Newbie. Fast Track Pro or E-MU 0404? or other in $200 range?

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

[brucek]

I don't have any standalone "processor" or "pre-amp" or "equalizer"-type electronic doodads I see pictured in the REW wiring diagrams

You may be a bit confused. Your receiver is a (processor plus amplifiers). Some people have seperate processor and amplifers. It is no different than you have presently. Here's the REW wiring diagram.

When using REW, we turn the processor/ receiver to the stereo mode with all soundfield and 'doodads' shut off. Usually we measure the sub without the mains first and find its best position, then add the mains and check for integration between the two.

REW is designed to do exactly what you propose. It also has the capability of recommending filters to enter into a subwoofer equalizer (such as the BFD). We always get the best positioning for the sub and speakers first, and then we consider EQ only if needed.

brucek

[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

Thanks for the info.

After more surfing and finding some reviews on both - especially at Musician's Friend web-site - I'm going with the E-MU 0404.

(And to the guy who said I "may be a bit confused". Hey - I *know* I'm confused! And reading the parts of the REW manual I've read just made me even *more* confused - But I'm going to try to read the entire manual before coming back and asking more questions.)

Thanks again,
Bill