Meta announced new upcoming subscription plans for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp this week. Instagram isn’t going behind a paywall, no. Rather, users will now be able to pay $4 a month for extra features, like seeing who rewatched your story post or pinning more posts to the top of your profile. Instagram Plus, Facebook Plus ($4 a month), and WhatsApp Plus ($3 a month) will roll out globally sometime this summer.

These “Plus” plans are an attempt by Meta, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, to diversify how it makes money from users. Meta is also doing what Meta does best with this move: mimicking other social media platforms’ successes—specifically, Snapchat.

“Loving husband, father of four boys, VP Product @ Meta” reads Evan Spiegel’s tongue-in-cheek LinkedIn profile. Spiegel, the cofounder and CEO of Snap, has never actually worked at Meta, though his social media platform has directly inspired at least some existing features on Instagram. After Instagram launched Stories in 2016, then-CEO Kevin Systrom didn’t mince words about how his platform was sometimes iterating on Snapchat features, telling TechCrunch that “they deserve all the credit” for the format of Stories.

In 2017, Snap launched a “Maps” tool where users could opt in and see the pinpoint location of where all of their friends were based on when they last opened the app. Instagram launched a very similar “Maps” feature just last year, where users could track the location of friends who chose to share their GPS data.

And while IG’s recently launched “Instants” app, with its ephemeral, unfiltered snaps, is more like the once-popular BeReal than anything, disappearing photo messages are totally Snapchat’s main lane.

“As we shared earlier this year, we’re testing and scaling new subscriptions that provide deeper, more enhanced ways to use our apps and AI glasses,” says Maria Cubeta, a Meta spokesperson, over email. “So far, we’ve been testing subscription features for people to enhance how they express themselves and connect on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, like profile customization, stories insights, and super reactions.” She says this is just the start of the larger “Meta One” umbrella of subscription offerings, which will eventually include different, more expensive tiers catering toward businesses and creators as well as users who want extra access to Meta AI.

At launch, Instagram Plus will have the most extra features, from additional pins on your profile and unique bio fonts to creating siloed audiences for your Story posts and “Super Heart” reaction buttons. Facebook Plus will mainly allow you to control and customize your experience with Story posts, like rewatch insights. WhatsApp Plus will include more pinned chats, visual customizations, and premium stickers.

These subscription plans are simply history repeating itself. Snapchat dropped a $4 a month plan, called Snapchat+, back in 2022. It offered users access to exclusive features in the app and expanded over the few years, adding more options as well as AI tools. In February, Snapchat announced that this style of subscription plan helped the company achieve a “$1 billion annualized revenue run rate” in direct payments with over 25 million current subscribers around the world. (Despite being a font of feature inspiration, everything isn’t rosy at Snapchat, as the company struggles to turn a profit.)

So, even down to the Plus naming convention, Meta seems to be heavily inspired by Snapchat once again. I would expect nothing less from the company that renamed itself during the metaverse fad. Following trends is Meta’s modus operandi. Keep an eye out for what Snapchat does next for a sneak peek at what Meta might do in a few years.

Anthropic’s most capable generative AI model is still in the hands of a select few organizations and cybersecurity professionals, but the most powerful Claude model you can use now is getting an upgrade.

Claude Opus 4.8, released Thursday, is a “modest but tangible improvement” over Opus 4.7, Anthropic said in a blog post. 

But the company also said it’s making significant progress on producing a version of its Claude Mythos Preview model that it’s willing to release to the public. Right now, it has restricted access to Mythos to a consortium of partners as part of what it calls Project Glasswing, explaining that the model’s cybersecurity capabilities are advanced enough to warrant giving cybersecurity experts and major tech companies some lead time to patch flaws found by the model.

“Models of this capability level require stronger cyber safeguards before they can be generally released,” Anthropic said. “We’re making swift progress on developing these safeguards and expect to be able to bring Mythos-class models to all our customers in the coming weeks.”

Mythos for everyone?

