Dirac Live’s new auto target curve: Even better sound, effortlessly

Have you tried Dirac Live’s new auto target curve yet? Available now in the new Dirac Live mobile app, rebuilt from the ground up for ease of use and better sound, the auto target curve is dynamically tuned for your system’s in-room response, giving you drastically improved sound at once. We at the Dirac Live team regard the auto target curve as a huge acoustic and ease-of-use improvement that will enable more users to enjoy better sound, more easily than ever.

At its core, Dirac Live has always been about measuring and enhancing the acoustic performance of a sound system, with experts given the tools to manually fine-tune their sound. In fact, many of Dirac Live’s first applications were in cinemas or professionally installed home theaters, where experts calibrated the system alongside independent bass management, with a target curve designed to match this professional usage. When we brought Dirac Live to the everyday home listening setup, we did so with the understanding that advanced users would still want to implement manual bass management. That’s why our default target curve can lack bass in some situations—because it was designed with separate, manual adjustments in mind.

But these days, Dirac Live fits just as well in a living room as in a thousand-seat auditorium. With more Dirac-enabled devices on the market than ever, it’s clear that applying the best target curve for every space should be as effortless and enjoyable as possible. The one-curve-fits-all approach just doesn’t make sense anymore.

That’s where the new auto target curve comes in. Our new target curve is automatically tuned in response to individual sound systems, which allows it to deliver the enhanced sound that is synonymous with Dirac Live in every space, every time.

The new auto target curve more faithfully reflects the inherent character of the measured system, minus the adverse acoustic effects of the room. It gives users a balanced response with a more natural slope, creating more genuine listening experiences. With the auto target curve, users who don’t have in-depth knowledge of room correction and frequency response can enjoy drastically improved sound without having to make a single adjustment. The auto target curve ensures the result is lifelike and preserves more of the speakers’ individual flavor, while tightening up performance across the board. 

Crucially, Dirac Live’s auto target curve also delivers adjusted bass levels and tonality. Boomy, exaggerated bass, often the result of room gain, will still be removed, but the auto target curve restores power across the low-frequency spectrum for a smoother, tighter bass response. Put simply, our new target curve system removes bass where there’s too much and adds bass where there’s too little to arrive at the best possible performance, tuned for your space.

We’re confident that users will love the character of their own automatically generated target curves, but we’re also making it easier than ever to adjust custom curves whenever you want to. The current target curve design, composed of many individual points of adjustment, can be intimidating. That’s why we’re also implementing a simplified custom filter design process, so that users simply drag a sound region up or down to increase or decrease its volume. This means no more worrying about the decibel level of a specific frequency—simply pump up the bass or turn down the treble to your liking. And for all the users who know and love it, classic filter design will still be available.

The auto target curve and simplified target curve design will be available on Dirac Live mobile for iOS and Android first, followed by the desktop program later.  Currently Dirac Live-enabled devices from NAD, Onkyo, Pioneer, Integra and Pioneer Elite are compatible with the Dirac Live mobile app. You can start enjoying the auto target curve and simplified Filter Design today by downloading the Dirac Live mobile app from the links below. Don’t forget to tell us what you think, and happy listening!