Quick Comparison between Dirac and WiiM mini RC

[merifon]

Usually I run Dirac on LS50 meta, a B&W ASW610 subwoofer with a Nad C3050LE and the results are so impressive and satisfying to make me find at last even at home the kind of sound I was used to ear many years ago in some well suited recording studios.
I tried to do RC with my WiiM mini, separated channel, multiple takes, 30Hz-20KHz, calibrated IMM 6 microphone.
I was surprised by large holes and peaks shown in the measured response, very different from those taken by Dirac in the same site, nevertheless the listening sensations were not far from those with Dirac, except for the integration of subwoofer time and level response. This is obviously due to specific multiple test routine that Dirac takes for the subwoofer, missing with WiiM mini.
If I don't give importance to strange measurements variations and keep focus on the listening only, I have to say that WiiM RC does a good job, not so precise and focused as Dirac does but anyway satisfactory.
Keep in mind that after years of bad rooms listening, some people could get used to bad listening and not appreciate more regular situations, my-fi vs hi-fi...
Due to one of too much frequent nad/Bluos bugs, I couldn't test what RC measures with Dirac inserted, since the mdc2 card of Nad freezes anytime I send a 44.1KHz signal to toslink input, when Dirac is on. It's a last firmware new bug, they are aware but after a month, no correction yet. They should take example from WiiM...

 

[EddNog]

I've just made the step up to DIRAC Live using my MacBook Air M1 and frankly, despite using a calibrated UMIK-1 for WiiM RoomFit, I am finding that DIRAC Live absolutely stomps RoomFit, sadly. Significant improvement in instrument separation and dynamics/slam with DIRAC over RoomFit.

Granted, RoomFit is free (with purchase of WiiM streamer) whereas DIRAC is an expensive add-on, so one could argue that, from a price standpoint, this is to be expected.

-Ed

 

[Pytaniedodcf]

"absolutely stomps"

This exaggerated emotionality absolutely stomps your post...

 

[EddNog]

This exaggerated emotionality absolutely stomps your post...

First of all, you’re responding to a post from several months ago, before LinkPlay made numerous improvements to RoomFit™ including combining moving microphone method with separate channel calibration, among other critical improvements.

Second of all, RoomFit™ still only corrects frequency response issues, and is incapable of touching phase or impulse problems (which DIRAC does), so it is literally incapable of two thirds of what DIRAC does. Find your own description for this level of functional superiority.

-Ed

 

[dominikz]

Second of all, RoomFit™ still only corrects frequency response issues, and is incapable of touching phase or impulse problems (which DIRAC does), so it is literally incapable of two thirds of what DIRAC does. Find your own description for this level of functional superiority.

Hope you won't mind if I share a few thoughts on this topic.

Note that phase and impulse correction are basically one and the same thing, given that frequency response (magnitude+phase) and impulse response are just two depictions of the same data.

That being said, in my analysis and tests of Dirac Live (and several other room correction tools) a few years ago (link) I found that the only kind of specific phase correction DL does is to counteract loudspeaker crossover phase wraps, so that the impulse response looks nicer (i.e. so that the tweeter and woofer impulse peaks overlap at the MLP).
EDIT: I added the word "specific" above because any EQ using minimum phase (IIR) filters actually modifies (and in RC context corrects) both the magnitude and phase response.

After extensive blind listening tests I did I personally couldn't say that this kind of phase/impulse correction does anything particularly audibly beneficial (link to results). Of course it could be that I don't know what to listen for, but my experience seems to be in line with findings of some pretty serious researchers (link to article).

But I did find Dirac Live very powerful and user friendly so I liked it a lot. It was IMO very easy to get a good sounding correction, and easy to customize it to ones liking. So Dirac Live was my favorite automated room correction tool at the time.

Though I wouldn't bet that one couldn't get an equally good sounding correction with other tools (including RoomFit) - assuming identical target curves, identical correction ranges, precise level matching, blind testing and seamless switching.