New second generation Dirac Live

[Montanari]

35 minutes ago, michael123 said:

It is with the VST plugin that works very stable in JRiver

So i ll keep My 1.1 That Works fawles with roon. Thanks

[michael123]

What is your guys impression so far from the new alpha version?

[SteveS1]

Not had a chance to play yet, need an empty house.  Hopefully this weekend.

[Fredde]

Taking the measurements went OK but 2 times out of 3 when I start either jriver or VSTHost the DAP crashes and my saved filters disappear. Haven't had time to listen more than an hour but it's promising. 

[shinyc]

My setup and measurement experience was a much more pleasant one. I installed the Dirac Live Calibration Tool and Processor on my Windows 10 laptop. Measurement was made without a single hiccup. I used "chair" mode (9 measuring points). Then, I save the result to a dirac project file. Next, I installed the same tools on a WS2019 core machine (control PC). I had to install v++ redistribution files before I can run the tools. I copied the save project file to the WS2019 machine and created a few filters with different target curves. I created 3 filters with no ill or side effects. I installed both 32bit and 64bit version of the Dirac Live Processor. I used foobar2000 to host the Dirac VST (all 32bits) on the WS2019 machine. One hiccup (finally). If I touch or change any control on the Dirac VST while hosted by foobar2000, it gets easily crashed. Many times I had to reinstall foobar2000 again because foobar also crashes when launched. I could have reset the config for the VST component to recover from it. So if I want to change filter, I launch standalone version of the Dirac Live Processor and make the change so I do not have to touch the VST control while being hosted by foobar. When I am creating new filters, I need the 64bit version of both Dirac Live Calibration Tool AND Processor (That's why I installed both 32bit and 64 bit DLP).

 

My playback chain looks like this:

 

Roon(LMS) => squeeze2upnp bridge => foobar2000 => jplay femto (control PC) => jplay femto (audio pc) => dac

 

I think I am into my sencond week. I must say SQ change is similar to that of v1.1's. I am trying with a speaker pair which exhibits rather flat feq characteristics to begin with so the dirac effect is not so pronounce. Vocal is quite 3d. HF is better tamed. Transparency is much improved. Compare to femto server, though, dirac seems missing some vitality, less dynamic, calmer. Jplay femto server is really vivid, pristine sounding. But I doubt femto server is as neutral as dirac corrected sound. I immediately notice instrument sounds right (neutral) when dirac is in place especially in orchestral music but excitement is something else. Let's wait for the higher sample rate version and see if finesse improves if not the excitement.

[michael123]

13 minutes ago, shinyc said:

My setup and measurement experience was a much more pleasant one. I installed the Dirac Live Calibration Tool and Processor on my Windows 10 laptop. Measurement was made without a single hiccup. I used "chair" mode (9 measuring points). Then, I save the result to a dirac project file. Next, I installed the same tools on a WS2019 core machine (control PC). I had to install v++ redistribution files before I can run the tools. I copied the save project file to the WS2019 machine and created a few filters with different target curves. I created 3 filters with no ill or side effects. I installed both 32bit and 64bit version of the Dirac Live Processor. I used foobar2000 to host the Dirac VST (all 32bits) on the WS2019 machine. One hiccup (finally). If I touch or change any control on the Dirac VST while hosted by foobar2000, it gets easily crashed. Many times I had to reinstall foobar2000 again because foobar also crashes when launched. I could have reset the config for the VST component to recover from it. So if I want to change filter, I launch standalone version of the Dirac Live Processor and make the change so I do not have to touch the VST control while being hosted by foobar. When I am creating new filters, I need the 64bit version of both Dirac Live Calibration Tool AND Processor (That's why I installed both 32bit and 64 bit DLP).

 

My playback chain looks like this:

 

Roon(LMS) => squeeze2upnp bridge => foobar2000 => jplay femto (control PC) => jplay femto (audio pc) => dac

 

I think I am into my sencond week. I must say SQ change is similar to that of v1.1's. I am trying with a speaker pair which exhibits rather flat feq characteristics to begin with so the dirac effect is not so pronounce. Vocal is quite 3d. HF is better tamed. Transparency is much improved. Compare to femto server, though, dirac seems missing some vitality, less dynamic, calmer. Jplay femto server is really vivid, pristine sounding. But I doubt femto server is as neutral as dirac corrected sound. I immediately notice instrument sounds right (neutral) when dirac is in place especially in orchestral music but excitement is something else. Let's wait for the higher sample rate version and see if finesse improves if not the excitement.

