A question for those that do measurements

[wigginjs]

I want to have a way of doing some common measurements inside my listening room. The measurements I would like to be able to make are:

Frequency Response
Linear Distortion
Non-Linear Distortion
Waterfall Spectrum

I know that a PC is the most commonly used measurement tool and thats great because I already have a PC in my listening room. My plan so far was to buy a Behringer ECM8000 microphone and an ART MicroMix Preamp and connect it to my computer. I already have a copy of TrueRTA, although as far as I can tell all this will measure is frequency response.

My question is really three parts. What do you think of the measurement hardware I've picked out? What kind of measurement software would you recommend? Do you think this is a good system? I'd be happy to hear any recommendations or questions as well.

[SY]

Get a good sound card. Ace_3000 turned me on to the Audigy 2ZS which works like a charm. There's a lot of good software out there- most of what you want to do can be handled by Speaker Workshop. CoolEdit and similar programs will let you manipulate sine wave data so that you can measure non-linearity, too.

Do read and understand Joe d'Appolito's superb book on testing loudspeakers. It's really easy to misinterpret what you measure or get garbage data if you don't really understand what you're doing. High tech methods just make it easier and faster to go wrong. When terms like aliasing, apodization, binning, group delay, and phase delay are all familiar and know to you, you'll be ready to go with confidence.

[wigginjs]

Could you give me a little more information on the book? How about some insight on the mic/preamp?

[SY]

The Behringer mike should do fine- I haven't used it myself (I use a modified Panasonic), but understand that others have gotten good results.

d'Appolito's book is available at AudioXpress. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to do competent speaker measurements.

[bombardon73]

M0tion, I just recently bought a measurement mic with preamp from a german manufacturer. http://www.ibf-akustik.de/2005/index05.html goto "messkit" , it's a mic with preamp. You also get a frequency and phase response measurement report with it, they measure every single mic! Mine has a build nr. wich also is on the measurement results report.
Also, you don't need an expensive SPL calibration tool cause the preamp has a 94db LED, so calibrating is easy.

I'm more then satisfied with it, e.g. I did measure the Dayton planar tweeter today and the measurements were practicaly the same as the ones done by a German magazine! And they do have expensive stuff.

The dayton planar tweeter DOES have a VERY flat frequency response, I was stunned! The PDF file you can find on the internet that has the planar tweeters measurement isn't doing this unit justice!!!

M0tion, as far as software goes, try to get a copy of HobbyBox

[wigginjs]

Thanks for the ideas. Hobbybox looks very interesting, but unfortunately I do not speak german. Do you happen to know if there is an english translation?