Anthropic’s decision to withhold Mythos Preview from the general public, at least for now, has been an interesting one. Was it a wise, forward-thinking move to protect the internet’s critical infrastructure from potential flaws? Was it an easy way to churn up marketing hype? Security researchers have found that the model is certainly capable of finding exploits much more quickly than human hackers, even if it isn’t necessarily pushing beyond human capabilities. Mozilla’s latest version of Firefox included more than 200 fixes identified by Mythos Preview.

Read more: AI Arms Race Accelerates With New Models from OpenAI, DeepSeek and Anthropic

But the fact that Mythos will soon be available to anyone, even with significant cybersecurity guardrails, means we’ll finally get to see if the model lives up to the hype, with all the risks that might entail.

Darren Williams, founder and CEO of the cybersecurity firm BlackFog, told CNET in an email that big model releases are often tense moments.

“On one hand, Anthropic’s decision to stage the release, holding back until safeguards are developed, shows the right instincts,” he said. “But the more capable a model is, the higher the stakes if those safeguards fall short or if the model is eventually misused. The window between a powerful model’s release and broad adoption of defenses against it is always a vulnerable moment.”

Mythos is going to be far more expensive to run than other AI models, however, and that could limit its usefulness to hackers. Jake Williams, a cybersecurity researcher and faculty member at IANS Research, said Mythos was 30 times as expensive in tests as the previous Opus model.

“This is outside the reach of many, including any commodity threat actors,” Williams told CNET in an email. “Nation-state actors already had better technology for finding vulnerabilities. This is only changing the game for a small percentage of threat actors.”

What’s new about Claude Opus 4.8

As for Opus 4.8, Anthropic said it’s an improvement across benchmarks compared to Opus 4.7. Tests found that Opus 4.8 was less likely to make unsupported claims and more likely to indicate uncertainty, the company said.

A few new features are also coming to Anthropic’s AI products, including the ability to control how much “effort” a model will use to respond to a prompt on Claude.ai and in Claude Cowork. Higher effort will likely get better results as the model spends more time on a response, but it will burn through your usage limits faster. A lower setting will respond faster and hit rate limits more slowly.

The ongoing saga of Microsoft versus Nightmare Eclipse (aka Chaotic Eclipse), the disgruntled bug hunter with a deep understanding of Windows and an even deeper grudge against Microsoft, reached a fever pitch, with the researcher, who has thus far released six Windows zero-days, promising a “bone shattering” drop on July 14. 

Microsoft, for its part, finally responded to the security researcher and their weaponized Windows flaws with a blog post on (un)coordinated vulnerability disclosure about the now-public bugs: RedSun, UnDefend, BlueHammer, YellowKey, GreenPlasma, and MiniPlasma. Redmond says that none of these were reported via its official channels prior to being made public. 

Attackers began hammering three of the six – BlueHammer, RedSun, and UnDefend – soon after Nightmare published working proof-of-concept exploit code for each on now-banned GitHub (owned by Microsoft) and GitLab accounts. 

YellowKey, GreenPlasma, and MiniPlasma still don’t have fixes, and Microsoft has deemed “exploitation more likely” for YellowKey, aka CVE-2026-45585, citing a working POC.

“We remain firmly opposed to these actions, and any disclosure outside proper coordination that could harm our customers and the digital ecosystem,” Microsoft wrote in a Wednesday blog, and then seemingly threatened legal action against Nightmare:

“Uncoordinated disclosures that put proof-of-concept code for unpatched vulnerabilities into the hands of bad actors are never justifiable and have real-world consequences. Our security teams across the company work tirelessly tracking threat actors who look for weaknesses just like these to attack Microsoft and our customers. Our Digital Crimes Unit will continue bringing cases against these actors and those that enable their criminal activity – coordinating as needed with law enforcement around the world.”

Microsoft did not respond to The Register’s questions, including whether its legal team planned to sue Nightmare, whether the zero-day researcher is a current or former employee, and whether Microsoft axed Nightmare’s MSRC account, meaning that the bug hunter can’t disclose vulnerabilities to the Windows giant. 

Nightmare, in their latest anti-Microsoft missive, claims Microsoft did just that.

“When I actively asked you to communicate with me, you refused, humiliated me and made sure to insult me in front of people,” they wrote on Saturday. “You defame me in public with your CVE-2026-45585 advisory even though you literally deleted the Microsoft account I used to report bugs to you with and I got zero pennies from doing so and I still happily did like an idiot.”

