According to Dirac, the new technology “reveals even the most subtle beats, tones and sounds that are typically lost in headphones” and brings “the boosted content outside the listener’s head,” creating “a higher definition and more spacious listening experience over any headphones, regardless of quality or price-point.”
The Dirac digital audio solution and its corresponding mobile app upgrade the connected headphones using customized algorithms that “boost every detail of the music and unleash the full potential of the headphones.” Listeners can switch Dirac on/off to hear and feel the difference that the new Dirac processing solution makes.
For this new Dirac digital audio solution, the company combined their latest research into sound performance boosting and externalization algorithms in a way that improves quality of any content, irrespective of the audio codec used to record the sound; other approaches that also claim to boost and externalize sound require the audio to be recorded using one specific codec. As Dirac highlights, the underlying technology represents over 18 years of digital audio R&D that has produced over 17 patent families and partnerships with blue chip companies and some of the most recognized and exclusive audio brands across the globe.
To help with the launch, Dirac has teamed up with some of Sweden’s most influential DJs and music producers, including Axwell of Swedish House Mafia and Rami Yacoub, producer behind artists such as Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Avicii and more.
“Our new solution takes an experience once reserved for the few and makes it available to the masses – enabling the world to experience immersive, adaptive, and maximized sound from smaller devices than ever before,” says Dirac co-founder & CEO Dr. Mathias Johansson. “We’re revealing the layers of sound you never knew existed to create a fuller, purer experience – no matter what you’re listening on.”
The company is currently in talks with some of the world’s largest smartphone and music streaming companies about embedding the new Dirac digital audio solution into their products and platforms. The first partnership is slated to be announced in Q1 2020.
“In the studio, you feel every beat, tone, and drop – every detail is present and nothing is lost,” says Axwell, who for years has used Dirac’s room correction technology in his studio. “The challenge for the industry is recreating that studio energy through consumer headphones that strip sound of quality and detail. Dirac is changing the game with its new digital audio solution that enriches sound with the detail, clarity, and immersion that could once only be felt by artists and producers in a studio environment.”
Beta-testing
Prior to the CES 2020 presentation, audioXpress received a demo kit of the Dirac solution, including an headphone which is already profiled and supported. The immediate difference we heard was dramatic. The smartphone-centric headphone correction app makes a world of a difference: music sounds crisp and with a satisfying low-end that will move listeners instantly. Instruments are wider, perhaps wider than the studio intended, and vocals sit in an unusually large space. Toggling Dirac on and off is not a subtle difference!
Like True-Fi by Sonarworks, Dirac aims to correct the significant frequency response flaws virtually all headphones have, from within a convenient mobile app designed for everyone to use. But while the library of headphones True-Fi can correct for is biased towards the studio and audiophile, Dirac is targeting the headphones users probably already have. And more importantly, Dirac has found a way to implement correction on a system-wide basis, boosting music streaming apps, podcast players, YouTube, and browser-based content too.Electronic dance music sounds club-ready right out of the headphones in a way that's sure to impress the majority of listeners. Here's to hoping the final release will have user adjustments to benefit folk and blues as much as the closed beta benefits pop.
www.dirac.com
