What is Dirac?Ī first question is of course: what is Dirac exactly? Simply put, Dirac is software that allows you to tackle the acoustic reproduction in a room so that your music and movie sound sound better. In most cases this is really necessary. You rarely come across a room without problems and speakers that are really perfectly positioned. This may be a dedicated cinema space designed by an expert. A typical living room or home theater almost always needs some software help.ĭirac is thus a competitor for the calibration software found on AV receivers from Denon and Marantz (Audyssey), Yamaha (YPAO), Onkyo and Pioneer (AccuEQ), Sony (DCAC), and others, and stereo devices such as the Micromega M- One M150 (MARS) or the Lyngdorf TDAI-3400 (RoomPerfect). It is certainly not the only solution to make sound sound good in your room.įor the sake of completeness, we should mention that the Dirac software comes in other forms as well. For example, it is used by car manufacturers such as Bentley (together with Naim), BMW (in the M series), Volvo and Rolls-Royce. Because Dirac has a strategic collaboration with Harman, we suspect that this list will soon become much longer. After all, Harman is the most important player in automotive audio and systems, with partnerships around brand names such as Bowers & Wilkins and Bang & Olufsen. Dirac is also working hard to become a big name in the mobile segment. It has all kinds of software to improve the audio reproduction via smartphones and tablets. Finally, the company is also looking into virtual reality, with solutions around 3D Audio. It is an exciting company that has recently succeeded in attracting a lot of venture capital. That’s a bonus, but just as important is that Dirac now gets a new architecture so that it can easily be expanded and improved in the future with new modules that do something specific. The module approach sounds special, but you don’t need those extra parts to get started with Dirac Live. The software is completely functional and useful for the end user. What is immediately striking is that the interface has been completely adapted.
Dirac live software update#
Why that we now devote a longer piece to Dirac again? Because the software is now getting a major update to version 2, Dirac Live 2. Both in the form of a background piece about what Dirac is and in the margin of tests of AV receivers such as the Arcam AVR-550 and NAD T 758 v3. We have written before about this software of Swedish origin, which is being built into more and more audio products, but which can also run separately on a PC.
In this article, we take a look at the new version of Dirac for home use, Dirac Live 2. Dirac was already one of the best room correction solutions available. A thoroughly revised version now makes the software more accessible to a wider audience. That is good, because at the same time appear more surround and stereo devices with Dirac on board. Arcam, NAD and Rotel, among others, have recently embraced the new Dirac software. It can of course also be used with existing Dirac partners, such as miniDSP and Storm Audio.