Dirac Live - Low signal-to-noise Level error

[kbuggs]

Yes, it's fairly loud and rumbles the walls a little. I put on my headphones. I noticed some distortion on a couple channels including right sub but it didn't stop due to clipping.

[kbuggs]

I really thought I'd get a good measurement after all your suggestions but same error.

[ttocs]

hmmmmm

So it is loud enough for sure. So you can lower the volume a little.
And you've got Dirac 3.0.2 ?

Which operating system on the computer?

[AudioHTIT]

So did you ever try the method I linked in the third post?

[kbuggs]

I have Dirac 3.0.2 running on a MacBook Air 2010 model with MacOS 10.13.6. It’s old but loaded and running the Dirac software without crashing. I have not tried the steps Referenced for the NAD system.

[ttocs]

Aug 4, 2020 9:19:05 GMT -5 kbuggs said:

I have Dirac 3.0.2 running on a MacBook Air 2010 model with MacOS 10.13.6. It’s old but loaded and running the Dirac software without crashing. I have not tried the steps Referenced for the NAD system.

That's great that you have the latest Dirac. And while I know there's at least one or two who are using High Sierra successfully, this is an unsupported OS for Dirac. 

Which mic are you using?

Have you confirmed that the mic setup in the Mac is ok? Here's mine. It's a UMIK-1.


And here's what it looks like when the Emotiva EMM-1 is attached.


I don't expect there to be an issue with the mic setup, but it's worth checking.

[kbuggs]

Let me try this on another computer. My sound settings were set in the middle volume but I changed to to look like yours before I started.

[kbuggs]

Does the umik-1 require the Emotiva Microphone calibration file? I may order one from Parts Express

[megash0n]

Aug 4, 2020 10:19:23 GMT -5 kbuggs said:

Does the umik-1 require the Emotiva Microphone calibration file? I may order one from Parts Express

it uses its own file

[kbuggs]

I'm currently using the supplied EMM-1 microphone from Emotiva but the video on uTube says there is a C-Media device being used. It's also using the Emotiva calibration file.

[ttocs]

Aug 4, 2020 10:22:06 GMT -5 kbuggs said:

I'm currently using the supplied EMM-1 microphone from Emotiva but the video on uTube says there is a C-Media device being used. It's also using the Emotiva calibration file.

They have an earlier configuration. Mine shows up as what you see in my attachment. In other words, it might depend on how your operating system is configured.

[ttocs]

kbuggs I think I just had a breakthrough on your issue! PHASE

I've been testing subwoofer locations and for kicks wanted to see what would happen if I flipped the phase on one. This is the only change from my previous measurement from a couple minutes prior. They are both connected to the Center Sub output so they are seen as one sub. I got this as a result.


I suggest the following to start simple. Do a 2 channel measurement with the speakers set to Large. Set the woofer controls to the middle setting to keep phase issues to a minimum. Then do a run with Dirac and report back please.

[novisnick]

Aug 4, 2020 14:56:56 GMT -5 ttocs said:

kbuggs I think I just had a breakthrough on your issue! PHASE

I've been testing subwoofer locations and for kicks wanted to see what would happen if I flipped the phase on one. This is the only change from my previous measurement from a couple minutes prior. They are both connected to the Center Sub output so they are seen as one sub. I got this as a result.


I suggest the following to start simple. Do a 2 channel measurement with the speakers set to Large. Set the woofer controls to the same setting to keep phase issues to a minimum. Then do a run with Dirac and report back please.

That screen shot is almost as bad as the blue screen of death from Microsoft! I’ve gotten it so many times and it’s frustrating.my seat is to close to my desk and sound reflections are killing me! Once again when I have time I’ll yell for help. 

[ttocs]

Aug 4, 2020 15:01:49 GMT -5 novisnick said:

Aug 4, 2020 14:56:56 GMT -5 ttocs said:

kbuggs I think I just had a breakthrough on your issue! PHASE

I've been testing subwoofer locations and for kicks wanted to see what would happen if I flipped the phase on one. This is the only change from my previous measurement from a couple minutes prior. They are both connected to the Center Sub output so they are seen as one sub. I got this as a result.


I suggest the following to start simple. Do a 2 channel measurement with the speakers set to Large. Set the woofer controls to the middle setting to keep phase issues to a minimum. Then do a run with Dirac and report back please.

That screen shot is almost as bad as the blue screen of death from Microsoft! I’ve gotten it so many times and it’s frustrating.my seat is to close to my desk and sound reflections are killing me! Once again when I have time I’ll yell for help. 

I never suspected improper Phase could be a "noise" issue. But what happened is that during the measurement I noticed that the subwoofer output was really small on the graphic that runs across the screen while Dirac is doing the sweeps. So the subwoofer output was squelched when I flipped the phase on one of them. They are sitting next to each other right now so they really need to have the same phase. I just wanted to see what really happens, never tried it before.

[kbuggs]

I've got 3 Subwoofers. I've got 2 Martin Logan Balanced Force 210's at the front left and right of the room and a Velodyne Digital Drive 15 at the back behind theater seats. The 2 ML's are both set to 90 degree phase. Just like your experience, both the MLs are showing a really small graphic that runs across the screen while Dirac is sweeping compared to the Velodyne. You're probably on to something. Maybe I should set to zero. In addition, I needed a new laptop anyway so I ordered a new MacBook Air and a new microphone in case this doesn't work. Of course, I had to get my wife a new Windows machine. Both ours are old so needed to get updated. I digress. I'll try the 2 channel setup and woofer setup tomorrow. If all fails, I have new computing hardware on the way. I wish the error would narrow down the "low signal to noise level" error to the specific channel during the sweep but clearly it does not.

We're getting there. Thanks for the awesomeness!!!

[ttocs]

Aug 4, 2020 16:14:20 GMT -5 kbuggs said:

I've got 3 Subwoofers.

You're welcome! Glad to help.

After you finally get success with 2 channels, it would probably be a good Idea to then set the Summits to Small and start with 1 sub at a time and proceed in stages.

Phase is funny.

[kbuggs]

I was able to get the 2 Channel setup with Center Sub working. At first the measurement got the same result but I adjusted the Microphone and Master Volume so that the Master volume was above the microphone setting. Speaker volumes were just in the green section.

Next I'll use Preset 1 with all speakers and set Martin Logan speaker phase to zero. See what happens and let y'all know.

[kbuggs]

I was able to successfully measure a 2 channel and dual subwoofer setup on Preset 2. I changed the Martin Logan subs to Phase 0 and everything finished just great. I only did 5 positions because I'll probably not use Preset 2 very often. I am on a roll now. Need more time for the full setup on Preset 1 so I'll update tomorrow. Guess I didn't really need a new laptop or a amok-1 microphone. Good to have though.

[goodfellas27]

I have three speakers and have dual mono enabled plus LFE center.

What caused my issue was that I have 6.3.4 and not the expected 7.3.4 configuration. This is due to me having just one backchannel and not two.

In my room, I was only able to do 6.1 and not 7.1

I disabled the backchannel then ran Dirac without any issues.

[kbuggs]

I was unsuccessful with a 7.3.4 configuration and I actually have 14 speakers setup in my room. Dirac swept through all speakers which sounded fine but still got the error. I have dual/mono for left/right and Mono for center subs and left the phase set to zero. Something else must be wrong with one or more of the other speakers.