[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

(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.

REW is designed to measure your in-room response, so it's useful to everyone. It'll let you see the changes of your Auto MCACC (although it takes some additional gear to measure full-range accurately). In the wiring diagram pictures, you can easily substitute a standard receiver for the stand-alone processor and amp shown. The BFD equalizer would only be used between your receiver and sub, should you find a need for it for taming the sub's response (most do).

By the way, those are some pretty pricey sound cards you're looking at, semi-pro units for recording hobbyists. If you have a need for mic pre-amps, S/PDIF interface, balanced ins and outs, phantom power and the like, fine. But if you're only buying one to run REW, any cheap USB soundcard will do. All you need is standard RCA analog inputs and outputs.

Regards,
Wayne