Hi, looking for some help with a issue (or expected behaviour).
I replaced my Denon 7200 (kept changing input) with the RZ70 and swapped my Jamo 600 SW for a more visually pleasing Arendal 2S. I am bi-amp the fronts (MA 300 Platinums). The 'issue' I have is that after Dirac Live calibration, the crossover ignores any input. If I set the crossover to 70 (or whatever) it appears to ignore it and plays 20Hz through all speakers and sub is bearly audible. The Sub is also set to 0ms distant and can't be changed.
If I factory reset and use a laser meter and decibel meter to manually set distance and volume, the crossover suddenly works, the sub comes alive and it sounds a lot better. Am I a) tone deaf, b) missing something, c) required to buy Dirac Bass or is it a Onkyo bug?
Thanks.
Dirac will configure your furthest, or more accurately slowest, speaker to 0ms delay. Then all other speakers will be configured with delays appropriate to time align relative to that slowest speaker. Usually this is the subwoofer, not only because of distance, but also often because they are usually active and include DSP that adds several milliseconds of processing delay.
So Dirac is doing the right thing with time alignment. Regarding crossover, Dirac defaults to a 70 Hz crossover and this will always be active while it is enabled. To use this setting, you need to select "Bass Management" from the Dirac Live application on Mac or PC. This will enable you to set the crossover as part of your calibration instead of manually configuring via the AVR setup menu or web interface. You should also check the crossover setting per speaker group (e.g. Front Left/Right, Center, Rear Surround, Front Heights, Rear Heights).
In terms of missing bass or absent sub, you may want to raise the bass shelf up +6 dB on the calibration curve to add more bass. It's also possible that the signal coming out of the AVR is too weak to wake the sub up from sleep -- this may be the case if the level trim for the subwoofer is set too low by Dirac (or by hand, say -10 dB down from neutral). You can confirm this is the case if there is a light on the sub that activates when it senses a signal (or by observing woofer movement).
The RZ70 probably has one of the most robust Dirac integrations on the market. It's as close to bullet-proof as it gets and I've had very good results with it on my DRX-8.4 with DLBC for almost two years now. There are a lot of "moving pieces" involved in getting a proper calibration (puck mic & app vs UMIK-1 & Mac/PC), how you configure crossovers per speaker group, curve design, speaker placement, room interactions, whether you are using any wireless speakers. There are a lot of variables and with that comes a learning curve, but the results are worth it if you can get through that and dial things in.
Good luck!
