Thanks for that great write up Brad!
I agree completely so far, but am not as far along as you are. Trying, but keep running into stumbling blocks.
I bought DIRAC full already, but cannot even get the XMC-1 connected to the internet yet, so will probably not even run DIRAC Live.
Will write about my experience soon, but it is midnight here, must hush.
God Bless,
Wayne

I forgot to mention, BIG HINT: Dirac allows aribtrary projects to be saved (a project is a set of measurments and I think a resulting filter). I learned this the hard way - save the active project AFTER EVERY MEASUREMENT in case Dirac crashes. If you must restart, reloading the project will have your saved measurements. Otherwise you start from ground zero, and that is time consuming.

Beginning a measurement session requires setting the input gain on the mic and the overall output to compensate for the ambient room of each channel. This takes about 5 or so minutes and isn't saved with the project file. After setting the gain/output, you then set the individual outputs for each channel. This is time consuming, but the project will save the individual output gains for each channel, so on restart/reload you only need to redo the overall gain/output again.

Also, unlike the other calibration systems, you need to tell Dirac the speaker distances manually (I know, I know, how tough is it to measure delays and divide by the speed of sound ?- the other calibration systems do this automatically, as well as gain setting).

But, the results, if you get there, are really pretty impressive.

Thursday afternoon, listening to Chuck Loeb / Presence -- The Music Outside

Listening to the new Mumford & Sons album: Wilder Minds. It's a bit of a departure from previous albums and sounds great. I'm sitting dead center and I'm getting such sweet, full sound that it's like I have headphones on. Vocals dead center, instruments have a sense of depth, and there is plenty of low frequency energy to satisfy us bass heads!

Cheers,

T Cobe

Rainy Saturday afternoon, listening to Bill Stewart / Telepathy (1997) -- Calm.
Dilettante, your wires arrived and they sound marvelous...thanks my friend.

Let's get this party started...listening to The Only Big Band Cd you'll Ever Need (Glen Miller/In the Mood)