So, will we ever see DIRAC included in the software for the Uniti players? I just wonder whether the hardware is capable of running it.
Jason Gould of Naim said to me that room correction with DSP type technology goes against the Naim philosophy of keeping the music signal pure. Their view was change the room to create a better sound, not tampering with the signal they have been trying to keep as pure as possible. But you never know they may have a change of heart.
IIRC, Naim’s previous experience with DIRAC was not so favourable. But, as Gazza says, these things hopefully will keep on improving, so who knows what the future might hold.
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Thanks for your replies. Its not that I am particularly after such feature, I was just wondering whether it would be technically possible. Although I must say that at last years Bristol Show, Linn did quite interesting ‘space optimization’ presentations (not sure whether it was actually DIRAC) and this got me thinking. I know that adjusting the room is always best but if there is a technology why not make an advantage of it.
You can use the DSP/parametric EQ in Roon to run room correction.
I do in Roon. Using convolution filters created by Home Audio Fidelity way better than Dirac. It’s really amazing what he does, not everyone has the flexibility to improve a room. That said I have recently done some minor tweaks to help reduce excess bass but will likely go back to DSP for the finishing touches, just need to make new readings and settle on a few things.
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Hi @woj
The Uniti Atom, Star, Nova and streamer equiv have a high powered SHARC DSP in them (~2GFlop peak performance just dedicated for post audio processing). At a platform level it is very capable of doing Room EQ related features.
As @Richard.Dane points out, DSP based room EQ is no golden bullet, so on a high quality system must be used very wisely. For each correction done to solve one problem can introduce just as many new ones. Like most things, the art is to use each solution wisely.
Best
Steve Harris
Software Director
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Thanks for your comment. Do Naim or any other manufacturer have to keep the audio signal pure anymore? It gets digitalised/re-sampled etc (if it is not already digital) at the entry point anyway so it’s not ‘pure’ at all. We all know that the sound of our units is chosen by people who at the Naim headquarter who decide how our units should sound. In the end of the day it is someone’s decision how Naim equipment sound but not just the result of signal travelling from input to output which is ‘kept pure’. Could this decision be at least partially ceded to the listener?
Another thing which got me thinking about room correction is that recently I rescued an ancient Sony TA-1010 amplifier. It has got tone controls. Oh boy how good it sounds with bass and treble at around ‘2 o’clock’ when listening to old records. Even more I could adjust the sound to my liking depending on the record (I have many old records issued in the ‘eastern block’ which are badly pressed so boosting some frequencies makes them listenable again). If I could only do this using controls on my Uniti Star. Would this be bad?
We all have different rooms and most rooms are difficult to adjust perfectly therefore I though that in this digital era we can do with the signal anything we want (and without deteriorating it). I always thought that tone control is bad, loudness control is bad (OK loudness is actually bad) as all these things reduce quality…but is it still bad in the current ‘digital era’? If we can enhance the experience of listening by things like the room correction or even the note controls would this be taken as ‘not pure’? Does this really matter anymore?
Thanks @ChrisSU for pointing me to Roon EQ features. I am subscriber, but I have never dare to play with it, but I will. I just realised that I have all these possibilities in Roon, probably just my thinking is from 20 years ago…from the analog era.
I understand and agree with @Stevesky that such things like room correction cannot be treated as golden bullet and probably many people would ‘abuse’ it but there could be always a button ‘pure direct’ placed somewhere…
It’s an art to get it right. I tried myself but it sounded bad. Also just using peq is not enough to sort out a lot of issues. I chose HAF to create a convolution filter for me as they came recommended by other users. It’s a great inexpensive service that takes the pain out of it and the rewards are fantastic. It’s free to try as well you only pay if you want the full filter. So if it’s not for you nothing lost. The only thing is you do need a decent Roon core to run it, a Nas won’t cut it.
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I haven’t tried this myself, but I believe you can load the corrections from REW into Roon.
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