Managing All That Bass
Sound waves bounce throughout a space and collide with one another to create crossover areas with uneven bass distribution. Even the most high-end hardware possesses certain performance deficiencies that can only be resolved through an understanding of the room itself.
One of the roles of professional technology integrators and systems designers is to offer a room acoustics solution that optimizes a system’s subwoofers and speakers to deliver consistent, accurate bass throughout an entire room.
To make that process a little easier, Dirac Live Bass Management from Swedish sound pioneer Dirac, measures and phase corrects a home theater’s speakers and subwoofers across all frequencies, even in multiple subwoofer systems, to produce enhanced bass clarity and improved bass tone evenness throughout the room. The software tool is a spin-off, of sorts, of the company’s original Dirac Live offering.
“While Dirac Live offered new standards in room correction and speaker phase correction, it left one area – the subwoofer’s low-frequency bass tones – unaddressed,” explained Niklas Thorin, Dirac’s general manager of high-performance audio. “The new Dirac Live Bass Management now equips installers and their customers with a tool that addresses this final frontier, moving them one step closer to perfect sound.”
Dirac Live Bass Management aggregates measurement and location data from each subwoofer to determine how a system’s bass is distributed throughout the room. It then identifies gaps in the sound waves and distributes bass evenly across the room. The software corrects the low-frequency sound waves produced by the speaker pair, so the bass produced by each speaker is in sync with the system. All of this processing enables the subwoofers to be positioned anywhere in the room – wherever most aesthetically pleasing – without sacrificing performance for design, or vice versa. Dirac Live Bass Management, the first in a series of modular add-ons for Dirac Live is available in two versions: Single-Sub, for single subwoofer home theater systems, is priced at $249, while Multi-Sub, for systems with more than one sub, is priced at $399.
The M10 BluOS streaming amplifier and C658 BluOS streaming DAC will be the first two products from NAD to feature Dirac Live Bass Management. Depending on one’s specific system, customers will have the option of purchasing the Single-Sub or Multi-Sub options. StormAudio is set to incorporate Dirac Live Bass Management into its full line of processors and amplifiers, while Arcam and JBL Synthesis are slated to incorporate it into the majority of its AVR product portfolio.
