Dirac Live headphone calibration with a miniDSP EARS

What you need

• A miniDSP EARS or EARS Pro headphone measurement jig, with the calibration files for your unit's serial number (downloadable from miniDSP's website).
• Dirac Live 3 (the measurement app) and the Dirac Live Processor plugin or standalone to apply the resulting correction while you listen.
• A virtual audio cable: VB-CABLE on Windows or BlackHole 2ch on macOS.
• EARS Bridge — free and open source, for Windows 10/11 and macOS.
• Your headphones, seated on the jig the way you actually wear them.

Why can't Dirac Live use an EARS directly?

Dirac Live is built around one calibrated measurement microphone. A miniDSP EARS is a two-channel device — an independent microphone in each artificial ear — and each capsule has its own calibration file. Plug the EARS in directly and Dirac would record one uncalibrated channel and ignore the other, so the measurement would carry the jig's own frequency response as an error.

EARS Bridge sits between the two. It captures both EARS channels, applies each ear's calibration as an inverse FIR filter, reduces the result to the single channel Dirac expects, and plays it into a virtual audio cable. In Dirac Live you simply select the cable as the recording device — from Dirac's point of view it is one well-behaved calibrated microphone. In the default Auto per-ear mode, EARS Bridge follows Dirac's sweep and records only the earcup being swept, so both ears are measured cleanly in a single Dirac routine with no crosstalk between the open backs.

Step 1 — Install the software

On Windows

1. Download and run EARS-Bridge-Windows-Setup.exe from the releases page — it's self-contained and doesn't need admin rights.
2. Install VB-CABLE and reboot if it asks.
3. On first launch SmartScreen may warn (the app isn't code-signed yet) — choose More info → Run anyway.

On macOS

1. Open the .dmg and drag EARS Bridge to Applications (universal binary, Apple Silicon and Intel).
2. Install BlackHole 2ch.
3. The app isn't notarized yet, so the first launch is blocked: open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway.

Step 2 — Load your EARS calibration files

Every EARS unit ships with individual calibration files measured for its serial number. Download them from miniDSP's site, then drop the left and right files onto the two slots in EARS Bridge — files are matched to the correct ear automatically, and a mismatched pair (a left file in the right slot, or files from two different serials) is flagged rather than silently accepted.

miniDSP publishes several compensation types per unit. For headphone EQ with Dirac Live:

• HEQ — use this for regular headphones. It's miniDSP's recommended headphone-EQ compensation.
• IDF — use this for in-ear monitors.
• HPN — miniDSP's older headphone curve. It works, but HEQ has superseded it.
• RAW — microphone-only data with no ear compensation; not intended for Dirac correction, and EARS Bridge will warn if you load it.

Once both files are loaded, EARS Bridge builds a minimum-phase inverse FIR per ear, so the jig's own response is removed before Dirac ever sees the signal.

Step 3 — Configure the audio chain

1. In EARS Bridge, select the EARS as the input device and the virtual cable as the output device.
2. Keep the combine mode on Auto per-ear (the default). This is the mode designed for Dirac Live: Dirac plays its sweep through both channels in one routine, and EARS Bridge follows whichever earcup is currently sounding.
3. Set everything to 48 kHz — the EARS, the cable, and Dirac. A mismatched rate means the operating system resamples behind your back; EARS Bridge detects and warns about a resampled chain, because a silently resampled measurement is less trustworthy.
4. Turn off exclusive mode on every device in the chain (the walkthrough below). Dirac's recording path can't open an exclusive-mode device — this is the cause of its "recording device error 600007" — and for the standard VB-CABLE, EARS Bridge offers the correct setting as a one-click fix.

5. In Dirac Live, choose the virtual cable (for example CABLE Output / BlackHole 2ch) as the recording device. Dirac now sees one calibrated microphone.
6. Don't load a mic calibration file in Dirac. Dirac offers to attach a calibration file to the recording device — leave it empty. EARS Bridge has already applied your EARS calibration, so loading one in Dirac would correct the measurement twice.

