmour's guitar more life like. All music sounds better but well recorded material stands out.
The system is by no means perfect but it is deeply satisfying. The next project is treating the room itself. My listening space is 12'x16' with a carpeted floor and double window. I plan to put drapes over the windows and then get some bass traps and acoustic panel.
At some point I plan on purchasing a MiniDsp Flex eight which will allow me to try DSP on the L300s.
Regards
Al
Below are some snapshots of the results using Dirac.
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