In Fitz's defence, here's one reviewer who found a net gain with Dirac Live over the loss of "Direct Mode" in Audirvana, something I would be loath to give up.
Imagine what Hendrix would have been like without guitar distortion certainly not naff, but perhaps not quite as awesome.Įach to their own and in my case, DSP is here to stay for the foreseeable future :) I'm also not necessarily in search of a truly accurate playback system and if DSP colours things for the better, then it's still better.
If I ever do go for a PC based m/c setup, I'd probably want to have DSP enabled by JRiver or Dirac Live, but that's not something I'll do immediately because m/c disc playback sounds great as it is. I don't know where my rooms sits, but music definitely sounds better with some DSP. Some rooms may be well suited to music with zero DSP, some might benefit from a little and others still, a lot. My setup needs more than that and with the DSP Audyssey provides via my AVR, 4.0 suddenly sounds terrific. I haven't tried Dirac in any form, but when I recently returned to having a m/c setup, albeit 4.0, it sounded awful when left to my OPPO 103D to downmix 5.1 to 4.0 and adjust speaker settings.
As for listening I have sufficient experience over many years of listening to & evaluating Live v recorded sound so I need no Audyssey or Dirac gimmicks as you obviously do. You and Kal seem to be the only ones listening to Dirac probably too complex for most including me. You do indeed have magical powers and perception. But, you just know what is good or bad without even listening, ever quick to lend your erudite counsel. Had you actually listened to it, your ravings might actually have some value to some. Dirac Live is doing quite well, thank you, in spite of your completely uninformed and therefore totally spurious opinion. Sorry if it is beyond your comprehension, as are many things, as we know only too well from your illustrious history. But, simply because you are ignorant of room acoustics, the measurement thereof and you have never heard Dirac Live does not make it a gimmick.
I was quite happy with my sound, too, for quite a number of years.