Differences in Dirac flavors

I have the Pioneer lx805. I have placed different measurements on the avr slots. Standard Dirac, DLBM, DLBC. I can clearly hear a difference especially with the subs between Standard Dirac and the other two but how come BM and BC sound the same? Am I wrong using a slot for BM when I have BC? I thought there could be a comparison/audible difference.

I don't know how much difference it makes with only two subwoofers, but if you had more subs, I believe Bass Control would do a better job than BM.

This is a kind of bad taste in my mouth about Dirac-it seems technically well done, but then I read about paying extra to unlock licenses and all these flavors...is there a Dirac feature chart somewhere? Do all versions handle 2 subwoofers?

It's been so long since I haven't had BC or ART, but I'm pretty sure when I had multiple subs using DL without BC I had to time-align my subs before running DL.

I believe Audyssey is similar. While you may not pay for it directly, you have to buy the more expensive processors and AVRs to get the MultEQ XT.

Asere said:

I have the Pioneer lx805. I have placed different measurements on the avr slots. Standard Dirac, DLBM, DLBC. I can clearly hear a difference especially with the subs between Standard Dirac and the other two but how come BM and BC sound the same? Am I wrong using a slot for BM when I have BC? I thought there could be a comparison/audible difference.

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This is what Dirac says about BM and BC:

"By selecting “Bass management”, regular bass management filters with Dirac Live filters are designed and each subwoofer gain is scaled by 1/(number of subwoofers) to match the target curve. Selecting the “Bass control” the filter design will harmonise the subwoofers and non-subwoofer speakers in the lower frequencies using tailor made phase filters, delays and gains."

It could just be that the software is operating at the outer limits of what's possible with your room?

Have you tried moving around your room while demoing bass using BC? I'd imagine you're getting a much smoother response from seat to seat (or when comparing different areas of your room).

Head_Unit said:

Do all versions handle 2 subwoofers?

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Assuming you have multiple sub-outs on the processor then yes all versions ”handle” them, but only Bass Control and ART will “optimize“ their performance, both between the subs and between the subs and speaker groups (I.e. mains, surrounds, etc.)
ART is only currently available on Storm Audio products.

Head_Unit said:

is there a Dirac feature chart somewhere?

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Depending on the processor/AVR one can pay for Dirac Live, which they are starting to refer to as RC for room correction or …
Next option is Bass Control.
Next option is ART.

Bass Management is within the software and has never been a paid tier. It simply transfers bass management duties from the processor to being baked in to Dirac filters. To my knowledge it is of no practical benefit vs the processor’s bass management.

You can find the specific processors and what tiers you can pay for on Dirac’s website. Assume tiers below the first paid tier are included with the processor/AVR from the manufacturer. Tiers above not listed are not available on that processor.
Check with manufacturers to see what they include, if anything, for each given model.


Hope this helps.

That's a great suggestion Todd. I didn't think about sitting in different areas of the couch to see if the bass is even with BC. I'll try that soon.