Nightmare also noted that “Microsoft still has chains in my hands,” preventing them from releasing “documents” yet, or anytime in June, and then warned: “Mark this date July 14th, I will make sure your bones are shattered that day.”

Regardless of what does or does not happen on July 14, Nightmare has already caused chaos – and real enterprise-level damage, as systems engineer Muhammad Qasim Shahzad said on LinkedIn. 

“One person caused more enterprise-level damage in six weeks than most APT groups cause in a year,” Shahzad wrote. “The gap between disclosure and weaponization is now measured in hours, not days. Your patching window is shrinking fast.”

Zero Day Initiative’s bug hunter-in-chief Dustin Childs, who previously spent about seven years working for Microsoft security and has decades of experience on both sides of the coordinated vulnerability disclosure (CVD) process, told The Register that Microsoft could have handled this better. And he wondered what happened between the two parties to get to this point.

“CVD is a two-way street,” he said. “The vendor has some responsibility as well, so to go out publicly stating this person violated CVD without showing any of the correspondence seems bold.”

Microsoft could also improve its communications to customers on “what the real risks from these bugs are and how they can defend themselves,” Childs added. “That clear direction seems to be missing.”

Microsoft’s ‘dumpster fire’

Luta Security founder and CEO Katie Moussouris, who pioneered Microsoft’s bug bounty program despite execs vowing never to pay researchers for bugs, said Redmond’s response to Nightmare sends “mixed messages.”

“It confusingly claims their program ‘ensures researchers are compensated and publicly acknowledged’ in a statement answering a researcher who says he got neither,” Moussouris told The Register. “The language choices are also not deescalating. Microsoft invoked the outdated term ‘responsible disclosure,’ which I retired years ago at Microsoft because it was subjective and judgy.”

This phrase, Moussouris added, “got in the way of coordination” when the two sides disagreed about how to best protect end users.

“The mention of the Digital Crimes Unit in a post discussing vulnerability disclosure makes the post vaguely threatening, which seems intentional, but then they wrap up the post saying they welcome reports regardless of disclosure history,” she said. “No one except the parties involved can know for sure what happened between this researcher and Microsoft. Whatever the facts, it’s hard to imagine why Microsoft would not try to deescalate, if for no other reason than avoiding the chilling effect on other researchers.”

Security sleuth Kevin Beaumont, in his blog on the ongoing Microsoft-Nightmare Eclipse saga, called it a “dumpster fire of [Microsoft’s] own making.” 

Beaumont also used to work at Microsoft, and he noted that the Windows company previously hired a hacker called SandboxEscaper after she published zero-day POC exploits for Microsoft products – something that Redmond’s blog now describes as criminal.

“If Microsoft’s tactic is to try to criminalise not following often arbitrary ‘responsible disclosure’ frameworks, good luck defending that in court – because there’s a whole clown car of prior decision making within Microsoft and facts which would emerge in that process,” Beaumont said.

To be clear: neither Beaumont nor the researchers that The Reg spoke to support Nightmare’s zero-day antics. Childs called the “July 14” post “troubling” and Moussouris said the date plus “incendiary language … doesn’t help organizations trying to make sense of the technical risk.” 

‘David and Goliath dynamic’ 

Moussouris did add that this latest missive, taken in context with the earlier blog posts, “paint[s] a picture of someone who believes they have been pushed to this extreme. It is the sound of someone who believes every legitimate channel was closed to them: GitHub account deleted, payments withheld, credit stripped, then publicly accused of violating CVD after Microsoft cut off their ability to coordinate. The researcher’s grievances are serious and specific.” 

Ultimately, “the bugs are Microsoft’s,” Moussouris said. “They wrote the code and they own the risk to customers. Often researchers who previously work with a vendor respond in the extreme only when they feel there is no other choice. The power they hold is not at all proportionate to the vendor. This is a David and Goliath dynamic we don’t like to see play out, especially since it’s users who lose when coordination negotiations fail.”

While it’s a very extreme – perhaps the most extreme – example of coordinated disclosure gone wrong, it’s not an isolated problem. Researchers have been complaining about CVD, and specifically Redmond’s bug disclosure habits, for years. 

