6 ms·

Tangentially related, I recently had some hand-me-down high-end full tower speakers lose their integrated subwoofer amps. I bypassed them and wired in an extern

Tangentially related, I recently had some hand-me-down high-end full tower speakers lose their integrated subwoofer amps. I bypassed them and wired in an external amp but people said the integrated DSP would be missing. That's when I learned about CamillaDSP [1] and CamillaFIR [2]. I got a calibrated UMIK-1 microphone and did a frequency sweep in the room. Then I applied the Camilla-computed FIR filter to my snapcast-sourced music stream on the Raspberry Pi 3 B I have networked into the living room. Now I have room-corrected and loudspeaker corrected fancy DSP and the speakers sound better than ever. Pretty fun, and very cheap. The Pi3 runs it using about 20% of its CPU. Not bad! I did the same process up in my office with some desk speakers and they sound great too (that time using EasyEffects to apply the filter in real-time rather than CamillaDSP). [1] https://github.com/HEnquist/camilladsp https://github.com/HEnquist/camilladsp [2] https://github.com/VilhoValittu/CamillaFIR https://github.com/VilhoValittu/CamillaFIR

brianaker 5mo ago
Why not use a crossover driver? The loudspeaker would have used one; a driver is both cheaper and of higher quality.
weiliddat 5mo ago
Ah that’s super cool. Wish I knew about this a week earlier. Just last week I got the iLoud sub to correct speakers for my living room because I wanted a standalone piece of equipment that’s not my PC that can hold the corrected EQ/phase.
MrBuddyCasino 5mo ago
Did you ever use Dirac Live and can compare the results? Hardware that supports Dirac is unfortunately very expensive.
- SirMaster 5mo ago
  You can get a miniDSP 2x4HD for like $225 that supports Dirac Live.
  - giobox 5mo ago
    The optional Dirac Live firmware/licence for the miniDSP is an extra $199, so it's really $425. I have one and personally didn't bother, did the usual UMIK-1 + REW to create the room correction. > https://www.minidsp.com/products/dirac-series/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=424 https://www.minidsp.com/products/dirac-series/index.php?opti...
    - SirMaster 5mo ago
      Well they said hardware that supports it is expensive, so I was just mentioning the hardware price, not the Dirac license cost.
- vladvasiliu 5mo ago
  FWIW, I've tried Dirac Live and compared it to the correction suggested by REW [0]. In both cases, the measurements were taken with a UMIK-1, and the correction was done on a computer. Contrary to GP, I didn't have to fix borked components, just a random, untreated living room. Dirac seemed to have a fairly heavy-handed correction. In my case, I only had fairly narrow frequency ranges that needed correcting, but Dirac seemed to move much wider ranges at a time. It's also nearly impossible to tweak; you basically can only increase/decrease "the lows" or "the highs". But maybe I'm missing something. In contrast, the suggestions produced by REW were loaded in EasyEffects on Linux, and I could tweak everything to my heart's content. But I actually just left it alone, since it was good enough. --- [0] https://www.roomeqwizard.com/ https://www.roomeqwizard.com/
  - MrBuddyCasino 5mo ago
    I also have a UMIK-1, and tried the REW route once, but it made everything worse. I suspect a lot of the know-how in Dirac is how to automatically get good results.
    - monster_truck 5mo ago
      It's equal parts science and art. Best left as a last resort, never a shortcut. These utilities are generally directed towards much louder systems, in bigger spaces, with far more than a few speakers. Everything that has bled down into the consumer space is a band aid for people who either can't or don't know/care/want to treat their rooms and position speakers correctly. Ideally you want to be going into it intenting to correct a specific aspect of the room or the speakers, after already ensuring that you've placed the speakers correctly for the room and listening position. If you did not use a tape measure and the full dimensions of the speakers, start over. One of the most useful things REW/Dirac can do for you is confirm that you've placed everything correctly. It is not a magic "make it sound better" utility. Hate to sound like an ad but the most impressive thing I've purchased wrt audio in the past 20 years has been some isolators from https://isoacoustics.com/ https://isoacoustics.com/. It's legit engineering magic, you will spend the first hour thinking something is wrong with your body because you can no longer feel the sound.
- acidburnNSA 5mo ago
  I don't use it and so haven't compared. I'm interested as well.
- throwawaySimon 5mo ago
  Ive done quite extensive testing with Dirac(with a MiniDSP Flex), rePhase, normal PEQs, BruteFIR, CamillaDSP etc. etc. Dirac is the most user friendly of the bunch, but honestly once you limit the correction to below Schroeder frequency I cannot tell them apart. So for my systems I just stick to a few PEQs targeting the main peaks under 300hz.

