Dirac Live readiness is coming to select Bluesound Music Streamers like the best-selling NODE and NODE ICON, and whilst that sounds like a great development and headline — there is a lot more to the story. We are huge proponents of Dirac Live and the other platforms under the Dirac umbrella but there is also some confusion amongst consumers about what that actually means and whether there is a cost to that feature.
Starting January 14, 2025, owners of the NODE (N132) and NODE ICON (N530) will receive a firmware update enabling compatibility with Dirac Live.
With the added purchase of a Room Calibration Kit and a Dirac Live license, Bluesound music streamer users will have access to room correction software that is designed to address bass resonance and room decay time to produce a cleaner, tighter bass experience.
Leveraging Dirac’s expertise in MIMO mixed-phase impulse response correction technology, the software enables spatial optimization, whereby all speakers in a sound system cooperate with each other to accomplish what passive acoustic treatments struggle to achieve.
If you took a poll of 1,000 mainstream consumers and asked them what they thought was the most important component in a home theater system or hi-fi system, we are convinced that very few would select the “room” as their answer.
Audiophiles and videophiles would (hopefully) select that option because we know how a room’s interaction with our loudspeakers significantly impacts the overall sonic performance of the system.
We utilize acoustic treatments, floor coverings, furniture, and software to maximize what we have; and that is especially the case for those who have problematic layouts that impact bass response and soundstage performance.
There is no such thing as a perfect room and unless you have the financial means to build a completely isolated and acoustically treated room in your home — room correction software might be the most cost-effective way to deal with it.
Dirac’s portfolio of solutions – including Dirac Live Room Correction, Dirac Live Bass Control, and Dirac Live Active Room Treatment – is continuing to set a new standard in room correction software and home theater performance – as evidenced by the company’s expanding customer base which now includes NAD, Onkyo, Pioneer, Elite, Integra, Denon, Marantz, AudioControl, Arcam, JBL, and McIntosh, amongst many others.
Customers of the older NODE X (N131), NODE (N130), POWERNODE (N330), and POWERNODE EDGE (N230) players will also receive this feature before the summer of 2025.
Matt Simmonds, Product Manager for Bluesound, explains, “this launch is important to us since Dirac Live has been one of the most requested features from Bluesound customers due to its unique room correction methods that result in more transparent, balanced sound, and tighter bass and enhanced clarity.”
“We have also implemented Dirac filters before the internal DAC, which will allow those who want to bypass to an external DAC the same benefits,” adds Morten Nielsen, Associate Product Manager for Bluesound. “This has also been commonly requested by our customers, and we are happy to be able to deliver the feature in this way.”
Level Up Your Node
Dirac Live Ready means that Bluesound players are compatible with Dirac Live technology, and owners interested in this feature can separately purchase a Dirac Live license and Bluesound’s Room Calibration Kit, designed and approved for Dirac Live calibration.
The Kit includes a high performance omni-directional microphone sensitive to the full audible frequency range (20 Hz to 20 kHz). It connects to any laptop via a USB-A 2.0 connector and features driverless operation for Windows and MacOS, as well as all Bluesound Dirac Live Ready products.
Suggested retail price of the Kit is $39 USD (GBP 39/EUR 45/CAD 59) and it can be purchased from authorized Bluesound dealers globally, or from Bluesound.com.
Dirac offers three different licenses for Live, which are available from Dirac.com at the following prices:
- Dirac Live Limited, which corrects audio below 500 Hz ($159);
- Dirac Live Full, which corrects the full frequency range ($249); and
- an upgrade license from Limited to Full ($99).
Rikard Hellerfelt, Dirac’s VP Consumer and eCommerce says, “we know that Bluesound has very passionate customers who love great sound, and we are pleased to be able to introduce Dirac Live to a new device category—streamers—for the very first time. This allows music lovers to elevate their existing audio setups— even those without built-in Dirac Live—by simply adding a Bluesound streamer.”
The Bottom Line
Dirac Live has proven to be one of the best room correction software platforms available to consumers who care about improving the sonic performance of their existing system within the confines of the listening spaces that exist in their homes.
It is undeniable that it works and is something that you can take with you and implement regardless of where you live. It is space-agnostic and makes it possible to extract more performance out of your existing loudspeakers without having to upgrade them.
That’s a huge win.
The decision to implement the Dirac filters before the internal DAC means that you can connect one of the Bluesound music streamers to another DAC inside an AVR or even an active pair of loudspeakers if that scenario will offer superior sound quality.
Bluesound and Dirac are removing an obstacle here for those who want to add room correction to their existing system and for those who are downsizing to wireless speakers with digital inputs or active loudspeakers.
As long as consumers are aware that they will spending an additional $199 to $299 USD to make this work on the Bluesound music streamers — we think this could be a great advancement.
Pricing & Availability
- NODE NANO (not Dirac Live Ready) – $299 at Amazon | Crutchfield
- NODE (model N132) – $549 at Amazon | Crutchfield
- NODE ICON – $999 at Amazon | Crutchfield
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- Best Digital Music Streamers
- Cambridge Audio CXN V2 Music Streamer: Review
- Eversolo’s New Flagship DMP-A10 Is Much More Than a Music Streamer