“While some companies have improved, Microsoft has not,” Childs said. “If anything, they are seen as difficult to work with, especially if your bug is Moderate instead of Critical. I’ve had researchers tell me that they stopped looking at Microsoft altogether because they were too difficult to work with.”

Plus, these types of disagreements between researchers and bug bounty programs will likely increase, as AI-assisted bug reports become the norm and vulnerabilities skyrocket.

“We as an industry need to take a breath, remember there are real people involved, and that poor interactions could lead to real customer risk,” Childs said. “Real-world impact is lost far too often when disclosure goes wrong.” ®

The AI assistant had its personality stripped in pursuit of a more consistent experience.

While designing anything for operation in space has its challenges, there is at least one thing that is more of a problem for objects in Earth orbit than for deep-space probes: atomic oxygen. We like oxygen because we need it to live, but it is also highly reactive as a single atom. Luckily, on Earth, most of what we breathe is O₂. [Space Daily] talks about the challenges of the International Space Station dealing with the “space weather” of atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit.

Part of the problem is that even when we know better, we tend to think of the atmosphere coming to an abrupt end and space being a hard vacuum. But in reality, the atmosphere gradually dissipates, and at “only” 400 km above the Earth, the Space Station is really flying through a very thin atmosphere.

To compound the problem, this is above the ozone layer, so the Sun’s UV light rips O₂ into single oxygen atoms. Over time, these free oxygen atoms can affect many parts of a spacecraft exposed to them. Engineers first noticed that materials recovered from spacecraft had more damage and changes to material properties on the pieces facing the direction of travel. NASA has spent years testing different materials by mounting trays of different material samples outside the ISS.

Carbon-based polymers take a big hit from atomic oxygen exposure. Polymide film is frequently used, but it erodes with exposure. Carbon composites also lose mass. Other materials change in other ways. For example, an optical surface may roughen with exposure.

The usual answer is to over-design for mission objectives or to cover certain polymers with coatings like silicon dioxide or aluminum oxide, which are not as reactive to free oxygen. For a long-duration mission like the ISS, you may have to pay special attention to the materials in use. Very low satellites also need special care, as there is more oxygen in lower orbits.

There are other effects, too, such as extreme thermal cycles, debris strikes, and other indignities that space-traveling materials must withstand. But in deep space, atomic oxygen is a rare issue. Until, at least, we go somewhere else that has a lot of oxygen.

If you could buy a humanoid robot for less than a smartphone, would you? Would you buy several robots to handle cooking, cleaning, babysitting, and even your job?

This is the pitch being made by Zhou Yong, the 40-year-old founder and chief technology officer of LinkerBot, one of China’s leading manufacturers of dexterous humanoid hands. The startup’s hardware comes complete with five fingers and at least 11 joints and is sold for as little as $600 in China. LinkerBot’s hands can play piano, thread needles, tighten screws, and assemble electronics. In three to five years, Zhou predicts, the price for one will fall to just $200. Eventually, “everyone will own ten robots on average,” Zhou said in an exclusive interview with WIRED.

Marketing spectacles like the humanoid robot marathon in Beijing have drawn attention to robots’ legs, but the real frontier in humanoids is hands. “The hands are the majority of the engineering difficulty of the entire robot,” Elon Musk said at an event last fall. Founded in 2023, LinkerBot has quickly emerged as a market leader in the space. The company says it shipped 10,000 robotic hands last year, representing 80 percent of worldwide demand. Its clients include research labs, manufacturers, and other humanoid robot makers.

The startup is also a venture capital darling: It completed six rounds of fundraising in just 13 months from investors including the Chinese government, Alibaba’s Ant Group, and HongShan Capital, Sequoia Capital’s Chinese spinoff. LinkerBot is now seeking another round of financing at a $6 billion valuation, double what the company said it was worth only a few months ago. And it’s reportedly exploring going public in Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg. (Zhou declined to comment on the rumored plans.)

