XMC-1 Dirac cutoff question.

[aceinc]

I have upgraded the Dirac on my XMC-1. I am using open baffle full range speakers for my fronts. Each woofer section of the front speakers has a plate amplifier.

Playing music and playing most videos everything sounds great even at rather high volumes. However if I am playing a video at relatively high volume, and a sort sharp low frequency sound effect occurs, the woofer section will make a slapping or cracking sound which I attribute to the woofer bottoming out.

I have tried to correct this by sharply dropping the Dirac graph below 25hz, and I moved the low bound to about 20hz. This seems to have helped some, but not completely.

Now to my question(s), "When you adjust the 'frequency range' by sliding the outside of the graph towards the center, what does that do with frequencies below (low) and above (high)?"

Does it roll them off? If so at what rate 6,12,18,24...db per octave?

Also is there a way of loading two Dirac freq curves to the receiver, to say "preset-1/2"? This would allow having one for music and one for video.

[geebo]

Dirac does nothing to the frequencies outside the upper and lower curtains. It simply leaves them alone.

[aceinc]

Counter intuitive to me. But it certainly was one of the reasonable possibilities.

So I should maximize all of my graphs and drop the endpoints to keep from getting unwanted frequencies to those drivers?

One feature that I think would be neat is a post curve application graph. In other words after the graphs (filters) were applied have an option to resend the test signals with the Mic in the main position, to see what Dirac did to the system.

[millst]

There is already a post curve application graph and it's accurate (people have measured).

-tm

[geebo]

If you need to adjust frequencies below what is possible with Dirac you might want to consider a MiniDSP or even an inline high pass filter.

And to answer your other question you can only load one set of filters at a time into Dirac.

[geebo]

Oct 12, 2017 21:44:23 GMT -5 aceinc said:

Counter intuitive to me. But it certainly was one of the reasonable possibilities.

So I should maximize all of my graphs and drop the endpoints to keep from getting unwanted frequencies to those drivers?

One feature that I think would be neat is a post curve application graph. In other words after the graphs (filters) were applied have an option to resend the test signals with the Mic in the main position, to see what Dirac did to the system.

Here is a tutorial for creating target curves in Dirac. It includes some undocumented features that can be included in the target file. One of them is a high pass filter that you might want to check out. I've not tried these so cannot comment on how or if they work but it might be worth a try. It looks like it may be just what your looking for. If you try it let us know how it works.

www.dropbox.com/s/y8udlbg22kom4py/A%20Brief%20Guide%20To%20Creating%20custom%20target%20curves%20in%20Dirac%20Live%20Rev%202.1.pdf?dl=0

[mickseymour]

Oct 12, 2017 21:29:17 GMT -5 aceinc said:

However if I am playing a video at relatively high volume, and a sort sharp low frequency sound effect occurs, the woofer section will make a slapping or cracking sound which I attribute to the woofer bottoming out.

I've have this occasionally on my sub and it only appears to happen on certain movies with Dolby Digital soundtracks. The lift through the earth on the new Total Recall always kicks the sub when it starts.

For problems like this it would be useful to have a bass limiter so that you could set an upper db limit that the AVP would put out without having to cut bass signals overall.

[405x5]

Oct 12, 2017 21:29:17 GMT -5 aceinc said:

I have upgraded the Dirac on my XMC-1. I am using open baffle full range speakers for my fronts. Each woofer section of the front speakers has a plate amplifier.

Playing music and playing most videos everything sounds great even at rather high volumes. However if I am playing a video at relatively high volume, and a sort sharp low frequency sound effect occurs, the woofer section will make a slapping or cracking sound which I attribute to the woofer bottoming out.

I have tried to correct this by sharply dropping the Dirac graph below 25hz, and I moved the low bound to about 20hz. This seems to have helped some, but not completely.

Now to my question(s), "When you adjust the 'frequency range' by sliding the outside of the graph towards the center, what does that do with frequencies below (low) and above (high)?"

Does it roll them off? If so at what rate 6,12,18,24...db per octave?

Also is there a way of loading two Dirac freq curves to the receiver, to say "preset-1/2"? This would allow having one for music and one for video.

Woofers bottoming with the XMC? You’ve got some serious corrective work to do.

Bill

[foggy1956]

Get the curtain out of the way and build a curve with a sharp drop below whatever frequency prevents the bottoming.

