BREAKING: Dirac Co-Founder Mathias Johansson Resigns, Accepts New Position with HARMAN

Sonnie Parker · Sep 10, 2024

That's a pretty serious move... and likely a VERY good catch for Harman.

Gerry Iaria · Sep 10, 2024

That's a shock, but he must have had his reasons

Todd Anderson · Sep 10, 2024

Having spent some time chatting with Mathias over the years, he doesn’t strike me as someone who would spin an untruth in a situation like this. I think it's simply a career move to freshen things up. His LinkedIn post is pretty clear about his intentions. I guess it was time for a change!

Dirac is in good hands. Nothing seems to indicate otherwise.

Todd Anderson · Sep 10, 2024

^ Just to note, I’ve received inside confirmation: these assumptions are spot on.

tjcinnamon · Sep 10, 2024

great vision but atrocious quality control. Hope he’s not in charge of any product implementations

JStewart · Sep 11, 2024

tjcinnamon said:
great vision but atrocious quality control.

That may or may not be fair, but it strikes me that the vast majority of the issues come from use with different brand and model devices. I’d like to think Dirac provides specifications to the manufacturers that will work with their software and on the manufacture’s end things don’t always work as intended.
Beyond that there’s still been hiccups. I don’t find that surprising. How can one possibly test every windows or Mac quirk that can crop up? I see the same with other software, like intuit quickbooks for example, perhaps the most widely distributed business accounting software.
I’ve personally written simple code using tools from Microsoft that gets broken with one of their countless updates or worse, a new OS version. Very time consuming to figure out a cause and workaround for a nothing small business person as I was. I’m glad I wasn’t in software development. Some days I’m surprised this stuff works at all. Like, what was up with this forum yesterday? I created a post with photos and when I hit post reply they were gone. Pages loaded excruciatingly slowly, with missing data, or not at all. Glad it‘s working again today.

Gerry Iaria · Sep 11, 2024

JStewart said:
That may or may not be fair, but it strikes me that the vast majority of the issues come from use with different brand and model devices. I’d like to think Dirac provides specifications to the manufacturers that will work with their software and on the manufacture’s end things don’t always work as intended.
Beyond that there’s still been hiccups. I don’t find that surprising. How can one possibly test every windows or Mac quirk that can crop up? I see the same with other software, like intuit quickbooks for example, perhaps the most widely distributed business accounting software.
I’ve personally written simple code using tools from Microsoft that gets broken with one of their countless updates or worse, a new OS version. Very time consuming to figure out a cause and workaround for a nothing small business person as I was. I’m glad I wasn’t in software development. Some days I’m surprised this stuff works at all. Like, what was up with this forum yesterday? I created a post with photos and when I hit post reply they were gone. Pages loaded excruciatingly slowly, with missing data, or not at all. Glad it‘s working again today.

Windows works in mysterious ways

Sonnie Parker · Sep 11, 2024

Dirac is not equal in all implementations, as the manufacturers control each implementation. We briefly discussed this with Gary Blouse (StormAudio) during our YouTube interview a few weeks ago. This is why DLBC sounded better on my MK3 processor than my HTP-1 processor. I also remember having the Audio Control Maestro X9 in here for review. I could not finish the review because of Audio Control issues with the Dirac implementation. AC even sent me a new unit, but it had the same issues. Several of the guys from Dirac worked with us relentlessly to resolve the issue, but ultimately, AC had to fix their implementation issues, not Dirac. That doesn't mean Dirac is completely free of issues from time to time, but outside of the AC issues I had with their X9, my countless interactions with Dirac's software have been very good from day one.

Todd Anderson · Sep 11, 2024

Sonnie is right. Dirac basically provides the playbook. It's up to each individual manufacturer to code that playbook into their own hardware.

In the case of StormAudio, they do all of their coding in-house and have a much more robust platform capable of running Dirac with more precision. My understanding is some – not all, but some – outsource the coding to a third party. In those cases, if the implementation is riddled with problems, the process to correct them is a lot more complicated.

So, I don't think it's necessarily a Dirac problem. I think it speaks more to the complexity of the software and the fact that manufacturers have difficulties properly implementing it on their various platforms.

Gerry Iaria · Sep 11, 2024

Agree

tjcinnamon · Sep 11, 2024

Todd Anderson said:
Sonnie is right. Dirac basically provides the playbook. It's up to each individual manufacturer to code that playbook into their own hardware.

In the case of StormAudio, they do all of their coding in-house and have a much more robust platform capable of running Dirac with more precision. My understanding is some – not all, but some – outsource the coding to a third party. In those cases, if the implementation is riddled with problems, the process to correct them is a lot more complicated.