In 2019, after selling a previous startup focused on autonomous driving, Zhou turned his attention to robotics. He says he predicted the industry would begin booming around 2025, but was still taken aback by how quickly it grew. While OpenAI was once at the forefront of developing robotic hands, in recent years Chinese startups have taken the lead as many of their American counterparts shifted their focus toward large language models and other AI software.

For robotics companies, “the valuation gap between the Chinese and US primary markets has been basically erased,” Zhou says.

Zhou says his lifelong goal is to make a real-life version of Doraemon, the Japanese anime character that has an infinite supply of magical gadgets in its pocket. (His WeChat avatar is a picture of Doraemon.) He sees building a capable, dexterous hand as an instrumental step toward achieving that dream.

Selling Shovels to Miners

Successful companies, Zhou argues, focus on doing one thing well. That’s why LinkerBot zeroed in on hands, rather than trying to build the entire body of a humanoid. That also allows it to avoid directly competing with leading humanoid companies like Unitree or Tesla.

“When the humanoid robot industry size is so massive, specializing in making hands is like selling water or shovels [during the gold rush],” says Hong Shangguan, a veteran investor in China’s tech industry and a former partner at the Beijing-based fund Legend Capital.

The Wand has been one of those tonearms that has intrigued me for years, largely because it never looked like it was designed by committee, or by someone trapped in front of a CAD workstation after midnight with too much confidence and something much stronger than coffee. They do it differently in New Zealand. Its wide to narrow carbon fiber arm profile helped make it instantly recognizable, and the design has built a real following over time. The latest chapter arrives next week at HIGH END Vienna 2026, where Wand will unveil its new 12-inch Dark-Light tonearm, a longer version of the 10-inch Dark-Light that first appeared at Munich High End 2025.

Long tonearms are not new, and neither is the argument over whether the added length is worth the extra real estate and setup demands. Wand already offers 9.5-inch, 10.3-inch, 12-inch, and 14-inch arms, and the company claims a 12-inch arm can reduce distortion by roughly 30% compared to a 9-inch design. That matters if the arm can keep resonance, rigidity, and bearing behavior under control, which is where Wand has always tried to separate itself from the usual aluminum tube and prayer routine.

My own curiosity goes back to some oddball tonearms I tried years ago, including the Japanese RS Labs RS-A1, a rotating headshell design that looked faintly mad but made a persuasive case for thinking differently about geometry and tracking. I also came across The Wand while looking at restored idler drive Lenco turntables, including the Dutch PTP Audio projects built around classic Swiss Lenco decks from the 1970s. PTP adopted The Wand for some of its turntables back in 2014, which only made the rabbit hole deeper. Naturally, I fell in. That is how these things happen.

The new 12-inch Dark-Light is not just about making the arm longer because the internet needs another argument. It is about whether Wand can preserve the speed, low noise, and musical flow that made the shorter model interesting, while taking advantage of the lower tracking distortion that a properly executed 12-inch arm can deliver. For vinyl listeners with the deck, space, cartridge, and patience to make it work, this could be one of the more interesting analog debuts at HIGH END Vienna 2026.

Handmade in New Zealand, Designed by Simon Brown

Design Build Listen is not just another boutique analog brand making pretty bits for expensive turntables. Based in Aotearoa / New Zealand, the company hand builds The Wand Tonearm along with other audio accessories, including its “No Ring Rings” tube dampers designed to reduce unwanted vibration.

Created by designer Simon Brown and launched in 2011, The Wand Tonearm has earned multiple design awards and five star reviews for its distinctive carbon fiber arm design. Its large diameter arm tube is claimed to be at least four times stiffer than traditional tonearms, which helps explain why The Wand has always felt less like a retro accessory and more like a serious rethink of how a tonearm should work.

Longer Reach, Tapered Stiffness, Serious Vibration Control

The new Wand Dark-Light 12-inch tonearm is not just a longer version built for people with more plinth real estate and stronger opinions. Its core advantage is Wand’s Musical Taper design, which increases the arm tube diameter toward the pivot as length increases. That larger rear section is intended to preserve stiffness rather than sacrifice rigidity, while also allowing more internal brass mass near the bearing assembly.

