sshd

How can you time align the drivers without controlling them independently?

Agree. The HDTracks versions sounds worse than my CD rip.

This motherboard uses the Intel Z97 chipset, which does NOT have native PCI. The PCI slot on the board is a bridged slot, meaning it is a PCI-e slot converted to PCI. It will accept most PCI cards and some migt even work properly. Audio interfaces however are time critical and will most likely not work properly. Windows will recognize the interface, but the sound quality might be heavily distorted. With this motherboard you should look for a PCI-e audio interface. If you really want a PCI audio interface, you should look for a motherboard with a chipset that supports native PCI. These Intel chipsets do: C226 C224 C222 C216 B75 Q75 Q77

And here you have the problem with your poll. You can find plenty of users of one piece of software, and a few who have tried two. But noone have done enough testing to make a fair comparison of all three. A 2-ch comparison can be done for free: - Dirac has 14 days trial - Audiolense has built-in player for 2-ch mode and a 14 days money back - Acourate will give you 2 convolved songs But 2-ch speaker and room correction is simply not interesting. The real magic when you remove the crossovers and let the dsp control each driver individually. Dirac cannot do anything like this. Audiolense can and is very easy to use, but only with it's own crossover. Acourate can do this, but only with standard crossovers like Linkwitz-Riley or Butterworth. So in the end you are comparing apples with oranges.

YES A true objectionist should not waste any time responding to undocumented absurd claims.

I can't really answer this, as I have zero experience with Dirac Live. Audiolense offers nothing for comparing filters, but there are practical approaches: Audiolense displays simulated results on frequency and impulse response graphs similar to Dirac Live. There is no way to make a visual comparison of two targets/graphs inside Audiolense. However you can open two Audiolense windows and then do <alt><tab> to make a visual comparison. As for listening to the difference between two filters: - Use foobar2000 with foo_gapless_convolver and foo_mm - Save DSP settings for your FIR filters A and B - Setup short cut keys for loading A and B - Listen to music and switch between them with the short cuts. - Overwrite B to try something new Maybe you can do the same in JRiver...

Like comparing trains and aeroplanes. Quite difficult. Dirac Live does all correction before the crossovers. It can only correct the speakers and crossovers as one unit and not say time align the drivers. Audiolense combines crossovering and correction in one process. There is no support for standard crossovers like Linkwitz-Riley or Butterworth - only the Audiolense XO. You define crossover frequencies and crossover-width (not level). Then proceed to meassure each driver individually. Then set up a filter procedure, design a target and finally generate a FIR filter. The FIR filter can be used with JRiver's convolution engine (and others like convolver.sf.net and foobar2000 gapless convolver). You can use the virtual ASIO device with JRiver or console.jp+convolver.sf.net to capure the output of your media player. As you do surround you will have more features like bass routing and multiple targets for say rear and side channels. I don't have surround myself, so no hands-on experience. But a friend has a 5.1/14 channel active setup with Audiolense XO which sounds fantastic. Audiolense can combine multiple meassurements (multi-seat) if you like, but it is not required. Since I am unable to test drive Dirac Live, I have no idea how it sounds and how it compares. But I have been using Audiolense XO with an active 6 channel stereo setup for years and I am perfectly happy.

Ideally Dirac Live would be your crossover, but it lacks this feature. JRiver has a convolution engine that works well with alernative software like Accourate and Audiolense. Mitchco wrote an advanced guide to Accourate XO. Audiolense is much simpler to setup.

Too many morons - must educate them all So little time

Part of the Problem or part of the solution me posting haiku?

This is a commercial website.

Forum Residents Journalists a Wannabe The Internet, BAH

A test already exists and you can get it at your ear doctor. If you have any questions on why it involves a quiet room and head phones, open your eyes and look around. Everything around you affects the sound from your speakers. There can easily be a 6 dB difference between 3900 Hz and 4000 Hz caused by your environment. The hearing test switch ears (left/right) all the time instead of determining one ear at a time. This is because the brain will compensate and hear things it expect even if it doesn't hear it. This is easily documented and you can probably find a youtube video if you search for mcgurk effect.

Asus Xonar has a really bad reputation for drivers, but I believe there are some unofficial alternative drivers available. Haven't tried myself, but do a little research on the driver before buying.

This is from the Technical description of Dirac Live: Implementation for best accuracy * Traditional EQ uses IIR filters for lowest processor usage * Many room correction filters use FIR filters for ease of implementation and optimization * IIR and FIR filters both have their pros and cons. At Dirac we use a proprietary filter structure. In essence, maximum performance at much less processor usage than regular FIR filters. This filter structure also has great numerical properties, not causing any digital noise. So you have nothing to worry about. The filter structure has great numerical properties and only cause digital noise (clipping) on Macs if you can hear it. Seriously! Demand your money back. A FIR filter generated by Audiolense does not clip.