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Post by ronkuper on Jul 4, 2014 7:31:38 GMT -5
Hi Guys, I thought of sharing this for reference and maybe help someone else avoid the same experience. The XTZ Room Analyzer II Pro arrived yesterday and I was eager to put my Dirac Live to use. So I fired up Dirac's Calibration Tool and hit the Play button on the first channel in the "Output & Levels" screen.  What a mistake... The result was punishing and hurtful to my ears and in the two seconds it took me to hit the stop button (I was standing with the keyboard in my hands) I could hear the treble stop coming out of the speaker. You see, as I use JRiver's "Internal Volume" I set my receiver's volume to 0dB as recommended by JRiver to allow for maximum dynamic range. Only that Dirac Live does not have a "Volume Protection" feature like JRiver  The tweeter was toast out of... well out of my own silliness. I should have known better. Luckily the components on the speakers easy to replace, just 4 screws and two pins (no need to open the box):    Now I need to wait the weekend (it starts at Friday in Israel) to see if they'll charge me for the tweeter and (more importantly) if they have it in stock or will I have to wait without my speakers till it arrives  I hope nothing else is damaged other than my ego (oh and tweeter)...  Cheers  Ron |
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bootman
Emo VIPs 
Typing useless posts on internet forums....
Posts: 9,358
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Post by bootman on Jul 4, 2014 7:59:51 GMT -5
This could have happen with any software you would have used. It wasn't a Dirac problem but a setup issue on your PC. Bummer.  |
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Post by ronkuper on Jul 4, 2014 8:17:54 GMT -5
Not a Dirac problem at all... Pure silliness on my account.
As a precaution the sound card is not selected as a default playback device in Windows so normally nothing plays out of it apart from JRiver MC which has volume protection.
In Dirac I manually chose the sound card while forgetting about the Receiver's level...
As a feature suggestion to Dirac I think it would be a good idea to have a popup alerting you to make sure the volume is low before pressing play... Or perhaps even have the individual sliders volume start at 20% and make the user turn them up as required (I had the main Output Volume slider grayed out like in the screenshot taken from the manual)
This would have completely prevent me from making this mistake.
At least now I got to know the inside of my speakers :-)
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Post by ronkuper on Jul 6, 2014 11:30:06 GMT -5
Update - The tweeter was not in stock at the local distributor so the store ( Fuse.co.il, Israel) disassembled one from their showroom speaker for me to have until a replacement part will arrive from overseas. What a refreshing service!  |
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Post by solidstate on Jul 6, 2014 18:06:15 GMT -5
Why would you set your AVR to unity gain!!! That's bad advice IMHO despite what the JRiver dev claims.
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Post by garbulky on Jul 6, 2014 18:23:28 GMT -5
I understand the reason you posted it but I think this title is bad publicity for Emotiva. The reason being that it has nothing to do with dirac live. Anything you play with your soundcard set to full volume will usually play at full volume unless it's designed not to. I'm not trying to put you down or be rude to you as you've acknowledged it as being user error. However all that some strangers considering the XMC-1 would see is that dirac live caused a burnt tweeter.
A change in title would be nice.
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LCSeminole
Global Moderator 
Res firma mitescere nescit.
Posts: 20,851
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Post by LCSeminole on Jul 6, 2014 21:25:51 GMT -5
Thread title edited and reason given for change in OP's initial post.
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Post by ronkuper on Jul 7, 2014 2:26:57 GMT -5
Point taken. I've also changed the title in another forum I've posted this. Any pink noise at full volume played through the HDMI soundcard (which have to be manually selected) would have done the same damage in my setup. Why would you set your AVR to unity gain!!! That's bad advice IMHO despite what the JRiver dev claims. Hi Solidstate - Could you please elaborate a bit? Is it bad only from the risk aspect or also from SQ? |
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Post by solidstate on Jul 10, 2014 20:30:18 GMT -5
Point taken. I've also changed the title in another forum I've posted this. Any pink noise at full volume played through the HDMI soundcard (which have to be manually selected) would have done the same damage in my setup. Why would you set your AVR to unity gain!!! That's bad advice IMHO despite what the JRiver dev claims. Hi Solidstate - Could you please elaborate a bit? Is it bad only from the risk aspect or also from SQ? He is setting his preamp/AVR to a gain of factor 1 (equivalent to 0 dB) where both input and output are at the same voltage level and impedance is also known as unity gain. I think you misunderstood their advice as I'm certain they wouldn't direct you to set your amp/receiver to unity gain! You are confusing the DIGITAL VOLUME adjustment. Yes set it to max and do not attenuate the volume using the digital volume control in software. You are 180 degrees BACKWARDS in terms of what J River was telling you. You have amp/AVR set to unity (0 dB) and then attenuate via digital volume control? THAT'S BACKWARDS You set digital volume to max and attenuate with the amp/AVR!!! |
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Post by ronkuper on Jul 12, 2014 15:01:07 GMT -5
Hi Solidstate, Not sure about me getting their advice backwards but it sure is important for me to find out. As stated above, I use JRiver's "Internal Volume" feature. Here are the details: wiki.jriver.com/index.php/VolumeThe question at hand was also asked in this thread on JRiver's Interact forum board: yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=69988.0Followed by an answer from Matt, JRiver's CTO: (Blue highlights are my own). So, what do you say? edit: Please also bear in mind that the separate amp is used as power with the pre section bypassed (=no volume control) and the receiver is used as an HDMI DAC so it's volume is still in the digital domain. Bests, Ron |
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