Measuring a room

I've read quite a few threads here by guys measuring your room for frequency response. I'll admit it, I'm clueless about the procedure or how to get started with this facet of the "room" correction.

How/what does one need to take a measurement of the room other than a tape measure?!

Gordon

Gordon, I'm no expert, though I've done a ton of reading on the subject. Near as I can tell, the most popular tool is Room EQ Wizard (REW, for short). The software and boatloads of discussion may be found here: http://www.hometheatershack.com/for...nks-guides-articles-stickies-please-read.html

The software is free for joining the forum, though there's a minimal investment in necessary hardware. I'm on the verge of doing this, myself, though I'm pretty near my limit for acceptable room treatments.

Alan (sleepysurf) is using a different, dedicated bit of hardware and has a thread on it somewhere...

Where's Jonathan?

I'm using XTZ Room Analyzer, which is an all-in-one-box solution. I recall another forum member here who also has it. Kal Rubinson touted it in S'phile, as have a number of European reviewers. My experience with it is still limited, with mixed results. It's a breeze to use, but I'm having difficulty getting reproducible results. We tried it with Craig's system as well, and found the same inconsistency. We think it might be due to the microphone and base vibrating during measurements, so I plan to adapt a tripod mount ASAP. More info about it here...
http://www.xtz.se/produkt.php?allmant=true&produkt=41&eng=true

One more thing, it was designed for WinXP, so is not fully compatible with Windows Vista. I see their website now has a workaround for Vista, but I'm using an old XP laptop.

You might want to look at Ethan's post in the "somebody help me out here.. " thread in this same section.

Here is my list of recommended audio measurement tools along with some opinions on ease of use / value:


My favorite is still the ETF derived R+D from ETFAcoustic.com
http://www.etfacoustic.com/RPlusDSite/index.html

This is a bit more technical and slightly harder to use than something like REW, but it does more and its impulse response displays are much clearer than REW’s.

REW, as noted, is easy to use, cheap (free) and produces the nicest low-frequency waterfall plots of all


FuzzMeasure is a Mac only product, pretty similar in functionality to REW. I have not tried it, but the UI looks yummy.

http://www.supermegaultragroovy.com/products/FuzzMeasure/


On the higher end there is the suite of SMAART tools. Big bucks, expert levels required. Listing for completeness sake.

sleepysurf said:

I'm using XTZ Room Analyzer, which is an all-in-one-box solution. I recall another forum member here who also has it. Kal Rubinson touted it in S'phile, as have a number of European reviewers. My experience with it is still limited, with mixed results. It's a breeze to use, but I'm having difficulty getting reproducible results. We tried it with Craig's system as well, and found the same inconsistency. We think it might be due to the microphone and base vibrating during measurements, so I plan to adapt a tripod mount ASAP. More info about it here...
http://www.xtz.se/produkt.php?allmant=true&produkt=41&eng=true

One more thing, it was designed for WinXP, so is not fully compatible with Windows Vista. I see their website now has a workaround for Vista, but I'm using an old XP laptop.

Click to expand...

Alan, the need for a mic boom based mount for the mic is critical, I documented a good bit of it on the Audyssey thread over on AVSForum.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16221900#post16221900
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16222398#post16222398
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16224812#post16224812


Note that the adapter discussed is for camera-thread mount mics, like those from Audyssey (which you also have, so two-fer-one for you )

But your XTZ mic might be 'adapted' (or taped ) to that.

Thanks guys. Gives me something to start with.

Gordon