[aceinc]

Here is the curve from Dirac. Notice the hump to the left of the 15hz. I cannot seem to slide the curtain lower than 15hz to try and tame that hump. I think that is where my issue is.

[geebo]

Oct 13, 2017 20:47:10 GMT -5 aceinc said:

Here is the curve from Dirac. Notice the hump to the left of the 15hz. I cannot seem to slide the curtain lower than 15hz to try and tame that hump. I think that is where my issue is.


View Attachment

Did you try the high pass filter setting in the target file? And you may be able to set a lower level for the curtain by editing its value in that file, too.

[aceinc]

Pardon my ignorance, but is the target file the file created when i "save" a project?

Do I use notepad to edit it?

[aceinc]

Never mind I found;

emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/42055/building-target-loaded-dirac-beginners

[geebo]

Oct 13, 2017 20:57:40 GMT -5 aceinc said:

Pardon my ignorance, but is the target file the file created when i "save" a project?

Do I use notepad to edit it?

You save a target file in Dirac then edit it in Notepad or Wordpad and save it. Then when back in Dirac you load that target file for the selected speakers. You can first load a project if you like then load the target file after that.

[aceinc]

Can I have different targets for each speaker/pair of speakers?

Do the individual target files get saved & loaded automatically with the project?

[geebo]

Oct 13, 2017 21:31:14 GMT -5 aceinc said:

Can I have different targets for each speaker/pair of speakers?

Do the individual target files get saved & loaded automatically with the project?

You can have a target for each speaker or group of speakers you create. Just create the target and give it a name that you'll know what it was for. When you save a project it will also save any target defined in that project. But you can also save the target separately from the project. Later when you load a project with measurements you can then load a different target if desired. Or if creating a new project with new measurements you can load the desired target before creating the filters.

[aceinc]

Slightly off topic, but do the "preset 1 & 2" have any of the Dirac filters applied such as timing, or are they 100% manual?

While I have had the XMC-1 quite a while I really have not played with its features that much (obviously). I have been basically using it for HT, and sometimes for 2 channel. I have found that I like the 2 channel sound better with Dirac turned off, by using Preset 1, which I have done no configuration on. To me the sound is less muddy without the Dirac. You can see from the graph above that the midrange is a little boosted in the speakers without equalization.

[geebo]

Oct 14, 2017 6:50:26 GMT -5 aceinc said:

Slightly off topic, but do the "preset 1 & 2" have any of the Dirac filters applied such as timing, or are they 100% manual?

While I have had the XMC-1 quite a while I really have not played with its features that much (obviously). I have been basically using it for HT, and sometimes for 2 channel. I have found that I like the 2 channel sound better with Dirac turned off, by using Preset 1, which I have done no configuration on. To me the sound is less muddy without the Dirac. You can see from the graph above that the midrange is a little boosted in the speakers without equalization.

Preset 1 & 2 have nothing to do with Dirac. They each have their own 11 band parametric equalizer and speaker level, size and distance settings. All three are completely independent of each other. Your presets 1 and 2 are likely flat as they would come from the factory and you're essentially comparing Dirac to flat.
If you're used to the non-Dirac sound it may be you just have to get used to the adjusted sound. Give it awhile then switch back to preset 1 and see if you feel the same way. Use what gives you the best listening enjoyment. And don't be afraid to tweak the Dirac curves to something you prefer. That's what the adjustments are for.

[fattykidd]

If you like the boosted midrange just move the high end curtain in so that no processing is done.

[aceinc]

Oct 14, 2017 8:34:39 GMT -5 geebo said:

Preset 1 & 2 have nothing to do with Dirac. They each have their own 11 band parametric equalizer and speaker level, size and distance settings. All three are completely independent of each other. Your presets 1 and 2 are likely flat as they would come from the factory and you're essentially comparing Dirac to flat.
If you're used to the non-Dirac sound it may be you just have to get used to the adjusted sound. Give it awhile then switch back to preset 1 and see if you feel the same way. Use what gives you the best listening enjoyment. And don't be afraid to tweak the Dirac curves to something you prefer. That's what the adjustments are for.

For timing I can physically measure (with a tape measure) all my speakers except my subwoofers. My subwoofers are connected via wireless which adds a delay. Is there a method to review the delays added by Dirac? It would be useful to be able to set the delay for the subwoofers.

This would allow me to properly set up the presets and play to my heart's content. Assuming I got out the manual and figured out how to do so.