Noob to sound measurement has a basic question

[kactussjack]

Hi there! This is my first post on this forum. I came across the Home Theater Shack while looking for sound measurement software to tune a car audio installation. I am going to use an M-Audio USB Pre + Behringer ECM 8000 mic & REW. I want to do time alignment, level matching, set active crossovers & EQ. Now to my noob question- Since it seems my measurements will deal with relative sound levels between the various speakers, is there some way to set a ballpark sound level in the software with out blowing another $50 on an SPL meter or is one abslutely neccessary?

By the way, this is a neat site with lots of good info. I will be moving on to my home stereo/theater this winter.

Thanks for the help.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Welcome to the Forum!

Yes, you'll need an SPL meter. You mentioned you intended to do "level matching" as part of your system set up, so you'd need one even without REW.

Regards,
Wayne

[Anthony]

Yeah, I would recommend both the SPL meter and the Behringer mic for your application. The ECM8000 will be fine for your full range setup, but you need to have a reference level calibrated in the software. This way any changes you make on subsequent days will at least be close. Otherwise your session-to-session measurements could be all over the place.

I have the M-Audio MobilePre (USB) -- it has phantom power for the microphone. Otherwise you would need a separate mixer that could power the mic. I like the MobilePre because I can do measurements without needing anything externally powered. Makes portability and setup much easier.


Good luck.