I calibrated the Dirac within an Arcam AVR 390 as part of a system using Q Acoustics speakers and subwoofer with a Pioneer LX 500 UHD Blu Ray Player Cambrudge Audio Streamer music source and a stunning LG 65″ C9 OLED.
The challenge of this calibration was to get the system to the level the customer desired which was a little different to what I normally do but that is the point of Dirac to enable to user to create the sound you want. The customer goes to a lot of live music events and concerts and watched a lot of music concert DVD’s and Blu Rays and he wanted the system to sound really very live for those discs. This is easier said then done when the customer wants a really bassy sound when the speakers and subwoofer are not designed to deliver the bass the customer really wanted, well at least I thought that.
When I arrived the customer was using the tone controls built into the AVR 390 to boost the bass and treble but quite an extreme amount. While this was having a desired effect it was also having a negative effect on the sound, the boosted bass was “sitting” on the sound because it wasn’t boosting the bass in a linear fashion and the customer was boosting the treble to try and compensate for this, again achieving a result but not an optimal one.
I used Dirac to push the bass from the speakers as much as the software would allow but in a totally linear fashion to add more punch and dynamics to bass and drums but without colouring the sound. The mid range and bass was balanced in Dirac too and overall the sound was very dynamic and smooth for movies and with the live sound the customer wanted for his concert discs.
