The Wonders Of Room Correction With Arcam And Dirac

If you love music and film but have a strange shaped room or are suffering from a disappointing home cinema experience due to poor room acoustics, then we may have a solution for you.

The new Arcam AVR550 and AVR850 amplifiers have been out in the market for a while, but what you may not know is they have a secret weapon. Arcam's Home Cinema products also include the very latest room correction technology from Dirac Research.

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Dirac Research was founded in 2001 from Uppsala University, Sweden, where the founders have been conducting research in signal processing, automatic control, systems modelling and acoustics for many years.

“Dirac Live for Arcam will provide users with world class precision room correction with amazingly transparent results.”, says Charlie Brennan from Arcam.

Using the latest is computer wizardry and a high quality microphone Dirac seeks to compensate for frequency and EQ issues reproduced within the room. A great deal of which are very difficult or impossible to remove with traditional EQ setups. If unresolved this can affect the quality of the sound output which impacts negatively on the listening experience. The advanced Dirac software analyses the speakers as well as the room and corrects these issues with the aim of achieving a much more immersive experience.

Using a microphone, laptop and network access, each of the speakers are measured from 9 different test microphone positions. This way, a clear map of the room and the speaker's acoustic behaviour is built up.  The whole process can take a while dependent on the complexity of your system. After these measurements are taken, the results are processed very quickly and remotely (via the web to Dirac HQ in Sweden) and received back ready to be applied. This file is then uploaded to the Arcam  AVR550 or AVR850 and you're ready to listen. 

Arcam have put together a video on Dirac:

In tests in store using the Arcam AVR550 with a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos setup we switched between the standard room EQ method and Dirac. The results were amazing Dirac Live brought the whole sound together, tightened the bass response and focused the imaging. Dirac makes the entire system faster, more dynamic and much more fluid. The most amazing effect was how it seemed to make the walls disappear and propel you into the film.

While watching Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation we were transported into the atmosphere of the opera house scene. During Gravity we were there with the astronauts in space, physically ducking to avoid space debris. Then in the insanity of Mad Max Fury Road we found ourselves totally immersed in the massive sand and lightning tornado that whistled and roared around the room.

If you want improve your home cinema experience, I would strongly recommend getting an Arcam AVR550 or AVR850 amplifier and exploring the benefits of Dirac. So call us, ask about the Arcam products and let us show you the benefits of such an amazing technology suite. Don't give up on your system we can help.

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