Mapman,
I used to be a big believer in listening with my ears only, however there are things that Dirac does that no golden ear can including time alignment, etc. Typically I tend to place the speakers by ear first so that I get the soundstaging and imaging that I think is optimal and then let Dirac clean things up from there. My experience with Dirac is that he just cleans up the sound of the speakers where they are placed rather than transform things. So knowing how to listen and placing the speakers in the best position by ear is still critically important even in the world of digital correction.
I used to be a big believer in listening with my ears only, however there are things that Dirac does that no golden ear can including time alignment, etc. Typically I tend to place the speakers by ear first so that I get the soundstaging and imaging that I think is optimal and then let Dirac clean things up from there. My experience with Dirac is that he just cleans up the sound of the speakers where they are placed rather than transform things. So knowing how to listen and placing the speakers in the best position by ear is still critically important even in the world of digital correction.