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MartinC

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Another miniDSP owner here, I must say I was only interested in the Dirac Live facility and I'd say the results I got were very pleasing. I may go to another DSP solution in the future but for now I am a happy miniDSP owner.
What model do you have out of interest?
 

westerwick

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I got the miniDSP SHD (?) It has plenty of inputs for analogue as well as digital. It’s really my pre-amp which outputs via xlr to my Hegel H360. I suppose it means there’s a lot of redundancy in the Hegel but the combination makes beautiful music. I don’t stream from the SHD, that’s done by an Auralic Aries.
 

bencat

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Well after what seems like months of problems and issues I have finally got my main system using DDRC 22D as a DIRAC Live DSP in to my Quad ESL 57 and driven by my Croft OTL working . The issues have been too many and too frustrating to detail but if anything could go wrong with each part of the chain it has.

Today for the first time I have been able to complete a full DIRAC Live session and complete and load it to the DDRC 22D . I have also now got the volume headroom back that I had before the OTL was installed and most important it sounds great . Today I am just going to relax and listen to some music on this system which has not been working for quite a while .

Later this week I am going to be having delivered a used dCS Delius DAC and dCS Purcel Upsampler which are going in this system to replace the Arcam FMJ D33 DAC that has been there for quite a while . Hopefully this is going to be a straight swap and then an improvement from the dCS . No I know well that it will not be worth what I paid on top of the Arcam nothing could be that much of an uplift but it should go nicely in to the system and make the music flow , fingers crossed .
 
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mac72

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I’ve asked this question while ago on miniDSP forum but no replies so far , I wonder if anyone on here has an idea if the following would work ?
My speakers are passively biamped - mids and highs run from my main amplifier and miniDSP is plugged between preamplifier and bass amplifier feeding woofers doing bit of amplitude correction below 150Hz .
Now I’d like to try Dirac Live to do bit of correction below 150Hz and most importantly take advantage of improved impulse response but if I feed MiniDSP with test signal as in the manual into USB port I’d get response only up to roughly 450Hz . What I thought was to reconfigure my system and connect miniDSP in front of the preampifier with bass amplifier and mid/high amplifier fed from pre-out , take measurements and use "curtain" above 150Hz then stick miniDSP as it worked previously after pre-out feeding bass amplifier . What are the pros and cons ? any other ideas
 

MartinC

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may be of interest to others in particular if you want to digitise your vinyl collection .

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But yes :).
 

will777888

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My speakers are passively biamped - mids and highs run from my main amplifier and miniDSP is plugged between preamplifier and bass amplifier feeding woofers doing bit of amplitude correction below 150Hz .
That doesn’t sound like a good idea. The MiniDSP and its internal processing can have a significant latency. Your woofers will be lagging several ms behind the mid and tweeter !
Best to have source into minidsp, minidsp into preamp, preamp out to both power amps.
 

mac72

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That doesn’t sound like a good idea. The MiniDSP and its internal processing can have a significant latency. Your woofers will be lagging several ms behind the mid and tweeter !
Best to have source into minidsp, minidsp into preamp, preamp out to both power amps.
Yes I tried that but it didn't sound good , 2x4HD has latency of 1.2 mS but still has had quite a impact .
 

will777888

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You could try running the Dirac measurement again with the system configured as I described above. Your experience might be different, but I found that limiting the Dirac to below 300 or 400 Hz sounded much better than full-range.
 
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mac72

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You could try running the Dirac measurement again with the system configured as I described above. Your experience might be different, but I found that limiting the Dirac to below 300 or 400 Hz sounded much better than full-range.
I didn't use Dirac as latency is way higher than standard HD version also I haven't run full range correction it was always limited to 150Hz where most of my room problems happen . BTW I've sold miniDSP , thinking now how to proceed .
 

Tony_J

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Just pushed the button on the Flex Eight - should be the perfect fit for my Tannoy stetup.
 
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bencat

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This is a question to any of you that use DIRAC Live with your MiniDSP . I have just recently put back together my three way active system after a four month lay off of it not working . As I have had the speakers fully refurbished and work on the amplifiers I have been going through everything from connections and settings . As part of this I reflashed the firmware for my DDRC 22D and also downloaded the latest DIRAC Liver software .

In the past when I completed a session of measurements and then generated a filter the default DIRAC curve was very simial to the Harmon one with an uplifted bass and a gently sloping treble all with a number of dots along the line to allow you to adjust .
I always tweaked this curve and adjusted it to how I like it set .

