Dirac Live Bass Management System To Debut at CEDIA Promising Perfect Bass

In early 2018 we put our two cents in on the benefits of Dirac Live as a means of offering top of the line room correction for both 2 channel and 8 channel systems. Dirac has now been teasing a bass management version since CES Las Vegas in February of this year. This week Dirac formally announced the release of Dirac Live Bass Management.  This unique room acoustics solution is designed to optimize a system’s subwoofers and speakers to deliver consistent, accurate bass throughout an entire room.

"Speaker and subwoofer sound waves bounce throughout a space and collide with one another to create crossover areas with uneven bass distribution. Dirac Live Bass Management measures and phase corrects a home theater’s speakers and subwoofers across all frequencies, even in multiple subwoofer systems, to produce enhanced bass clarity and improved bass tone evenness throughout the room.

Even the most high-end hardware possesses certain performance deficiencies – ones that can only be resolved through an understanding of the room itself. However, while Dirac Live offered new standards in room correction and speaker phase correction, it left one area – the subwoofer’s low-frequency bass tones – unaddressed. The new Dirac Live Bass Management now equips installers and their customers with a tool that addresses this final frontier, moving them one step closer to acoustical perfection."

 - Niklas Thorin- Dirac’s GM of High Performance

Dirac Live Bass Management aggregates measurement and location data from each subwoofer to determine how a system’s bass is distributed throughout the room. It then identifies gaps in the sound waves and distributes bass evenly across the room. Furthermore, the solution corrects the low-frequency sound waves produced by the speaker pair, so the bass produced by each speaker is in sync with the system. All of this processing is designed to enable the subwoofers to be positioned anywhere in the room without sacrificing performance for design, or vice versa.

Editorial Note About Subwoofer Placement

We find the claim about placing subwoofers "anywhere" in the room to be interesting as it's always been our experience that following general guidelines for subwoofer placement in room such as all 4 corners, front/back midwall, or diagonal corners, provide good LF coupling factor and seat to seat consistency making manual and auto-EQ systems more effective across the listening area. If Dirac figured out a way to make subwoofer placement more flexible, it will be a huge opportunity for enthusiasts wanting to integrate multiple subwoofers in their home theater rooms but until now have been unable to due to placement constraints.

For more information, see: Home Theater Multi-Subwoofer placement and Set-Up Guide

Dirac Live Bass Management, the first in a series of modular add-ons for Dirac Live, is available in two versions: Single-Sub, for single subwoofer home theater systems, is priced at $249, while Multi-Sub, for systems with more than one sub, is priced at $399.

What Hardware will Dirac Live Bass Management Be Featured On?

The M10 BluOS streaming amplifier and C658 BluOS streaming DAC will be the first two products from NAD to feature Dirac Live Bass Management. Depending on one’s specific system, customers will have the option of purchasing the Single-Sub or Multi-Sub options. StormAudio is set to incorporate Dirac Live Bass Management into its full line of processors and amplifiers while Arcam and JBL Synthesis are slated to incorporate it into the majority of its AVR product portfolio.

If Dirac Live Bass Management lives up to the hype of Dirac's other digital room correction systems it's a win-win situation. Not only does Dirac increase sales from a product targeted to multi-subwoofer home theater enthusiasts, but multi-subwoofer home theater enthusiasts gain a product that they have been waiting for.  We see most room correction systems struggle to properly integrate, time-align and EQ multiple subs, so if DIRAC does what it claims, it could potentially be the best thing in room correction and a must have for bassaholics.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.