So, I don't think it's necessarily a Dirac problem. I think it speaks more to the complexity of the software and the fact that manufacturers have difficulties properly implementing it on their various platforms.

This is the software before it even sends to the AVR. It’s had a pervasive issue with windows where it says that the measurement doesn’t have enough data.

They have a work around that works for some and not others with using the mic in exclusive mode but Umik’s use a boost and exclusive mode doesn’t like that.

With only a few speakers you can luck into a good measurement set. However, with a 9.1.4 system, it’s difficult.

I’ve been using Dirac since 2.0, like close to a decade. It’s been buggy since day 1 irrespective of the AVR. Totally the software side

JStewart · Sep 12, 2024

tjcinnamon said:
I’ve been using Dirac since 2.0, like close to a decade. It’s been buggy since day 1 irrespective of the AVR. Totally the software side

I’m going to respectfully disagree. I’ve also used Dirac since Ver 1 on a pc then on MiniDSP Nano AVR, Nad T758v3, and Monolith HTP 1. Never experienced anything remotely close to a problem with a measurement set. I‘ve followed the Dirac thread since the day Markus started it on AVS so I’ve seen the problems there as I know you have. The difference between me and those that have had problems using a Umik and HTP-1 is our computer. To me that rules out the software per se.

I just don’t think it’s reasonable to expect a developer to account for every bit of internal hardware, divers, conflicting software and widows insanity that happens. I do think they could be quicker about code development that traps and handles exceptions they are aware of. The “imprecise measurement “ problem comes to mind. The biggest frustration there was the user had no clue what caused it and how to rectify it. For experienced users we didn’t why it was added as a feature. Had our measurements always been imprecise and we just didn’t know it?

I would also criticize their customer support process. At one point it was necessary to set up a separate account with Dirac just to submit a ticket and it was not clear on their website as to where and how to get help. It should be as easy as possible for customers to communicate. Hopefully the process is streamlined now.

Here’s a thought. Dirac should up the price and include a mic and pre-configured laptop. Problem solved. New problem. Price.

Sonnie Parker · Sep 12, 2024

Yeah, if you are experiencing a lack of measurement data, something else is going on. I've had it in every stage for home and auto, and the only time I have ever experienced this (since day one) was with the UMIK-2 and my MK3, which I quickly ditched and returned to the UMIK-1. I've had equipment issues and Windows issues, but very few Dirac software issues that were not addressed fairly quickly via an update. I did have some other issues one time with some measurements, and I discovered my UMIK-1 bit the dust for some reason. Fortunately, I had another UMIK-1, and all was good. I have three UMIK-1 mics now... two I use for two different rooms and another for backup. I suspect I've run well over a thousand Dirac measurements... it's gotta be a crazy number.

Todd Anderson · Sep 12, 2024

tjcinnamon said:
... had a pervasive issue with windows where it says that the measurement doesn’t have enough data.

Sonnie said:
. I've had equipment issues and Windows issues...

Hmm... it sounds like you guys need to use a Mac. :justdontknow:

Sonnie Parker · Sep 12, 2024

Ohhhh noooooo! lol

Go to the REW support forum and see the astronomical number of issues with Macs.

Google search "dirac live issues with mac"... they are probably more notorious for issues than Windows.

Mike-48 · Sep 14, 2024

Sonnie said:
only time I have ever experienced this (since day one) was with the UMIK-2 and my MK3, which I quickly ditched and returned to the UMIK-1.

Sonnie: Interesting! You may remember, I won a UMIK-2 in an AV NIRVANA contest. I have experienced weird error messages in REW when using it, and now I wonder if the mic may be the issue. Have you ever got to the bottom of issues with the new mic model? Even to the point of understanding when it works best and when it causes trouble?

Sonnie Parker · Sep 14, 2024

Mike-48 said:
Sonnie: Interesting! You may remember, I won a UMIK-2 in an AV NIRVANA contest. I have experienced weird error messages in REW when using it, and now I wonder if the mic may be the issue. Have you ever got to the bottom of issues with the new mic model? Even to the point of understanding when it works best and when it causes trouble?

I have not dug into it any further. When I kept having issues, I mentioned it to Matt at StormAudio, and he immediately asked me if I was using the UMIK-2. I had just gotten the mic, and he said don't use it. I don't remember why, but I'll ask him about it and see what he says. I don't know if it was the mic's fault or if it was a compatibility issue with the MK3.

BREAKING: Dirac Co-Founder Mathias Johansson Resigns, Accepts New Position with HARMAN

Sonnie Parker

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