Audiophilepure

https://www.stereophile.com/content/dirac-live-art-room-correction-software-pc-and-mac

Listening in stereo made explicit another benefit of Dirac ART. Many of us have had the experience that turning up the volume past a certain point can excite a certain room mode, by, for example, a single bass note, to a point beyond what’s pleasing. Sometimes it seems that all the bass blooms out of proportion when we exceed some level. That’s the room, not the music. We reflexively dial it back.With ART, that doesn’t happen anymore, as I can demonstrate with two very familiar tracks that are famous for their bass energy: “Yulunga” from Dead Can Dance’s Into the Labyrinth (DSD rip from SACD, 4AD SAD2711) and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones’ Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (CD rip, Warner Bros. Records 9 26562-2). In the former, focus on the whole span of the low-to-midbass percussion and plucked strings. In the latter, follow that Stygian bass melody. Previously, when I turned up the volume past a certain point, the bass became louder but also amorphous as it overloaded the room, the music, and my ears. Using ART, when I turned up the wick, none of that happened because its correction of modal behavior tracks with changing volume. Consequently it’s possible to play all your music louder than ever, limited only by your own tolerance or unhappy neighbors.In my random ramble through my library testing Dirac ART against my memory of favorite tracks, the cover art of Tracy Chapman’s 1995 album, New Beginning, caught my eye. Of course I had to play “Give Me One Reason” (CD rip, Elektra 61850-2). I had heard it before, many times, but not like this. It was as if the opening bass and guitar were in the room with me, close—except that it was not my room. When Chapman’s voice, warm and vital, appeared to their right, it confirmed our common presence in this other space. Percussion had snap. A quick bypass of Dirac was jarring, its restoration relief and pleasure. I had the feeling that, finally, everything was just right.