List your favorite(cheap) test tools for audio systems

[audio.dream]

NOSE.
When somthing burn......my nose will find it!

[clm811]

Not to seem nosey, but if anyone else wants to put their nose in, please do it now!

I guess the original reason for this post was to find additional test gear, on a shoestring, that can help me to troubleshoot and/or tweak my system (in terms of finding/reducing/eliminating non-optimum setup factors) for best performance.

Anyone?

[col]

Nice! How much did THAT set you back(... )?

Well I already had the laptop as I use it for other things so all I had to buy was the Microphone and at the time a Behringer UB1002 mixer to plug it into, which I wanted anyway.

The ECM8000 is about AU$85 new and you can get a mixer with phantom power second hand of ebay for around AU$50, so all up around $135. OK, thats a bit of an investment but if you are considering doing some serious DIY audio it's probably the best one your going to make for objective measurements and diagnosis of the sound that your modifications are going to make.

Anyone who is serious about having decent sound and is willing to take the back off their speakers and make a difference that will pass blind testing start here.

col.

[Gordy]

A good quality multimeter, and two cheap ones. I use the good one for probing about while the cheap ones are hooked to the power supplies indicating voltage and current.

Just bought a cheapish analogue oscilloscope which I will be using next.

[Pano]

Hey! What about the good old Rat Shack SPL meter?
Very handy indeed.

( I also have the Behringer EC8000).

[Conrad Hoffman]

I find an old transistor radio handy (remember those?). You tune it between stations for noise, then wave the antenna over your amp circuit (don't touch anything). If you hear tones whines or signals of any type, go fix your unbypassed RF generating rectifier bridge, or look for oscillations in the circuitry. The only caveat- if you don't hear anything, it doesn't mean no problems exist.

[star882]

Originally posted by Conrad Hoffman
I find an old transistor radio handy (remember those?). You tune it between stations for noise, then wave the antenna over your amp circuit (don't touch anything). If you hear tones whines or signals of any type, go fix your unbypassed RF generating rectifier bridge, or look for oscillations in the circuitry. The only caveat- if you don't hear anything, it doesn't mean no problems exist.

Digital and hybrid amplifiers will do that even when they're operating correctly.

[jackinnj]

Originally posted by Conrad Hoffman
I find an old transistor radio handy (remember those?). You tune it between stations for noise, then wave the antenna over your amp circuit (don't touch anything). If you hear tones whines or signals of any type, go fix your unbypassed RF generating rectifier bridge, or look for oscillations in the circuitry. The only caveat- if you don't hear anything, it doesn't mean no problems exist.

Ears for sure -- but get some training at the Musikverein, Concertgebouw, Festspiele, Carnegie Hall --

I was just discussing this with someone playing around with a DAC -- the power supply knocks the a.m. radio for a loop when the wall-wart is plugged in. I am using an Every Ready lantern battery -- now on sale at RS for $9.97.

A couple years back one of the fellas from ADI wrote of his experience at a customer location in Paris -- I think it related to unusual offset in some circuit -- they found the miscreant with a ham radio transceiver.

If I had to guess, I find my Fluke dmm, my Tek scope and a Tektronix TM5006 with assorted plug-ins to be indispensable...the number of auctions in t&M gear on EBay has doubled since September -- so there are going to be lots of bargains just as in 2001/2.

[hafp]

AC Line sniffers.
Many brands are available all over for around $15. on up.
Better ones have adjustable sensitivity, so it will pick up a hot line from farther away.
Aphiles use them to also detect noise being picked up in their signal and speaker wires, and move them away from the noise source.
Cheers.

[twitchie]

Originally posted by col
Behringer ECM8000 microphone.

Hooked up to a cheap mic preamp with phantom power, a laptop computer with a freeware realtime spectrum analyzer and bob is your uncle

col.

I'll second that one and TrueRTA has an oscilloscope mode too. Zelscope is $9.95 now.

Jaycar instrumentation interface for pc soundcard
$29.95

Ebay 10x scope probes just arrived in the mail this morning ... can't wait to start playing ... I mean testing