This was the same about three weeks ago when I did a new session for my passive Quads because the power amp had been changed . Today however I completed the session for my three way active and when I generated the filter DIRAC generated an almost flat line as the filter with no dot points . There was a button to add the dot points which I did but I then had to make the adjustments to the curve to get it back to what I normally use.

Has anyone done a recent session with the latest software and seen the same results ? Is this a change of direction by DIRAC or has something else in what I have done made the software change ? I did try the original flat curve and it just confirmed what i already had learned while a perfect flat line may well be what you are told you should have the sound is both dull and boring and robs music of its vitality and spark .
 

MartinC

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This is a question to any of you that use DIRAC Live with your MiniDSP . I have just recently put back together my three way active system after a four month lay off of it not working . As I have had the speakers fully refurbished and work on the amplifiers I have been going through everything from connections and settings . As part of this I reflashed the firmware for my DDRC 22D and also downloaded the latest DIRAC Liver software .

In the past when I completed a session of measurements and then generated a filter the default DIRAC curve was very simial to the Harmon one with an uplifted bass and a gently sloping treble all with a number of dots along the line to allow you to adjust .
I always tweaked this curve and adjusted it to how I like it set .

This was the same about three weeks ago when I did a new session for my passive Quads because the power amp had been changed . Today however I completed the session for my three way active and when I generated the filter DIRAC generated an almost flat line as the filter with no dot points . There was a button to add the dot points which I did but I then had to make the adjustments to the curve to get it back to what I normally use.

Has anyone done a recent session with the latest software and seen the same results ? Is this a change of direction by DIRAC or has something else in what I have done made the software change ? I did try the original flat curve and it just confirmed what i already had learned while a perfect flat line may well be what you are told you should have the sound is both dull and boring and robs music of its vitality and spark .
I don't think the Harmon target curves have been included for ages, being in DL v1 but not 2 or 3. You can edit the target curve as you suggest though, to match the Harmon shape or anything else you fancy. What is 'best' is what you enjoy most.
 
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bencat

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Martin I have done quite a number of sessions and even one three weeks agon on my passive Quads and DIRAC has always generated a suggested filter which has a lifted treble and gradually drooping treble I can see the originals in the saved folder . This one was very different and fully flat from 20Hz to about 10000khz then dropping off in each case after that . Is the fully flat filter shape what you see normally when you generate a filter ? So far it has never been that for me . I am not bothered about this as you say I have full control anyway and can generate what I want to hear . My question is more if this is a change by DIRAC and they are now just settings things flat and leaving the user to make alterations ? Fine for those like us that know what we want to achieve but not so great for those new to the whole concept and just applying the filter as given as a flat response is not always the best for sound quality .
 

Tony_J

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Hi Andrew - as Martin has said, the later versions of Dirac didn't include the Harmann curve. I think this coincided with them changing the file type to ".targetcurve" - it was somewhat shorter before - poss when they went to Dirac V3. I had a version of their default target curve that I managed to rescue - and I also created some myself with varying degrees of bass lift - these are the ones I sent you a few minutes earlier. You should be able to load one of these when you are at the filter creation screen and tweak it as you prefer - best thing to do once you have tweaked it to your satisfaction is to do a "save target curve" from that screen before you export the filters.
 

MartinC

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This one was very different and fully flat from 20Hz to about 10000khz then dropping off in each case after that . Is the fully flat filter shape what you see normally when you generate a filter ?
I would expect the target curve to be a straight line, but slope down gradually as frequency increases rather than being completely horizontal. It will also fall off rapidly at the high frequency end where it is judged where the tweeter limits are. Does this match what you're seeing?

P.s. I think you mean 10 kHz not 10000 kHz :).
 

bencat

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Right I have now found the answer and happy to say it is not me or any problem . DIRAC has introduced Auto Curve and this is now part of the software . This is supposedly a new filter that is tailored to your system and needs no alteration . All adjustments are available as they always were but for new users there is a curve without any adjustment points that can just be used .
I have not explained myself well in this as what I meant to describe is that the filter as shown was a horizontal line right across the full spectrum of the area with small drop offs at the very start and end of the covered and treated audio spectrum . The line was flat and straight horizontally across the full graph which would indicate a full flat output . This would seem to be what is intended by DIRAC as the new starting point.

I am now going to do another full session and accept the new generated filter and listen to it as another pre set against what I dialled in as what I want it to be . Will come back and give my view .
 
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