Nick the Slick's Simply Efficient Room

[Nick The Slick]

Originally Posted by rpatt

Good job. It's amazing what room treatments can do. What does your REW system consist of?

What do you mean? I use the Audyssey mic that came with my Onkyo plugged into my motherboards mic in jack. From there it's HDMI out to the receiver. The loopback for sound card calibration was created by simply using the front L/R pre-outs of the receiver and connecting them to the mic in (so it goes REW->HDMI->receiver->pre-outs->mic-in->REW) and letting REW do it's thing. During measurements I put the mic on an old camcorder tripod my dad had lying around. Hope that answers your question.

[DangeRuss]

Originally Posted by Nick The Slick

What do you mean? I use the Audyssey mic that came with my Onkyo plugged into my motherboards mic in jack. From there it's HDMI out to the receiver. The loopback for sound card calibration was created by simply using the front L/R pre-outs of the receiver and connecting them to the mic in (so it goes REW->HDMI->receiver->pre-outs->mic-in->REW) and letting REW do it's thing. During measurements I put the mic on an old camcorder tripod my dad had lying around. Hope that answers your question.

Interesting setup .............

I'm using Dayton's Omni-Mic system .........

[spaceape]

Originally Posted by Nick The Slick

What do you mean? I use the Audyssey mic that came with my Onkyo plugged into my motherboards mic in jack. From there it's HDMI out to the receiver. The loopback for sound card calibration was created by simply using the front L/R pre-outs of the receiver and connecting them to the mic in (so it goes REW->HDMI->receiver->pre-outs->mic-in->REW) and letting REW do it's thing. During measurements I put the mic on an old camcorder tripod my dad had lying around. Hope that answers your question.

Great HT Nick.

If your computer has a line in use that instead because the mic in has more noise. But if not at least disable the mic boost.

REW Cabling and Connection Basics

Important notes:
You will require a soundcard with a line-in and a line-out jack.

Both the Radio Shack and Galaxy CM-140 output a mono line-level signal. (note, we recommend the Galaxy meter for full range measurements. The Radio Shack meter is not suitable for full range, although it can be used up to ~3000Hz with no problems for testing subwoofers. Here's a fairly good article on the Radio Shack meters).

A microphone input (mic-in) on a soundcard is not suitable (many laptops only have mic-in).



LAPTOP Note:
If your laptop is limited to a mic-in port with no line-in, then you'll require an external USB soundcard. There are basically two flavors of external USB soundcards.

One type contain an internal microphone preamp(s) with phantom power for condenser mics (such as the ECM8000 or EMM-6). The popular manufacturers of these type are Tascam, EM-U, and M-Audio. The connection diagram for these soundcards is shown at the bottom of the page, but be sure to read through this entire article first.

The second type do not contain a microphone preamp, and have analog line-in and line-out only. The interconnects for this type are the same as for an internal PC soundcard.

Guidelines for posting your REW graphs:

Please Read: Getting Graphs Ready To Post

Please Read: Posting A Graph

If you have saved your mdat files there's no need to remeasure.

[rpatt]

Originally Posted by Nick The Slick

What do you mean? I use the Audyssey mic that came with my Onkyo plugged into my motherboards mic in jack. From there it's HDMI out to the receiver. The loopback for sound card calibration was created by simply using the front L/R pre-outs of the receiver and connecting them to the mic in (so it goes REW->HDMI->receiver->pre-outs->mic-in->REW) and letting REW do it's thing. During measurements I put the mic on an old camcorder tripod my dad had lying around. Hope that answers your question.

Originally Posted by spaceape

Great HT Nick.

If your computer has a line in use that instead because the mic in has more noise. But if not at least disable the mic boost.

REW Cabling and Connection Basics



Guidelines for posting your REW graphs:

Please Read: Getting Graphs Ready To Post

Please Read: Posting A Graph

If you have saved your mdat files there's no need to remeasure.

Thanks for the information guys. I've been wanting to try something like that.

[spaceape]

Originally Posted by rpatt

Thanks for the information guys. I've been wanting to try something like that.

That great.

If you need a video tutorial just search for something like "room eq wizard" on youtube.

[Nick The Slick]

No line input since all I'm dealing with is the integrated sound card on my motherboard, so I'm stuck with the mic in. I'll try to take another measurement with the mic boost defeated (have been measuring with +10dB) and set my graphs up according to that link.

Question about the mic input though. Could that be old information? Does it only apply to low end stuff or does it apply to all mic inputs in general? I ask this because maybe this just refers to cheap inputs found on laptops and such, just wondering if me having a mid/high end motherboard (well, mid/high end in it's time) made any difference? Could it also be because the writer of that post was using SPL meters which only have line level outputs (unlike the audyssey mic I'm using which has a regular 3.5mm jack)? I'm just wondering why it makes such a big difference (I know you said because of noise, but like I asked, could a higher end sound card/input make that point moot?)

[Nick The Slick]

I have updated my graphs to reflect spaceape's suggestions. The only one that I could actually remeasure was the Audyssey On With Acoustic Treatment graphs, the others have just had the axis modified.

[spaceape]

Originally Posted by Nick The Slick

No line input since all I'm dealing with is the integrated sound card on my motherboard, so I'm stuck with the mic in. I'll try to take another measurement with the mic boost defeated (have been measuring with +10dB) and set my graphs up according to that link.

Question about the mic input though. Could that be old information? Does it only apply to low end stuff or does it apply to all mic inputs in general? I ask this because maybe this just refers to cheap inputs found on laptops and such, just wondering if me having a mid/high end motherboard (well, mid/high end in it's time) made any difference? Could it also be because the writer of that post was using SPL meters which only have line level outputs (unlike the audyssey mic I'm using which has a regular 3.5mm jack)? I'm just wondering why it makes such a big difference (I know you said because of noise, but like I asked, could a higher end sound card/input make that point moot?)

Originally Posted by Nick The Slick

I have updated my graphs to reflect spaceape's suggestions. The only one that I could actually remeasure was the Audyssey On With Acoustic Treatment graphs, the others have just had the axis modified.

Im not totally sure mate as i didn't write it. But the general consensus seem to be that microphone input are a bad option. They don't write why.. I only guessed the point about more noise in the input as that would make sense. The micboost thing is also something im guessing, together with keeping all effects disabled and the sampling rate at the standard 44khz/16bit as in the REW program.

I think onboard inputs whether by laptop or stationary pc is really the worst quality way to do it. The better option would be to either get a good dedicated soundcard or even better an external one with phantom power. Then you can also use the latter for use with a better omni directional mic if you someday get the fancy to upgrade your mic.