Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - Using MiniDSP (incl Dirac) with Meridian gear for DIRAC, good idea?

I am thinking on buying a MiniDSP DDRC-88A Dirac Live Processor to use with my G65. Instead of MRC.

Is anybody using MINIDSP (with Dirac) with Meridian gear?

Is this overkill? Can the same be achieved with REW?

Is the bass management add on an advantage?

For me the best version is a ddrc 88d (d for digital) or equivalent.
So no dac or adc.

If you have analog speakers, between an hd621 / 722 and the processor.

So HDMI -> HD621/722 Upsample, de-jitter -> G65 Meridian proprietary DSP to Meridian quality DAC -> Meridian quality analogue out -> ??? Analogue in buffer -> ??? ADC -> Dirac -> ??? DAC -> analogue out with whatever quality they deem adequate.

If you want Dirac this way, sell the Meridian gear. There's nothing worthwhile going to survive.

Using Dirac as a measurement tool will not give you a set of filters, rather just a pretty set of graphs that you can manipulate and the actual filtering gains/cuts, q values etc are hidden away. AFAIK, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

It may be slightly more manual, but you could use the free REW software and a UMIK-1 to measure each channel manually. You'll then be given a set of filters you can actually use with MRC (up to 250hz).
Might take a bit longer to iterate through the channels and if you're doing it properly, averaging at least three variations of measurement positions per channel.

Will also save you a load of cash on hardware and Dirac licensing you may not need.

None of them.

Meridian’s approach to room correction was not accidental, and didn’t miss out amplitude correction because it wasn’t available, it is the way it is because Bob Stuart and the others behind it believe that it is the best approach. If you read the white paper (The Gentle Art of Room Correction) it is clear that they do not attempt to correct certain things because the belief is that it replaces one problem with another. Their approach is to, as much as possible, mitigate ringing, not amplitude. If you accept that this is the Meridian approach to this problem, with all the knowledge those guys have, that’s it. When used correctly, it’s the only method I’ve used which corrects what is possible to correct without affecting the stuff it is unwise (in their, and my opinion) to correct. I’ve tried Dirac, REW and Tact and find the changes better in some ways and worse (sometimes much worse) in others. To my ears, not a frequency response graph.

Honestly, you can mess around all you want and have fun, and it might be to your liking, and that’s all good. But it won’t sound like anything Meridian would have put out, or they would have done so.

How will the above setups cope with Meridian’s proprietary processing and how the Meridian processor spreads different frequencies across speakers (e.g., in Trifield), as the external boxes have no way of knowing what the Meridian grear is doing? I would do it all in the Meridian processor (including bass management) or just go to a different solution, especially since you are using analogue speakers and amps.

I think I Mia understood you. I thought p1&2 were placing the speakers on different spots to see effect.

I thought you meant sarcastic twice placement is soooo important

Because you mentioned it twice:-)
1. Room and speaker interaction. Experiment with the position of the loudspeakers, usually a trade off between soundstage and bass performance.

2. Room and speaker interaction. Experiment with the position of the loudspeakers. usually a trade off between soundstage and bass performance.


By moving F&R the soundstage became bigger and bass became clearer and more available.

But maybe I misunderstood your points

For me the hierarchy in optimizing in room sound:

1. Room and speaker interaction. Experiment with the position of the loudspeakers, usually a trade off between soundstage and bass performance.

2. Room and speaker interaction. Experiment with the position of the loudspeakers. usually a trade off between soundstage and bass performance.

3. Meridian DSP settings (I think Meridian needs to update the possibilities, not just rename them. Most options are 30years old.)

4. Digital Room Correction. (Here you can straighten the bass output, but only reduce peaks not fill dips. Solve phase issues and improve stereo imaging)

The effect that speaker positioning has when you measure is large. I was missing bass and the measurements showed a dip of 10dB(!) at 40Hz, purely from room interaction. Swapping out equipment or cables makes no sense if you haven't fully optimized the position..