Measurement Microphones

[bassmish]

Hello. I'm new to this forum and this is my first post!! wahey! I hope I'm not repeating something wich is often asked by the way so apologies in advance if I do.....

So I am planning on buying some measurement equipment for analysis of some home-build Speakers, in order to test the frequency response of various horns, as well as all round full range box performance.

I am however fairly new to measurement, and although I can find plenty of information about the correct way to do things, I'm finding it difficult to work out what equipment I need..

I guess I just need a nice flat response microphone and a nice cable to connect it to my PC. I have a nice focusrite soundcard to receive te signal so that should be OK, but I guess I need some kind of appropriate software....

So I was wondering whether anyone has any advice on what microphone would be suitable or recommend me one or point me in the direction of working out what I need!!...

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

CHEERS.

[planet10]

The goto budget mic is the Behringer ECM8000 (or its Dayton counterpart), but really needs to be calibrated to be useful outside of 200-5k Hz.

Cross·Spectrum - Calibrated Behringer ECM8000 Microphones for Sale

dave

[doug20]

This could be an incredible option if people are not use to buying calibrated mics, sound cards separately and getting all the equipment to work with HOLM, ARTA or REW.

Dayton OmniMic Precision Measurement System | Parts-Express.com

Discussion here.
Dayton OmniMic Precision Measurement System - AVS Forum

Its price is $300 which is about twice that of a calibrated mic (ECM8000) + sound card (USB Premobile) + free software (HOLM, REW or ARTA). The only question really does having something running out of the box equate to $150 in differences.

[bassmish]

thanks for the quick replies. I'll have a quick look at them.

I should add that a large focus of the first research I need to do with the horns will involve analysing low frequency response right down to the bottom of the audible range so that's pretty key in deciding what I want.

I should also say that my budget is around £150 which I imagine isn't loads for a top quality mic, but I guess I might be able to find a bargain so I can look at some a bit more expensive.

If it so happens I may need to buy different mics for measuring different things, but it would be nice to find a mic which will do a half decent job at measuring all relevant frequencies, in particular the ones at the lower end of the spectrum.