Can REW be used to calibrate front speakers?

**eternalsnow** · **01-02-09, 04:18 PM**

Hi all. I'm pretty new to using REW and all the connection diagrams I've been looking at only show the BFD hooked up to the subwoofer. I was wondering if REW can also be used to calibrate your front speakers as well. TIA for clearing up the confusing

**Wayne A. Pflughaupt** · **01-02-09, 07:12 PM**

Sure will. Unfortunately, the Radio Shack SPL meters are not good beyond 5 kHz or so. However, the Galaxy CM-140 SPL meter is suitable for full range, so you could buy it instead. An other popular option is to use a Behringer ECM8000 mic along with a Xenyx 802 mini-mixer.

Regards,
Wayne

**weverb** · **01-02-09, 08:07 PM**

eternalsnow,

Welcome to the forum!

When you say calibrate, do you mean the typical 75dB calibration with all the other speakers in the system, or do you mean to equalize the response to remove any major peaks/lows?

If you mean equalize, REW can help show if your receiver is equipped with a built in adjustment program (Audysse, ypao, etc.), REW can show you if it made any adjustments. If you want to equalize the mains similar to how a bfd does the subs, you are going to need external amps and a better parametric eq than the bfd. REW can help a great deal in this aspect. Wayne just helped me through this process with my set-up and it has been nothing but a positive experience.

**eternalsnow** · **01-04-09, 02:04 AM**

Quote:

weverb wrote:

eternalsnow,

Welcome to the forum!

When you say calibrate, do you mean the typical 75dB calibration with all the other speakers in the system, or do you mean to equalize the response to remove any major peaks/lows?

If you mean equalize, REW can help show if your receiver is equipped with a built in adjustment program (Audysse, ypao, etc.), REW can show you if it made any adjustments. If you want to equalize the mains similar to how a bfd does the subs, you are going to need external amps and a better parametric eq than the bfd. REW can help a great deal in this aspect. Wayne just helped me through this process with my set-up and it has been nothing but a positive experience.

Sorry, I meant equalize the front speakers to remove any major peaks/lows.

I currently have an Onkyo receiver and it looks like it only has pre-outs for the sub. So I assume that as of this moment I can't use REW to equalize my front speakers unless I get a different receiver correct? Also, what would be a good eq to use for equalizing your front speakers?

**brucek** · **01-04-09, 09:56 AM**

Quote:

equalize the front speakers to remove any major peaks/lows

Speaker placement is your best bet here. An equalizer would have to be limited to the graphics type that would supply low Q filtering. The trade off is that it would impart its own noise and distortion.

Perhaps best to measure your system first and see if you have any broad problems. Narrow spike and dips are not equalizable.

brucek

**Anthony** · **01-04-09, 01:48 PM**

A couple of things to consider: Can you send a signal to each of your front speakers one at a time? Some receivers allow this others make it nay impossible. If you have a separates system, it's easier, since you can just feed the amp directly from your soundcard.

I agree with the recommendations for just using it for placement and the ECM8000 instead of the Radio Shack meter for full range measurements. Also, before you worry about the full range response graph, be sure to apply 1/3 octave filtering. It smooths out the graph a lot and lets you just worry about the big problems

good luck

**Wayne A. Pflughaupt** · **01-04-09, 05:55 PM**

Quote:

eternalsnow wrote:

I currently have an Onkyo receiver and it looks like it only has pre-outs for the sub. So I assume that as of this moment I can't use REW to equalize my front speakers unless I get a different receiver correct?

Correct. An equalizer needs to be inserted between the pre amp and amplifier, so you’d also be needing outboard amplification as well.

Also worth considering, if you get a new receiver solely for the purpose of being able to add equalizers, many receivers these days come with auto EQ functions. So you may not even need any outboard equalizers in the end. That’s kinda like a backwards Catch 22, isn’t it?

Regards,
Wayne

**eternalsnow** · **01-04-09, 09:45 PM**

I guess I'm just gonna focus on equalizing my sub and only worry about speaker placement for the fronts. I still need to set everything up but once I do I'll let you guys know. Thanks for all the info guys, it is much appreciated

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