Dirac

This room correction system has been making (sound) waves over the last few years, but how does it work and is it really that good? Steve Withers investigates

-  Steve Withers

In the 1990s in Sweden a university research project blending professors and PhD students began looking to digital signal processing to address sonic degradation – the distortions added to an audio system by the equipment and especially the room itself. The thinking was: if you can measure these distortions and remove them using acoustic processing, you quickly and easily improve the sound of a system without having to resort to equipment upgrades or inconvenient room treatments.

The fruits of this scholastic endeavour became Dirac, founded in 2001. The company took its name from English physicist/Nobel laureate Paul Dirac – a statement of intent given his theories on quantum mechanics even had Einstein scratching his head.

Ten years and counting

Dirac Live is the company's room correction software, first introduced on Datasat's RS20i AV processor in 2013, before being adopted by other high-end names such as Bryston, Lexicon and Storm Audio. It's also trickled down to mid-range brands like Arcam and NAD, and more recently Onkyo, Pioneer, Denon and Marantz.