Hey guys. Got my system setup. Vintage Klipsch heresy towers. Yamaha s301. Project carbon TT. Ortofon blue. Ifi audio zen pre amp. Tidal from PC to DAC in Yamaha via optical. Yamaha EQ. Room treatment. Optimal speaker placement. Sounds fantastic. However this room is literally 8x10. The Heresy’s are midfield and wow they sound good even in a small room.
Situation: I bought a mini dsp umik mic. Figured I would use Dirac next. Trouble is I need the hardware unit… minidsp flex or 2x4 seems the cheapest option. So another 300 and then the Dirac license! Add it all up and ya it’s not cheap.
Facts: I listen to vinyl 90% of the time. So to use Dirac, which is digital, to provide REW when I stream so rarely, does this make sense. Now I can output the TT analog signal via rca from the phono preamp into the miniDSP analog inputs on the unit. Then from there it will convert from analog to digital (haha) and back to analog again to the amplifier.
Question: is it really worth dsp processing REW to get better room correction, the cost, in such a small treated room, when it already sounds amazing and I’m a vinyl guy?
Tough call. Need opinions.
REW is an application, used to measure your audio. It can also generate EQ filters based on your results and chosen house curve. It doesn’t apply EQ in itself. You need a DSP to use the EQ filters.
As you have the mic, download REW and start measuring your room. You’ll then see how good or bad your results are. If you just have some low frequency room modes, then you probably only need a few EQ filters to fix. The basic Minidsp 2x4HD without Dirac would suffice.
If you need correcting full range, I do recommend Dirac do either get the DDRC-24 or Flex with Dirac licence.
Agreed REW is enough. Get the 2x4 HD so you have FIR filtering. It probably made the most improvement in imaging and soundstage for me.
I’m not an expert but I think the biggest wins from room correction occur when you are using a sub or if you have a “difficult” room. If the room is somewhat normal and you aren’t using a sub I think you can skip it. Curious to hear if anyone thinks differently though
Similar situation as you. Ortofon blue on an old SL1200 too. VERY awkward speaker placement options to go along with it.
Used the 2x4 minidsp and it did improve things a bit. It also muddies up the sound a little, but I think I need the Dirac more than I needed the clarity.
If your DSP is “muddying” the sound I recommend to redo the process or try different filter correction methods.
From your gear list, you’re already spending money on quality stuff. Given all the stuff minidsp+Dirac let you do, I can’t fathom you’d be disappointed.
Whether you NEED it or not … probably not … you already think it’s fantastic. But … I can tell you’re a tinkerer. You’ll have a really good time exploring.
I say go for it if you have the spare cash.
I pretty much always recommend DSP but i gotta say if you have good speaker placements and mid field and it sounds good to you, then I would only go for a miniDSP if you want to tweak things for that final final accuracy and management of room modes in the non primary seats. Eg for fun and learning.
Before you correct, maybe just get the Umik-1 and measure your room. If you find that you have peaks or nulls, you would benefit. I personally use a miniDSP SHD with my vinyl rig. It’s transparent to the vinyl sound and really helps below 500Hz. In my opinion, almost every domestic room would benefit from some DSP and treatments. However, it boils down to preferences. If you are used to your room, you may not like the corrected sound. After Dirac and touching up a few problem areas, my response feels uniform across the spectrum and I can hear details that otherwise were obscured. Things sound more real to me too.
Essentially any speaker system will benefit massively from proper use of these instruments. Improper use is generating IIR filters and using primitive parametric EQ filters to change the sound. This will destroy your phase response. Instead use FIR. Far more complex to implement, but the results are exponentially better.