brianaker 5mo ago

Why not use a crossover driver? The loudspeaker would have used one; a driver is both cheaper and of higher quality.

weiliddat 5mo ago

Ah that’s super cool. Wish I knew about this a week earlier. Just last week I got the iLoud sub to correct speakers for my living room because I wanted a standalone piece of equipment that’s not my PC that can hold the corrected EQ/phase.

MrBuddyCasino 5mo ago

Did you ever use Dirac Live and can compare the results? Hardware that supports Dirac is unfortunately very expensive.

SirMaster 5mo ago
You can get a miniDSP 2x4HD for like $225 that supports Dirac Live.
- giobox 5mo ago
  The optional Dirac Live firmware/licence for the miniDSP is an extra $199, so it's really $425. I have one and personally didn't bother, did the usual UMIK-1 + REW to create the room correction. > https://www.minidsp.com/products/dirac-series/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=424 https://www.minidsp.com/products/dirac-series/index.php?opti...
  - SirMaster 5mo ago
    Well they said hardware that supports it is expensive, so I was just mentioning the hardware price, not the Dirac license cost.
vladvasiliu 5mo ago
FWIW, I've tried Dirac Live and compared it to the correction suggested by REW [0]. In both cases, the measurements were taken with a UMIK-1, and the correction was done on a computer. Contrary to GP, I didn't have to fix borked components, just a random, untreated living room. Dirac seemed to have a fairly heavy-handed correction. In my case, I only had fairly narrow frequency ranges that needed correcting, but Dirac seemed to move much wider ranges at a time. It's also nearly impossible to tweak; you basically can only increase/decrease "the lows" or "the highs". But maybe I'm missing something. In contrast, the suggestions produced by REW were loaded in EasyEffects on Linux, and I could tweak everything to my heart's content. But I actually just left it alone, since it was good enough. --- [0] https://www.roomeqwizard.com/ https://www.roomeqwizard.com/
- MrBuddyCasino 5mo ago
  I also have a UMIK-1, and tried the REW route once, but it made everything worse. I suspect a lot of the know-how in Dirac is how to automatically get good results.
  - monster_truck 5mo ago
    It's equal parts science and art. Best left as a last resort, never a shortcut. These utilities are generally directed towards much louder systems, in bigger spaces, with far more than a few speakers. Everything that has bled down into the consumer space is a band aid for people who either can't or don't know/care/want to treat their rooms and position speakers correctly. Ideally you want to be going into it intenting to correct a specific aspect of the room or the speakers, after already ensuring that you've placed the speakers correctly for the room and listening position. If you did not use a tape measure and the full dimensions of the speakers, start over. One of the most useful things REW/Dirac can do for you is confirm that you've placed everything correctly. It is not a magic "make it sound better" utility. Hate to sound like an ad but the most impressive thing I've purchased wrt audio in the past 20 years has been some isolators from https://isoacoustics.com/ https://isoacoustics.com/. It's legit engineering magic, you will spend the first hour thinking something is wrong with your body because you can no longer feel the sound.
acidburnNSA 5mo ago
I don't use it and so haven't compared. I'm interested as well.
throwawaySimon 5mo ago
Ive done quite extensive testing with Dirac(with a MiniDSP Flex), rePhase, normal PEQs, BruteFIR, CamillaDSP etc. etc. Dirac is the most user friendly of the bunch, but honestly once you limit the correction to below Schroeder frequency I cannot tell them apart. So for my systems I just stick to a few PEQs targeting the main peaks under 300hz.