Blog - Dirac

June 27th, 2017

Creating the Perfect Sound System with 3D Sound Reproduction

Over the last decades there’s been a lot of research devoted to figuring out how to record a sound event and exactly reproduce the original sound field in a different location. So far, this has not been possible to achieve for sound reproduction in a consumer environment with a reasonable number of loudspeakers. However, recently we have seen a lot of innovation in spatial sound reproduction, with applications ranging from TV and cinema, to games and VR.

May 31st, 2017

How VR/AR Can Give Teleconferencing a Much Needed Makeover

In today’s global business environment, the ability to work remotely offers a huge work life improvement and ultimately saves on travel and environmental costs. One thing still holding us back, however, is the lack of proper teleconferencing systems. Despite the various solutions available, attempting to work remotely and conduct conference calls with 5-10 people located in various places across the globe is a hugely disappointing and unproductive experience.

May 5th, 2017

Rescuing Smartphone Audio with Digital Soundstage Widening

It wasn’t too long ago that portable audio meant blurry playback on a Walkman, and portable movies were, of course, completely unthinkable. Yet today we consume portable audio in all kinds of environments and for a range of different purposes— for music, games, audiobooks, GPS systems, audio assistants like Siri… the list goes on. And it’s all delivered in the convenient package of a smartphone. For the longest time portable audio also necessitated the use of headphones, and this is still very much the case. The tiny speakers in smartphones, while significantly better than ten years ago, can only do so much. Sure, advanced signal processing has enabled improvements in output level and sound quality over the past few years, but watching a movie on a smartphone without headphones remains a less than massive audio experience. What’s the problem?

April 7th, 2017

3 Audio Trends Spotted at the 2017 Mobile World Congress

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) takes place in Barcelona every year. With over 100,000 exhibitors and visitors, it’s by far the most important event in the industry. It also offers a key to understanding the trends of the future—not only in the mobile industry but in relation to how we live our lives. Mobile goes beyond mobile phones and everything you can think of is getting connected. Including some things you might not even imagine.

March 23rd, 2017

Essential Audio Knowledge: Spectral Masking

Background noise is an unavoidable nuisance. Whether it’s produced by roaring excavators or hurried crowds at a train station, and whether it’s obscuring a voice message from your boss or a listening session with a Tchaikovsky waltz, it’s always annoying. Given urbanization trends, our environments will likely only get noisier—with more people living closer together, and the proliferation of mobile sound systems providing a whole new palette of noises and disturbances which were not present in the listening scenarios of yesteryear.

March 9th, 2017

The Story of Dirac FilterLab: Great Technology Deserves a Great Tuning Tool

With Dirac FilterLab, things done changed and we can now offer a so fresh, so clean and user-friendly interface that reflects the algorithm’s strength through interface design.

January 31st, 2017

CES 2017 Highlights, as Experienced from the Dirac Suite

It’s hard not to write something after returning from an event like CES, which leaves you with so many inputs and impressions, it nearly blows your mind. The entire place is so packed with innovations and ideas, it’s like the entire world’s waited all year just to reveal what they’ve been busy hatching up in the seclusion of their basement.

December 29th, 2016

In HiFi, Virtual Reality Might Be Better Than Reality

As I write this, I’m listening to a recording of Joss Stone. Her voice sounds completely natural, hovering in the air just a few meters in front of me, placed distinctly at the center of my sound system, remaining there regardless of how I move my head. I can almost touch the ambience of the recording. The low frequency extension is great, the room modes are extremely well controlled. The listening room is remarkably well treated, with just the right amount of air and sense of space, and without the annoyance of comb filters or spectral coloration. It’s treated so well, I don’t need digital room correction. This is an experience you can’t get without a HiFi and room treatment budget of at least $100,000 USD. The funny fact is this: I’m getting this experience with a pair of headphones. And the sound system I’m referring to? It’s a virtual one.

December 14th, 2016

How to Make Headphones Stereo-Compatible

Have you ever wondered why music sounds so different on headphones compared to loudspeakers? It’s because, by design, headphones are not technically compatible with the stereophonic system. That isn’t to say you can’t still get great sound from headphones. Otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing the boom in headphone sales that we’ve been seeing the past few years (although it’s worth pointing out that some retail stores keep mirrors next to the headphone displays for customers who care more about looks than sound). In this post, I’ll be examining why music sounds different on headphones, and look into a technology that can upgrade headphone sound quality by several notches.

November 25th, 2016

Big Sound in Small Packages: Is it Any Match to Hi-Fi?

Ever since humankind started creating music, the means, or equipment, for doing so have often been prohibitively bulky. True, there exists many small musical instruments, but the ones that can produce sound of sufficient strength and volume are typically really, really large; and an ensemble playing multiple instruments at once requires a lot of space indeed.