Any experiences with Dirac Live Room Correction / NAD C 658

[beneix]

I have the opportunity to purchase a NAD C 658 at a decent price. It has a digital room correction circuit built-in.

I have always been a bit conservative and strived for "pure path" HiFi (my current amp doesn't even have tone controls!), so I have no experience of room correction in a HiFi context.

Does anyone have experience of using either the NAD C 658, or the Dirac algorithms (I believe they are built into equipment from several other manufacturers)? Does it work? Do you get the desired effect (a more perfect in-room frequency response) without the traditional issues from e.g. equalizers?

[schoeppi]

On Mon, Nov 29, 2021 at 08:00:02AM +0000, beneix wrote:
>
>Does anyone have experience of using either the NAD C 658, or the Dirac
>algorithms (I believe they are built into equipment from several other
>manufacturers)? Does it work? Do you get the desired effect (a more
>perfect in-room frequency response) without the traditional issues from
>e.g. equalizers?

Sorry, I have no experience with NAD and I didn't use equalizers, but using
DSP was the biggest improvement in sound I had after tweaking room
acoustic. I do not like listen without DSP anymore :-).

I have a MiniDSP Studio with a squeezelite running on it and the results are
very good. Dirac is easy to use and making measurements is no big deal.


But I have even gotten better results by using a meassurement software
called Acourate:

https://www.audiovero.de/en/

Mr. Brueggemann, the master mind behind Acourate, created the filters for me
via a Team Viewer Online session, because understanding and using Acourate
needs a bit of expirience.

I've included the filters into a little Linux box called CleanWolver, which
is also offered by Mr. Brueggemann. Its a Rasberry PI which sits between
your streamer and DAC and which does the sound convolution. Ofcourse you
need an external DAC for such a setup and the streamer and DAC have to be
connected via USB, at least this was necessary in my setup.

So, the easiest and not to complex way, and for sure also the cheaper
solution, is the NAD with Dirac. Maybe it is the first step to get in touch
with DSP for you.

But if you like to have real control on the filters you use, e.g. Acourate
might be the better solution. But this needs also more time and means a lot
of learning, trying, measuring, listening, measuring again, e.g...., or buy
support from Mr. Brueggemann, he knows all the tricks reagring DSP and his
software :-).

Ciao,

Schoepp





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[chrissy]

Hi,

I habe no experience with NAD, but use the minidsp shd including Dirac for some time now. Dirac is great and improved my system drastically. I would consider buying an shd and a separate power Amp. This could not only be cheaper than the NAD but be more flexible than having an all in one box. The shd also runs squeezelite, so is compatible with a lms environment without separate pi or similar as a player.
Greets
Christian.

[beneix]

Sorry, I have no experience with NAD and I didn't use equalizers, but using
DSP was the biggest improvement in sound I had after tweaking room
acoustic. I do not like listen without DSP anymore :-).

I have a MiniDSP Studio with a squeezelite running on it and the results are
very good. Dirac is easy to use and making measurements is no big deal.


But I have even gotten better results by using a meassurement software
called Acourate:

https://www.audiovero.de/en/

Thanks so much for the detailed response! Really interesting; I had not heard of this company before. They even have a similar piece of equipment to the NAD (but without the streaming capability). Now you've given me something to think about...

[beneix]

Hi,

I habe no experience with NAD, but use the minidsp shd including Dirac for some time now. Dirac is great and improved my system drastically. I would consider buying an shd and a separate power Amp. This could not only be cheaper than the NAD but be more flexible than having an all in one box. The shd also runs squeezelite, so is compatible with a lms environment without separate pi or similar as a player.
Greets
Christian.

I have also toyed with the idea of buying something from MiniDSP and putting it in my path. My problem is that I have a balanced connection between my preamp and my active speakers, so I can't really use any of the MninDSP equipment if I want all of my sources to be processed.

[chrissy]

Hi,

The shd has 4 balanced outputs and replaces your preamp. This should work fine.
Greets
Christian

[beneix]

Hi,

The shd has 4 balanced outputs and replaces your preamp. This should work fine.
Greets
Christian

Thanks - I'll think about it. Here in Europe the price of the SHD is on par with the NAD. The SHD doesn't seem to have 12V trigger output for my power amplifier, and the NAD has a built-in streamer, so that may sway the choice.

[schoeppi]

> Am 30.11.2021 um 15:14 schrieb beneix <beneix.abxkon (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com>:
> Thanks - I'll think about it. Here in Europe the price of the SHD is on
> par with the NAD. The SHD doesn't seem to have 12V trigger output for my
> power amplifier, and the NAD has a built-in streamer, so that may sway
> the choice.

If you or anyone is interested in buying a MiniDSP SHD Studio just let me know. I’d sell my unit because I was only using the CleanWolver solution during the last year and I do not think this will change in future. So the MiniDSP is more usefull for someone who likes to ply with it.

I am in Germany and the unit has been a display item before and was only used in a Hifi store. All accessories and the original box is available and if anyone is interested I can also sell a Ifi Power supply for the unit.

Cheers,

Schoepp

[BoxOfCables]

Room EQ Wizard and SoX are also a good option, you need a calibrated mic (like a miniDSP mic) but no other hardware.

[tfec]

I'm living in a small room with hard walls therefore the bass is my problem. Using a Behringer ECM8000 microphone and REW I measured the plain sound (green). Then I buildt a room correction with parametric equalizers in Moodeaudio and measured again (red). Listening is far better now.