The added mass lowers the center of gravity and gives vibrational energy a more controlled path away from the cartridge and arm tube. For a 12-inch tonearm, that matters: the longer geometry can help reduce tracking distortion, but only if the arm remains stable, rigid, and free enough to trace the groove properly. The Dark-Light’s appeal is that it tries to balance those demands without turning the design into another heavy analog science project with nicer photography.

Will The Wand Tonearm Work With Your Cartridge?

The Wand Tonearm should work with a wide range of cartridges, which is one reason it has attracted attention from both high end analog users and listeners building more sensible vinyl systems. Design Build Listen says The Wand has been used with cartridges from Lyra, Transfiguration, Koetsu, Kiseki, Dynavector, Denon, Ortofon, Hana, and others, which covers a pretty broad slice of the cartridge world.

The standard Wand Tonearm is considered a medium mass design, with a claimed effective mass of 12.5g, while the 12-inch version is listed at 15g. The Master Series arms add roughly another gram.

Very high compliance cartridges still need some care, but Design Build Listen notes that even a Shure V15Vx measured at a 7Hz resonance, which remains usable. Lower compliance moving coil cartridges are also considered a good match.

Denon DL-103 and Ortofon 2M models appear to be among the most popular cartridge choices with Wand users, which makes sense. One is a classic low output moving coil with a long history, and the other is a widely used moving magnet family that covers a broad range of budgets. Wand also recommends Hana moving coil cartridges, especially the Hana ML.

The practical takeaway is that The Wand is not a one-cartridge science project. It should work with many common MM and MC cartridges, provided setup is done properly and the turntable is not being asked to rescue warped records from the witness protection program. As always, compliance, cartridge weight, counterweight range, and phono stage compatibility still matter, but for most users, The Wand should not create a matching crisis.

Will The Wand Fit Your Turntable?

The Wand is designed around Rega-style mounting dimensions, but that does not mean it is the obvious upgrade path for every Rega Planar 3, Pro-Ject Debut PRO, or other sub-$1,000 turntable. This is a serious tonearm, and not an inexpensive one, so the better question is whether the turntable, cartridge, plinth, and overall system justify the move. Bolting a high-end tonearm onto an entry-level deck can work mechanically, but it may not be the smartest use of the budget. Vinyl has enough ways to separate you from your money without handing it the keys.

Where The Wand makes more sense is on turntables with the space, adjustability, and mechanical foundation to take advantage of it. Design Build Listen offers mounting information and kits for a wide range of decks, including the Linn LP12, Technics SL-1200 and SL-1500 family, including newer GR models, Lenco L75 family turntables, Thorens TD-160 and TD-150 models, Thorens TD-318 family turntables, Michell turntables, and SME-style armboards.

The 10.3-inch Wand is especially interesting because it was designed to deliver much of the appeal of a 12-inch arm in a more compact footprint. Design Build Listen describes it as the longest arm intended to fit on a Linn LP12 or Technics SL-1200 family turntable, which gives owners of those decks a way to go longer without needing a battleship-sized plinth.

Suspended turntables should not be ruled out automatically. The Wand weighs roughly 500g, which is in the same general territory as an SME 3009 and somewhat heavier than many Rega arms. That means most properly adjustable suspended decks should be able to accommodate it, but setup matters. Arm height, lid clearance, suspension adjustment, mounting geometry, and counterweight clearance all need to be checked before anyone starts drilling holes and pretending this is IKEA furniture.

The Bottom Line

At €8,900, the Wand 12-inch Dark-Light tonearm is not a casual upgrade. It is built for serious turntables, serious cartridges, and vinyl listeners who care about geometry, stiffness, resonance control, and setup precision.

Its appeal is the way Wand tackles the 12-inch tonearm problem: lower tracking distortion, a tapered carbon fiber arm tube designed to maintain rigidity, internal brass mass for vibration control, and, finally, headshell lifts for better day-to-day usability.

This is for experienced Linn, Technics, Lenco, Thorens, Michell, and custom plinth users, not someone trying to turn a budget deck into an analog miracle. It is available now and can be heard at Vienna High End in Halle 5, S15.

For more information: designbuildlisten.com

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Dirac Live Active Room Treatment is coming to miniDSP’s new Tide16, giving the 16 channel multi-channel processor access to Dirac’s full room optimization suite, including Dirac Live Room Correction, Dirac Live Bass Control, and ART.

