Praxis vs Sample Champion

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Hello,
I was wondering if anyone has used both Praxis and Sample Champion. I have been out of the loop for a long time and would like to buy a well sorted measurement system. I need something that can do time based measurements, and have it narrowed down between PureBits Sample Champion and Liberty's Praxis. It looks as if both are very good and should meet most of my needs. I used to have CLIO and sold it. I liked the ease of use that CLIO had, but it was very cumbersome to use with a laptop. Praxis seems a little more powerful than Sample Champion, but also will cost about $600 more. I am interested to know what the AudPod is really needed for since Sample Champion will do most of the same things going directly into the soundcard. I already have a USB Tranist soundcard and Earthworks M30bx self powered mic. My main concerns are Time based measure, portability and support. From what I have read, both systems seem like they will be equally accurate. I am not afraid to spend the extra money, but if I don't have to, then I obviously don't want to. Thanks for any input!!!
Erik
 
I think of Praxis as being geared towards speaker measurement, and Sample Champion geared towards electrical measurement. They overlap, but have enough different emphasis' that I would use them for different tasks.

I tried the Sample Champion demo, and wasn't really impressed. I did a comparison of a bunch of measurerment software packages, any I could try for free. For electrical measurements, I decided on dssf3 (which is really good!), rightmark audio analyzer, and a couple of freeware scope/fft programs - Visual Analyzer (I really wish he would keep updating it!) and Shmelyoff's Oscillometer ( here ). But I rely primarily on my tek 456 scope - computers are too finky and easily broken.

I use Soundeasy for speaker measurement. I have a little experience with Praxis, and while it is more complex than Soundeasy, I don't know of any advantages to using it. I'd guess there are more users of Soundeasy floating around here, and so you're more likely to get quick answers.

In terms of accuracy, I assume any 'mature' software will be much more accurate and precise than anything on the hardware end. The problem I run into most is compatibility, and Sample Champion failed me there.

In terms of portability, my laptop wasn't up to the task of running everything, so I currently am stuck using my desktop. The other thing that sucks about laptops is battery life of 2-3 hours.
 
For the basic speaker design needs like frequency and impedance response, the JustMLS package in LSPcad will do just fine. You can combine near and far field measurements, add the bass reflex response. Also, you can configure MLS length and windowing length just the necessary 'knobs" to get rid of the room reflections. Also, it is rather easy to use.

When you do want to have additional features like, consistency in calibrated levels, distortions measurements (THD, IMD, multitone), you are looking for CSD and polar plots. And added to that powerful windowing and post processing functionality than Praxis could be for you.

I'm of course biased as I progressed from JustMLS to Praxis and did not consider Soundeasy or SampleChampion (properly calibrated and high consistency measurements for a reasonable price was what I was looking for and both CLIO and Praxis seemed to offer these, I opted for Praxis because of the portability, but nowadays CLIO is also more flexible).

If you did not try JustMLS yes, please do it will cater almost all necessary data for the XO design.

edit: Should read first post: I'm using the transit with my audpod. As far as I know the Audpod is better for calibration issues.
 
I use soundeasy on a desktop as well. In general soundcard based software measurement systems (especially usb soundcards) tend to have more issues than hardware based such as Clio, MLSSA etc.

There have been lots of issues on the SoundEasy user group of problems with USB external soundcards and getting good measurements. This is not a problem with SoundEasy but rather with USB soundcards. Firewire seems to be less of a problem. My desktop based PCI card is rock solid and I have never had issues with SoundEasy and measurements or XO emulation.

Since you already have LspCad, you could also look into other dedicated measurement software such as ARTA.

regards,

Dennis
 
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