Onkyo and Dirac Strengthen Ties, Tease What's to Come

(August 21, 2024) Onkyo says its alliance with Swedish digital audio pioneer Dirac has grown over the past year into an expanded, collaborative partnership. Together, the brands want to transform your in-home audio experience, whether it be in your home office, living room, or home theater. To do this, Onkyo engineering and product teams are developing AVR products at their Technology Center in Osaka, Japan, in close counsel with Dirac's developers to ensure room correction technologies are fully optimized. The result, says Onkyo, will first be seen in Onkyo and Klipsch as they unveil two new groundbreaking audio products with built-in Dirac Live Room Correction and Bass Control later this year. Teaser: One of these products, claims Onkyo, will be a first of its kind in the consumer electronics industry. “Dirac proves that the world's best room correction software is not just for audiophiles. It’s for everyone,” said Vincent Bonacorsi, COO of Premium Audio Company (PAC). “Onkyo has built an exceptional reputation by bringing high-performance audio products with advanced technologies to a mass market at affordable prices. Our Dirac partnership and collaboration began years ago with Dirac Live Room Correction. It has since expanded to include their award-winning Dirac Live Bass Control, which is now available in many of our models. Dirac's quest to improve audio playback with its famed room correction technologies continues to set our products apart from the crowd. As their technologies continue to expand, we are creating an even better listening experience for our customers together.” Onkyo says it remains committed to providing owners with the best-in-class home entertainment audio video (AV) flagship receivers, fully loaded with Dirac Live Room Correction and Bass Control. The company's flagship A/V receivers, the TX-RZ70 and TX-RZ50, include a Dirac Live Room Correction full bandwidth license at no additional cost. The TX-RZ70 also supports Bass Control, which is available as a paid upgrade. While the TX-RZ50 does not currently support Bass Control, it is expected to be upgradeable with this feature in the coming months. At least one announcement may come as soon as CEDIA 2024, which begins at the beginning of September. AV NIRVANA will have full, onsite coverage.

 

[Asere]

That the RZ50 may possibly have DLBC is excellent news. I do hope it is upgradable for the Pioneer LX505 since they are the same company practically. How will they implement DLBC on the RZ50 if the unit does not have independent sub preouts.

 

[Todd Anderson]

That's a great question. Doesn't make sense! I should be talking with Dirac soon... I'll see what I can find out.

 

[Asere]

Talk to them asap haha. My LX505 return window is up a week from this Saturday.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Well then… let me see what info I can get!

 

[Asere]

Thank you and please!

 

[Mike Schramm]

Good to see Onkyo is strengthening their relationship with Dirac. Their proprietary AccuEQ isn't the best at what it does, so to have something like Dirac in a more "budget" product is awesome.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Thank you and please!

Made contact - waiting for response

 

[tjcinnamon]

would like to see ART released but that’s just crickets

 

[Todd Anderson]

Thank you and please!

Alright, Asere… here’s the response from Dirac:

Bass Control in a single subwoofer setup loses out on bass summation and rerouting, but still leverages Dirac’s patented ML-powered technologies to automatically set the crossover, phase-align all speakers in the crossover region to match one another, and provide impulse response and phase correction to ensure an even a bass response throughout the room.


So, as I read it, a single output that’s essentially split for two subs isn’t implemented DLBC as it would if you had two separate, unique outputs.

You might, however, get some benefit if your subs are positioned in the same area of the room, equidistant from the main listening position (for example, quarter points of the front wall).

In that situation, it would more or less see both subs as one and make broad corrections that would impact both (those are my words, not Dirac’s).

Thoughts?

 

[Asere]

Thank you for looking into this. My two subs are right next to each other because of space in the room. Maybe I can get some benefits but I won't be getting the full benefit as if I had two separate outputs. I may go for the RZ70 when on sale and return the Pioneer for now.

 

[Mike Schramm]

I'm not even in the market for a new AVR. I currently have an RZ840 (the previous model to the RZ50), but with how affordable these are and what the RZ70 is capable of, it's giving me the itch to upgrade.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Upgradeitis is real!! (unfortunately)

 

[Asere]

Then there is the urge to wait for ART. Will current flagship avrs receive ART or will newer avrs. Geez the mystery

 

[Todd Anderson]

ART can technically be deployed on current flagship AVRs. I've heard zero rumblings about it happening anytime soon, and I'm not sure exactly why. Good news is DL Bass Control is a really good option!