That matters because Tide16 is aimed at systems where channel count, bass control, and acoustic correction are not afterthoughts. Designed for audiophiles, integrators, and system designers, the processor gives users a more flexible path to managing complex playback systems without turning the room into the villain of the story.

Introduced in 2023, Dirac Live ART takes the concept beyond traditional room correction by using the speakers in a system as a coordinated acoustic control network. The goal is to reduce low frequency resonances and improve bass consistency across the listening area, especially in rooms that do not behave nicely because, naturally, rooms rarely do.

“miniDSP has built a global reputation for flexible, high-performance DSP tools that empower enthusiasts and professionals alike,” said Rikard Hellerfelt, VP & Head of BA Consumer Electronics. “By integrating Dirac Live Active Room Treatment into the new Tide16, miniDSP is making cutting-edge room optimization accessible to a wider audience, unlocking studio-grade performance in real-world listening rooms.”

What Does the miniDSP Tide16 Actually Do?

The miniDSP Tide16 is not a receiver in the usual living room sense. There are no amplifier channels inside, and it is not designed to be an all-in-one box for someone plugging in five speakers and calling it a day. Think of it as the control center for a more advanced stereo, home theater, immersive audio, or custom installation system.

Its job is to accept audio from sources, process that signal, apply room correction, manage bass, decode formats such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and then send the corrected signal out to external power amplifiers or active speakers. That is where the 16 balanced XLR outputs matter. Tide16 can support complex layouts, including 9.1.6 systems, depending on the source material, speaker layout, and the rest of the system.

Connectivity includes HDMI, Toslink, USB Audio, balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA stereo analog inputs, plus Bluetooth for wireless playback. That gives Tide16 enough flexibility to work in a serious two channel system, a dedicated theater, an immersive audio room, or a professional listening space. A calibrated microphone is sold separately, so buyers should factor that into the final cost and setup process.

The headline feature is the inclusion of the full Dirac Live suite out of the box: Dirac Live Room Correction, Dirac Live Bass Control, and Dirac Live Active Room Treatment. That matters because Dirac licenses are often an added expense on competing products, and those costs can add up quickly.

Dirac Live Room Correction addresses frequency and timing issues caused by the room and speaker placement. Dirac Live Bass Control focuses on integrating subwoofers with the main speakers so the low end is more consistent across more than one seat. Dirac Live ART goes further by using multiple speakers in the system as a coordinated acoustic control network. Instead of treating each speaker and subwoofer separately, ART uses Dirac’s MIMO technology to help reduce low frequency decay and room resonances.

That does not mean Tide16 replaces smart speaker placement, competent setup, or physical acoustic treatment. Anyone expecting software to turn a bad room into Abbey Road by Tuesday is going to need a chair and a quiet moment. But for systems with multiple speakers, subwoofers, and enough complexity to make manual setup painful, Tide16 gives users a powerful DSP platform with the Dirac tools already included.

The Bottom Line

The miniDSP Tide16 matters because it brings 16 channel immersive audio processing, Dolby Atmos and DTS:Xdecoding, advanced bass management, and the full Dirac Live suite into a $3,500 processor. That price is not pocket change, but it is aggressive for a processor that includes Dirac Live Room Correction, Dirac Live Bass Control, and Dirac Live Active Room Treatment rather than treating them like toll booths.

Tide16 is not a traditional AVR. There are no amplifier channels inside, so buyers still need external amplification, speakers, subwoofers, and a calibrated microphone. Its strength is control: 16 balanced XLR outputs, support for complex layouts like 9.1.6, multi subwoofer integration, and Dirac ART’s ability to use the speaker system as a coordinated tool to reduce low frequency room issues.

The right buyer is an enthusiast, integrator, or system designer building a dedicated theater, active speaker system, advanced stereo setup, or multi subwoofer room where precision matters more than plug and play convenience. At $3,500 before amps, cables, microphones, and setup time, Tide16 is not cheap. But for users who want Dirac ART and 16 channel flexibility without jumping into far more expensive processor territory, it could be a very important box.

For more information: minidsp.com

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