[Bill]

I'm getting ready to finally buy some "real" sub-woofers, and I want to be able to properly calibrate/tune/adjust them as best I can.

For many years, I've had a Radio Shack Sound Level Meter- Model Number 33-2050.

I thought life was complete when my newer Pioneer amps came with a microphone and an "Auto MCACC" feature to automatically balance the speakers - at various wavelengths!

Now I find out - nope - that's not enough - I have much more work to do....

A Tweak City forum pointed me to REW. I've downloaded REW, but can't quite use it yet. My laptop doesn't have any "real" sound capabilities, but it does have USB.

So - looking in the $200 price range for external USB sound-cards - should I get:

1) M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB Audio Interface

or

2) Creative Professional E-MU 0404 USB 2.0 Sound card

They have similar features. I think the E-MU might be slightly better based on its possible 24-bit/192kHz A/D sampling, but I really don't know much about sound cards at this level - or what I need to best tune my home theater system now and in the future.

So between these 2 - or any other external USB sound-card in the $200 range - any suggestions for what's "best"?

(And on a side-note: am I going to be able to accomplish anything useful with REW since my home theater systems only have an all-in-one amplifier/receiver and various DVD/Blu-Ray players? That is - I don't have any standalone "processor" or "pre-amp" or "equalizer"-type electronic doodads I see pictured in the REW wiring diagrams - and I wonder if that means REW won't be able to help me much. Currently my plan is to use REW to test out different sub positions in the room(s). But it looks like REW might have been designed to do more than that. I'm just wondering how much more of REW I can actually take advantage of without having a "processor" in front of my combo-amp-receiver.)

Thanks,
Bill