 

Thanks!

What settings did you use during the measurements? (aka DiractSound vs ASIO vs.. sampling rate ..)

[shinyc]

Good question. During the measurement I just used dac provided USB driver (Yggy USB Gen 5 drv) probably via WASAPI. Sampling rate is fixed at 48khz for this alpha version, I think. It was a quick and dirty way to measure. More right way would be to use the same or as close a setup for both measure and playback chain. If VST done right, the calibration tool should be able to send test tone to the VST while hosted by its host program (foobar in my case). I hope Dirac manages that somehow and make it into the production version.

[SteveS1]

I've been able to find some time to evaluate the latest alpha.

 

Testing Dirac Live VST / 2.2 Calibration

Mac Mini (mid 2011)

10.13.6 High Sierra

My reference is Dirac Live Studio 2 1_1_0 with Audirvana Plus.

 

Appreciate new colour options and test sizes - but 'Large' font size is still not very big, especially as a lot of music servers will be accessed using emulation or VNC.

 

Some screens are not quite as easily illustrative or intuitive as previous Dirac Studio that I'm using.  But all worked fine and without incident.

 

Sound Quality.

 

I made chair, sofa focus and sofa wide filters.  I use a Sofa filter for my system on the VST Studio version with AV+.

 

All of them perform as expected.  The chair is the most focussed, then the sofa focus and finally the sofa wide which has a more diffuse presentation.

 

There is a more natural sounding tonal balance over my previous version and the overall presentation seems more consistant across all three filters, with only the soundstage central focus changing.   I hear more subtle detail in recordings that is more apparent than when using my original Dirac, which sounds a little less sophisticated.  This version sounds more even across the FR, a tad more natural and forgiving of brighter recordings but without concealing anything.  That is how I would describe it in a nutshell.

 

Another impression is that the speakers seem better integrated together, an effect that makes the soundstage seem a bit more of a 'whole'. Difficult to explain but on switching back between versions it certainly improves my appreciation of image. My favourite is the Sofa 'focus' in my room, but the 'chair' is excellent too.

 

I'm impressed and if the useability could just be smartened up a bit I feel it makes a compelling proposition.  Good work.

 

 

[DSD256]

I'm on newest alpha processor and newest live.

Measurments do now wor,k but how do i save my filters permanently without to be able to login?

login with my dirac 1 multi log/pass does not work. Then live tells me without login

filters will maybe not saved.

 

Where is the save  path on win? is it possible to use the filters created on win  with macos by copying? (i suppose with login they are available online..yes)

 

dirac 1 filters are easy to use between win/macos via copy/paste.

 

thanks

[DSD256]

I have now found a way to transfer the measurements from Win10 to Mojave without an account.  Works great...  I only have to copy the saved project and the wav file and then create the filter again.

 

To the sound:

Compared to Dirac 1.x the 2.x sounds better by classes.  Finally Dirac has the bass under control.

At 1.x I always had to lower the bass by 3-4 db.

With 2.x this is no longer necessary.

The bass now plays excellently, a bass line finally sings.  The stereo width has increased enormously.  Finally I can get 3 d out of my system.  The instruments all have their own space in the depth as well as in the stereo spectrum.

I was never able to achieve that with 1.x.

The resolution has increased sensationally in my system. 
 
The dynamics is now breathtaking.

Dirac 1.x can't compete in any way in sound quality.

I have compared both versions over and over again.

Dirac 2.x loosely plays two three leagues better.  I am very enthusiastic and would like to congratulate the developers for this sensational coup.

 

The measurements now also work without any problems with my Audient ID14 for the measuring microphone and the Yggdrasil for playing on both Win10 and Mojave.  A huge step forward.

