First to address two comments above. I also tend to agree. Taking Rosebuds apart would be almost a sacrilige in my book.
Secondly, a few interesting findings having been playing with Dirac Live since late Thursday. Once Dirac filters are applied there are no noticeable differences in sound quality whether I'm running A30.1 or I22. I'd go as far as to say that if the amp's, power amp section, is of sufficient quality to drive the speakers there will be no difference at all. I'll check this theory once I get a cheaper amp namely Sony STR-DB930.
The interesting thing is how after applying Dirac A30.1 became a much faster amp. When using default filters though the wonderful timbre disappears and soundstage feels less involving. Luckily this can be remedied by slight bump in midrange and I'm talking about 1db no more. That also applies to I22, hence I can have I22 richer sounding.
Onto speakers, Rosebuds perform amazingly well. QLN Qubic 122 no so, I guess the quality of the drive units makes a huge difference. The room is pants though and I'm having issues in some regions of bass especially at 69-70Hz with a big (18db) dip I can't do anything about. I've tried about a milion different positions for spekers with issues moving about in but finally settling on a more even bass response but with 69-70Hz dip remaining.
I measured with REW pre/post Dirac and must say that Dirac's estimations are much exaggerated. The above measured dip at 69-70Hz according to Dirac should be only about 2db post Dirac. I measured it at -18db post and -20db pre. Unless they're showing a really inventive smooting, I don't know what's happening. I'm not knocking Dirac here as the differences especially in decay times are of 100ms and that's a lot if you consider room size / distance between speakers and mic. And overall it's very beneficial. Just saying that those graphs look much exaggerated to me. No wonder they say "estimated"
Overall Dirac gives a lot. The flexibilty is fantastic as it can be used to gradually "educate" the ears towards more neutral curve while counteracting the effects of the room. That alone is great. The clarity at any volume level is great and I've noticed also that listening loud doesn't cause any discomfort. I would say though that was I to listen to analogue sources I'm not sure I'd use Dirac though. Since my whole signal chain is digital this solution seems logical as there cannot be any loss of quality as all changes occur in digital domain.
Ok, next steps. I need to test theory regarding the amp. If a cheaper amp could achieve the same no point in using something more expensive. Especially since I may need 4 channels driven. Speaker wise I'm stumped. Rosebuds do really well and can stay relatively flat (besides room effects) to 44Hz with Dirac (naturally roll of at 50Hz) that's a decent result. Must say I'm happy with that. I don't know whether at the budget I set out I'll be able to get a better pair, with better drivers that is. The solution would be to either leave them as is or look to boost them in bass. That could be done with either a sub or a pair of speakers that would only do sub 200-300Hz.
In such scenario I'd use active crossovers to Rosebuds (untouched) to send everything over say 200-300Hz and active crossover to sub or a pair of big driver speakers. Would such scenario improve midrange? I've met a local guy who builds speaker cabinets (mostly for gigs) so might have a custom build stands with built in 10 inch drivers for Rosebuds. That would be a quasi solution to active crossovers.
Any thoughts on that?
Secondly, a few interesting findings having been playing with Dirac Live since late Thursday. Once Dirac filters are applied there are no noticeable differences in sound quality whether I'm running A30.1 or I22. I'd go as far as to say that if the amp's, power amp section, is of sufficient quality to drive the speakers there will be no difference at all. I'll check this theory once I get a cheaper amp namely Sony STR-DB930.
The interesting thing is how after applying Dirac A30.1 became a much faster amp. When using default filters though the wonderful timbre disappears and soundstage feels less involving. Luckily this can be remedied by slight bump in midrange and I'm talking about 1db no more. That also applies to I22, hence I can have I22 richer sounding.
Onto speakers, Rosebuds perform amazingly well. QLN Qubic 122 no so, I guess the quality of the drive units makes a huge difference. The room is pants though and I'm having issues in some regions of bass especially at 69-70Hz with a big (18db) dip I can't do anything about. I've tried about a milion different positions for spekers with issues moving about in but finally settling on a more even bass response but with 69-70Hz dip remaining.
I measured with REW pre/post Dirac and must say that Dirac's estimations are much exaggerated. The above measured dip at 69-70Hz according to Dirac should be only about 2db post Dirac. I measured it at -18db post and -20db pre. Unless they're showing a really inventive smooting, I don't know what's happening. I'm not knocking Dirac here as the differences especially in decay times are of 100ms and that's a lot if you consider room size / distance between speakers and mic. And overall it's very beneficial. Just saying that those graphs look much exaggerated to me. No wonder they say "estimated"
Overall Dirac gives a lot. The flexibilty is fantastic as it can be used to gradually "educate" the ears towards more neutral curve while counteracting the effects of the room. That alone is great. The clarity at any volume level is great and I've noticed also that listening loud doesn't cause any discomfort. I would say though that was I to listen to analogue sources I'm not sure I'd use Dirac though. Since my whole signal chain is digital this solution seems logical as there cannot be any loss of quality as all changes occur in digital domain.
Ok, next steps. I need to test theory regarding the amp. If a cheaper amp could achieve the same no point in using something more expensive. Especially since I may need 4 channels driven. Speaker wise I'm stumped. Rosebuds do really well and can stay relatively flat (besides room effects) to 44Hz with Dirac (naturally roll of at 50Hz) that's a decent result. Must say I'm happy with that. I don't know whether at the budget I set out I'll be able to get a better pair, with better drivers that is. The solution would be to either leave them as is or look to boost them in bass. That could be done with either a sub or a pair of speakers that would only do sub 200-300Hz.
In such scenario I'd use active crossovers to Rosebuds (untouched) to send everything over say 200-300Hz and active crossover to sub or a pair of big driver speakers. Would such scenario improve midrange? I've met a local guy who builds speaker cabinets (mostly for gigs) so might have a custom build stands with built in 10 inch drivers for Rosebuds. That would be a quasi solution to active crossovers.
Any thoughts on that?
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