News - Dirac

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 25th, 2016

Dirac Technology Brings Optimized Sound to New OPPO Smartphone Models R9s and R9s Plus

Swedish audio technology provider Dirac Research is pleased to announce that OPPO’s newly released smartphone models R9s and R9s Plus come equipped with Dirac sound optimization technologies.

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.

October 12th, 2016

The CEDIA Best New Product Award Finalist Datasat RS20i features Dirac Live room correction

The Datasat RS20i featuring Dirac Live room correction was a CEDIA Best New Product Award Finalist.

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…

August 12th, 2016

Under the Hood of the Stereophonic System: Phantom Sources

Is there any real physical sound experience that can be exactly replicated through a stereo system? Probably not. Why? Because the sound engineer who’s making the recording is limited to coding a complex three-dimensional sound field using only two channels, which are then played back from two distinct locations in a probably less than perfect listening room.

July 7th, 2016

The 4 Types of Distortion a Good Digital Room Correction System Should Address

The two weakest components of a HiFi system are typically the loudspeaker and the room the music is playing in— the second of which is most often overlooked. Even if you’ve invested in a best-in-class HiFi system, the listening room can still have a tremendous effect on the overall sound experience. Both a sound system’s frequency response* and impulse response** are profoundly altered by everything from standing wave patterns to wall reflections.