My system is:

Imac Mojave / bootcamp - Win10 - Audirvana- Pro-Ject Stream Box - Yggdrasil - Ragnarok - Ecouton LQL200

👏👏👏👏👏👏

 

Merci

 

[flak]

Let me add some useful info for DSD256...

With reference to Dirac Live 2.2 it is recommended that users are always logged in Dirac Live when using it,

the account can be created here: https://live.dirac.com/register/

The project must have been saved when logged in and the user must be logged in when loading it.

Then it doesn’t matter on which computer the project is located.

If a user is not logged in he can’t move projects between computers and he may not be able to load a previously saved project on the same computer if the session has been reset since the project was saved.

Please click on the hamburger menu (a circle with 3 horizontal lines) when Dirac Live is invoked and select the login button. This will take you to the first page of Dirac live and you can login. Pressing proceed will take you to the recording device page.

[shinyc]

Hi @flak,

 

I am hearing what appears to be clipping distortion. In v1.x, there was a slider control where you can control attenuation level with default value of -8dB if I recall correctly. I thought the new version was doing it automatically but apparently not.

 

I am also noticing I get no response when I register anomalies found while running this alpha program to your support site. Should I keep registering these findings to your support site? Or just post them here.

 

 

[michael123]

1 minute ago, shinyc said:

Hi @flak,

 

I am hearing what appears to be clipping distortion. In v1.x, there was a slider control where you can control attenuation level with default value of -8dB if I recall correctly. I thought the new version was doing it automatically but apparently not.

 

I am also noticing I get no response when I register anomalies found while running this alpha program to your support site. Should I keep registering these findings to your support site? Or just post them here.

 

 

 

Please open a ticket.

That's the issue I also mentioned to Dirac.

It is not just this, but there is no visual indicator. 

[shinyc]

Sure I will open a new ticket.

[TommyCat]

I’ve stepped away from all the updates waiting for the alpha version with the bugs worked out and sampling rates beyond 48 kHz .

Are we there yet? 

[michael123]

Just now, TommyCat said:

I’ve stepped away from all the updates waiting for the alpha version with the bugs worked out and sampling rates beyond 48 kHz .

Are we there yet? 

 

Same place. Still with bugs, and no high-res.

No progress and no release schedule.

😂

 

[asdf1000]

Hi @flak

 

When is v2.x planned to be released for desktop PC?

 

[michael123]

Before that, when we will have a new beta, supporting high-rez rates?

[jiminlogansquare]

Also when will Dirac be de-bugged so that it actually will work with current OSX? I paid several hundred dollars for a piece of software that became utterly useless to me when Apple made certain changes to its OS that apparently Dirac cannot figure out how to correct for. I got a half-assed recommendation to utilize a third-party software solution that is ridiculous. It is readily apparent to any who watch what this company is up to that they are getting paid money by equipment manufacturers to come up with versions of Dirac that work with their equipment (especially true for the elusive "Version 2.0") while just plain shitting on their customer base who, like me, paid HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS for Dirac for Macintosh. 

[flak]

A full featured testing version of standalone Dirac Live 2.x, for both Mac and Windows, is expected within the 21st of this month and we will be pleased to send it to those who will request it at http://helpdesk.dirac.se/

 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, it's been a significant development effort

Flavio

[michelangelo]

Hello Flac,
Thank you very much for the good news.
Should I send a new request or is this also possible with the old request number?

[Kal Rubinson]

1 hour ago, flak said:

A full featured testing version

Full?  All resolutions and multichannel?

[flak]

4 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

Full?  All resolutions and multichannel?

 

Higher sampling rates, probably multichannel and possibly more than that...

[flak]

4 hours ago, michelangelo said:

Hello Flac,
Thank you very much for the good news.
Should I send a new request or is this also possible with the old request number?

Hi Michelangelo,

a new request is safer...

[jiminlogansquare]

Welp. The timing of my last post/tirade was impeccable. I very much look forward to being able again to use Dirac on my Mac Mini. FWIW, the compatibility problems arose after I purchased a 2018 Mac Mini to replace my 2011 model, which no longer had the processing power to run both Roon and Dirac without dropouts, etc.   The law of unintended consequences of course struck again.