Set and forget.
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Minidsp Flex Review (Audio DSP)
- Thread starter amirm
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Set and forget.
Eric Natural
Member
I plugged it in to test it only, still obviously having leagues to go before the thing is dialed in. At the same time have upgraded to a Fosi V3 amp to drive the speaks. Welcome to the 21st Century son. I've got signal !
Cheers
Cheers
Maybe someone here has an idea what's going on with my Flex.
I bought a Flex with Dirac Live & a UMIK-1 from Deer Creek about a year ago. Being a newbie is any sort of room acoustics, I paid DC's George for an hour session to help me set it all up and show me the ropes.
On most classic recordings (classical, jazz, rock) everything sounds nicely balanced with my 2.2 system. But the newer bass heavy genres tend to be a bit too boomy for my liking. So I thought that getting the Flex with Dirac would help tone it down when it mattered.
Within the first UMIK measurements, things went haywire. George tells me there's little low end bass registering, basically not much under 50-60hz. I've never taken any readings before, but my ears tell me there's loads of audible (feelable?) low bass because that's the reason I dropped $800 for the Flex, Dirac & UMIK.
He tells me to turn the sub's volume and crossover to the max to try and get the low frequencies to register on the UMIK readings, saying that the Flex will help adjust it. It got to the point where the low bass was getting physically uncomfortable and yet, it still was barely registering on the UMIK readings. It made no sense at all.
Having waster the first hour session ($125) we decided to see if we can figure it out another day.
Day two didn't go much better. We boosted everything on the hardware, then used Flex to tone down as necessary. And yet, none of the readings were good enough for George to even start using, or showing me how to use, Dirac Live.
I got busy at work and didn't pursue this any further with George, having now wasted $250 with no discernible difference in sound balance.
Then one day, I downloaded a free Db metering app since I have some tinnitus and wanted to make sure I didn't turn up the volume too much. Lo and behold, I'm getting all sorts of sustained low end peaks (24hz - 35hz) so I downloaded several other Db apps, and everyone of them confirmed what my ears heard ... plenty of low end bass.
So ... is there something on my laptop that keeps the UMIK from giving me accurate readings? Can the UMIK be faulty? Shouldn't George have been aware of any such issue that could impact the readings?
I've already kind of gave up, but I would love to actually get to benefit from what this review says is a top notch piece of equipment, although having wasted several frustrating hours and upwards of $1k on this, I hope there's a solution that will not require another huge time sink.
Otherwise, is anyone here interested in my Flex with Dirac Live & UMIK-1?
I bought a Flex with Dirac Live & a UMIK-1 from Deer Creek about a year ago. Being a newbie is any sort of room acoustics, I paid DC's George for an hour session to help me set it all up and show me the ropes.
On most classic recordings (classical, jazz, rock) everything sounds nicely balanced with my 2.2 system. But the newer bass heavy genres tend to be a bit too boomy for my liking. So I thought that getting the Flex with Dirac would help tone it down when it mattered.
Within the first UMIK measurements, things went haywire. George tells me there's little low end bass registering, basically not much under 50-60hz. I've never taken any readings before, but my ears tell me there's loads of audible (feelable?) low bass because that's the reason I dropped $800 for the Flex, Dirac & UMIK.
He tells me to turn the sub's volume and crossover to the max to try and get the low frequencies to register on the UMIK readings, saying that the Flex will help adjust it. It got to the point where the low bass was getting physically uncomfortable and yet, it still was barely registering on the UMIK readings. It made no sense at all.
Having waster the first hour session ($125) we decided to see if we can figure it out another day.
Day two didn't go much better. We boosted everything on the hardware, then used Flex to tone down as necessary. And yet, none of the readings were good enough for George to even start using, or showing me how to use, Dirac Live.
I got busy at work and didn't pursue this any further with George, having now wasted $250 with no discernible difference in sound balance.
Then one day, I downloaded a free Db metering app since I have some tinnitus and wanted to make sure I didn't turn up the volume too much. Lo and behold, I'm getting all sorts of sustained low end peaks (24hz - 35hz) so I downloaded several other Db apps, and everyone of them confirmed what my ears heard ... plenty of low end bass.
So ... is there something on my laptop that keeps the UMIK from giving me accurate readings? Can the UMIK be faulty? Shouldn't George have been aware of any such issue that could impact the readings?
I've already kind of gave up, but I would love to actually get to benefit from what this review says is a top notch piece of equipment, although having wasted several frustrating hours and upwards of $1k on this, I hope there's a solution that will not require another huge time sink.
Otherwise, is anyone here interested in my Flex with Dirac Live & UMIK-1?
Yes, the UMIK came with a link to the calibration file. Plus, George the owner of Deer Creek is supposed to be the expert, so I followed his lead.
@LBL check that Windows Audio Enhancements are disabled -> https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ntegration-whats-your-take.28813/post-1003474
Michael
Michael
I will check and hope that’s the case. And if it is, then it would be very disappointing that Deer Creek’s George, being the expert charging me for his time, didn’t have the wherewithal to check that as we were setting up.
And to Elder’s comment, I remember going through the steps and chosing the UMIK when we were setting the measurements in REW.
Something else worth checking is that you don't have one of the subs out of phase compared to the other.
I'd also suggest forgetting the paid support, and gradually learning how to take measurements yourself. It may take more time, but the investment in learning for. yourself will be cheaper, and more useful in the long term. It may even be fun.
I would start with trying to get a measurement of each sub separately, with the other turned off. Perhaps with your main speakers disconnected also - just to be sure you are only measuring the sub. As a first check, you could even just use the db meter in REW with the Umik as input and manual test tones to one sub, just to see what frequencies at which levels are being registered at what SPL.
I'd also suggest forgetting the paid support, and gradually learning how to take measurements yourself. It may take more time, but the investment in learning for. yourself will be cheaper, and more useful in the long term. It may even be fun.
I would start with trying to get a measurement of each sub separately, with the other turned off. Perhaps with your main speakers disconnected also - just to be sure you are only measuring the sub. As a first check, you could even just use the db meter in REW with the Umik as input and manual test tones to one sub, just to see what frequencies at which levels are being registered at what SPL.
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