ARC Vs. Dirac Vs. Sonarworks

Personal experience only - Sonarworks does a pretty good job for me in my makeshift room. It’s a large rectangle with a vaulted ceiling, my desk is in a good spot, lots of bass trapping, cloud, 703 absorb panels, etc etc. It did a great job of helping out some low frequency oddities.

I can see it not working so well if you’re in a room that isn’t symmetrical or has oddly placed windows or reflection points though.

I didn’t get that scientific with it. I honestly don’t have the patience for that and would much rather just focus on the music. I did the demo for the headphones and thought it was great, then purchased it with the microphone, shot my room, it was super easy and took like 10 mins.

My reaction?

Wow it sounds better in the bottom. Translates better. That’s a keeper for me haha.

Like I said I don’t have time to sit and mull this stuff over. If it works it works and I use it and move on.

I had Sonarworks. Thought it was great. Systemwide never worked right for me. I had the Sonarworks tech help take over my computer several times to try and figure it out. They gave up.

Then I tried Dirac. More flexible options. I thought it sounded more open up on the top end. I was A/B’ing the two and it was only after hearing Dirac that I noticed SW sounded a little phasey on the top end. I think Dirac had a little more definition on the bottom.

But, maybe that difference can be attributed to a difference in reference mic positioning? I dunno.

I sold SW and moved on with Dirac. I use an app called Audio Hijack (recommended by Dirac) to replace the functions of Systemwide. Works just fine every time.

I've used Sonarworks Reference 4 for years now, first of all with headphones, which made both my Sennheiser HD650 and AKG K712 Pro's sound a lot more similar to both each other and my tiny ATC loudspekers (all replayed via Lavry DA10 converters).

Then I bought the official and individually calibrated Sonarworks test mic and tested my loudspeakers/acoustics too. I got a significant improvement in both stereo imaging and tonal balance, and was well pleased. I've made various tweaks to my acoustic treatment and electronics over the last couple of years, and each time do a re-run with the calibrated mic to take account of these changes.

My only reservation is with the Sonarworks filter options. Zero Latency is of course perfect during tracking (when you can largely ignore its phase variations), while Linear Phase provides great top-end detail but at the expense of a less solid bass end. Meanwhile, the Mixed option (as its name implies) has a slightly less detailed top end, but a more solid bass end. I've never been able to decide which I prefer, and even yesterday decided to switch back from Linear Phase to Mixed for mixdowns.

Sonarworks' newer SoundID Reference (effectively Reference v5) had some compatibility issues on initial release, but I'm still tempted to upgrade because of various reports of a more detailed sound (despite denials from Sonarworks that it 'should' sound any different from Reference 4.

So, overall a happy bunny, but with a few reservations).


Martin

I have ARC on the NS10’s. I only use it for a few minutes and turn it off.

Extends them to -6dB @ 40Hz and 18kHz (one actually is -5@20Hz!). The interesting thing is it’s a pretty mellow curve, like a wide 7 band EQ; not 31 band.

I’d rather have a hifi and sub setup with a rack EQ to flip to honestly. But it’s also nice to know what a computer thinks flat is.

The minimal broader filters makes sense, basically if you try to micro manage everything you end up with filters fighting filters and more problems. One biggie you will see is someone or a program place a boost and some phase alignment right at that -3 point in the middle of a crossover and you end up with this really strange phase response because you know have 3 filters in the same range.