Step 4 — Set the level

Absolute loudness does not matter for a Dirac headphone correction — Dirac normalizes the measurement, so there is no SPL target to hit. What matters is signal-to-noise: a sweep well above the room and amplifier noise floor.

Press Start in EARS Bridge and play Dirac's test signal, then turn your headphone amplifier up until the L and R meters sit in the green target band. EARS Bridge warns explicitly when the level is too low and when the input clips, and a too-quiet capture is flagged rather than passed off as clean — in measurement software, a wrong-but-confident result is worse than an honest warning.

Step 5 — Run the Dirac Live measurement

Run Dirac Live's normal measurement routine — there is nothing special to do on the Dirac side. Dirac has a single measurement flow and sweeps both channels in one pass; EARS Bridge detects which earcup each sweep is exciting and records only that ear's calibrated microphone. The app shows a live indicator of the side being captured, and its status line tracks the sweep from "Listening" through "Capturing" to a graded result.

In Dirac's Select Sweet Spot step, choose Home → Focused. A headphone jig is the definition of a single listener in a dedicated position, which is exactly what Focused models. Between measurement positions, gently re-seat the headphones on the jig — slightly up, down, forward, back — so the correction averages over the seating differences of real use.

EARS Bridge cannot start the measurement for you — Dirac owns the sweep. If the app says it's armed and listening, the next step is always to press Start measurement inside Dirac Live.

Step 6 — Check the grade and apply the correction

After each sweep, EARS Bridge grades the capture per ear against a learned reference — Clean, Marginal, or Suspect — with the signal-to-noise, impulse-response and distortion numbers behind the verdict, plus shape checks for problems a single number misses (clipping, mains hum, duplicate paths, drift). A flagged sweep is worth re-running: fix the noted cause and measure again.

When the measurement is done, design your filter in Dirac Live as usual and load the result in the Dirac Live Processor in your listening chain.

A house target curve to start from

Download the Jazzi Overall target curve and import it in Dirac's filter-design stage. It pairs a Harman-style bass shelf (+10.5 dB at 20 Hz, easing to flat by 200 Hz) with a gentle presence relaxation around 2.5–3 kHz and flat treble — a warm, natural starting point you can then bend to taste. (Curious how the calibration types interact with targets? HPN vs HEQ, in plain words.)

Troubleshooting

Dirac shows "recording device error 600007"

The virtual cable has exclusive mode enabled, and Dirac's recording path can't open it. Turn off exclusive mode on the cable (Sound settings → Properties → Advanced → untick "Allow applications to take exclusive control") — with the standard VB-CABLE, EARS Bridge offers this as a one-click fix.

Dirac marks the measurement "imprecise (excluded from phase correction)"

This is almost always a signal-to-noise problem with the individual sweep, not a defect in the chain: amplifier hiss or room noise too close to the sweep level. Raise the level into the green band, quieten the room, and re-measure. EARS Bridge's per-sweep SNR grade predicts this — a sweep it grades Clean is one Dirac should accept. More detail in the FAQ.

EARS Bridge says it's listening but nothing happens

Start the measurement in Dirac Live — the app arms and follows, it never triggers Dirac. If a sweep is playing and still nothing arrives, check that Dirac's recording device is the virtual cable and that its output device is what your headphones are actually connected to.

The level meters stay far below the green band

Turn up the headphone amplifier, not the EARS gain switch. The gain switch changes the jig's calibration reference; the amplifier sets how loud the sweep actually is at the mic.

Windows SmartScreen or macOS blocks the app

Expected while the app is unsigned — see step 1 for the per-platform override. The source is public on GitHub if you'd rather build it yourself.

More questions? The FAQ covers calibration file types, hardware Dirac processors, EARS vs EARS Pro, and more — or open an issue on GitHub.