Blog - Dirac

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.

November 11th, 2016

The Home Audio Industry Takes a Big Leap Forward: Multi-room, Garden Sounds, and Pitch-Perfect Raindrops

This year I returned to home audio after over a decade working in other industries and I was shocked to find that very little had changed since I’d been away. Generally speaking, progress has been relatively slow. In the 90s there was almost no home install and people tried their best to create a good listening environment, sometimes with a good result, sometimes not. But last month I discovered a very different picture of progress. I attended the CEDIA expo for home technology in Dallas and it was undeniable that technology is finally catching up with the imaginations of the people. Here are a few examples…

October 28th, 2016

Why Should We Strive for Perfection in Sound Reproduction?

When it comes to the reproduction of sound, the quest for “perfection” can seem like a pointless task when the definition itself is difficult to judge—even, and especially, for a musician. But the truth is our brains can tell the difference, and the closer a sound system comes to recreating a performance, the more relaxed and detail-rich our listening experience becomes.

October 14th, 2016

The Need for a Squeeze: Making Big Music Fit into Small Devices

As the listening habits of consumers shift towards ever smaller and more compact playback devices, the sole application of linear and time-invariant processing methods (such as sophisticated equalization technologies) is not necessarily sufficient for reaching the desired and often conflicting requirements of audibility, low distortion, tonal balance, bass response, loudness, etc. DSP system design for small loudspeakers is inherently a compromise, but by using cutting-edge digital technologies we can achieve results which invariably take any micro-speaker to the next level of performance.

September 30th, 2016

Software, Tuning Engineers, and the Pursuit of the Best Automotive Sound

What are the expectations for a tuning tool? And who will use it? What are the factors and contexts that influence the tuning approaches we take, whether it is manual tuning approach, automatic tuning approach, or assisted tuning approaches?

September 16th, 2016

Digital Headroom: The Boundaries of the 16 Bits

When it comes to digital signal processing, there’s one puzzle that remains even once processing is complete. How do you fit the processed signal back inside the permissible limits of the digital number format? This post describes the “why” and the “how” of two different approaches you can take to get around this obstacle and finish the operation.

September 2nd, 2016

Equalization and Digital Filters: Going Beyond the Standard Toolbox

“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” This well known quote is attributed to psychologist Abraham Maslow, who observed that the accessibility of a given tool tends to influence the type of approach humans take when solving a problem. As engineers and researchers, we are not spared from the phenomenon of Maslow’s hammer, although many of us might like to think otherwise…