[Jim]

I'm new to this group, so please excuse me if this topic has been
raised before.
I need some help testing the FR of my stereo speakers. I'm in over my
head. I bought TrueRTA software and Loudspeaker Lab's testing
software, the recommended mic and mixer. Problem is: no matter what I
try I can't get the software to work the way it's supposed to with my
sound card. I have tried everything I can think of but to no avail.
Before I sink more money into equipment (ie: external sound card,
etc.) I thought I'd send out a plea for some help.

Is there anyone out there who would be willing to walk me through the
process of testing the FR of my speakers? I'd really appreciated it.

Thanks, Jim

My equipment:
Computer: AMD Athlon 64 @ 3500+. 2.2 ghz 1gig Ram, on board sound
card Realtec (?) 5 channel; TrueRTA v3.3.1; Loudspeaker Lab 3.1,
EuroRack UB802 mic mixer, Behringer ECM 8000 mic.
Stereo: Jolida 302B tube amp, marantiz cd, Aria 5R1 speakers (DIY
ribbon tweeter speakers), NHT 12" powered subwoofer.

[Ethan Winer]

Jim,

If you can't get the software to work, your first step is to call the
company that makes the software. It's their job to support it!

Also, I assume you realize that you won't be testing the response of your
speakers nearly as much as the response of your room.

--Ethan

[Jim]

On Jun 27, 7:03 am, "Ethan Winer" ethanw at ethanwiner dot com
wrote:
Jim,

If you can't get the software to work, your first step is to call the
company that makes the software. It's their job to support it!

Also, I assume you realize that you won't be testing the response of your
speakers nearly as much as the response of your room.

--Ethan

I agree with you whole-heartedly. I am dealing with the company which
is slow. As far as testing the room v/v the speakers . . . I know
that the best situation would be to use a chamber for testing. But
try to find one that will do the testing and doesn't charge an arm and
leg. I haven't had any luck in the San Francisco Bay Area. Perhaps
you know of one. Some people say "just trust your ear and go with
what sounds good to you." That is good advise generally. But I want
to get some objective sense of the speaker performance and see how it
compares to my subjective sense. Although testing at home (even with
all my efforts to counter room response) is imperfect at best, it is
all I can do short of spending a fortune on professional testing
facilities.
I have no intention of relying soley on the test results to evaluate
the speakers, but I look at it as just one more tool to use.
Jim

[Kalman Rubinson]

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:28:47 -0700, Jim wrote:

As far as testing the room v/v the speakers . . . I know
that the best situation would be to use a chamber for testing. But
try to find one that will do the testing and doesn't charge an arm and
leg.

A compromise that can work is to do the measurements outside.

Kal

[Arny Krueger]

"Jim" wrote in message
ups.com

I'm new to this group, so please excuse me if this topic
has been raised before.
I need some help testing the FR of my stereo speakers.
I'm in over my head. I bought TrueRTA software and
Loudspeaker Lab's testing software, the recommended mic
and mixer. Problem is: no matter what I try I can't get
the software to work the way it's supposed to with my
sound card.

Which sound card, and what not's working right? Oh, see below.

Oh, you're working with the audio interface on the system board of your PC.
It could be good enough, but you have to get it set up right, and know that
it is working right.

First, you need to check the sound card itself. Good software for doing that
is the freeware Audio Rightmark:

http://audio.rightmark.org/download.shtml

Basically, you jumper the input of your audio interface to its output ("loop
back"), and set it for unity gain, and then test it.

There's a speaker testing feature inside the Audio Rightmark that has to be
enabled. It's simple enough to use. You have enough equipment to make it
work well enough. See if it works well enough.

Then, with any insights you've gathered, move onto using True RTA.

Is there anyone out there who would be willing to walk me
through the process of testing the FR of my speakers?
I'd really appreciated it.

I would not call a Jolida 302B a lab grade amplifier. Tubed amps are often
sensitive enough to the impedance curves of the speakers used with them,
that they produce results that are hard to extrapolate on, to most power
amplifiers.

My equipment:
Computer: AMD Athlon 64 @ 3500+. 2.2 ghz 1gig Ram, on
board sound card Realtec (?) 5 channel; TrueRTA v3.3.1;
Loudspeaker Lab 3.1, EuroRack UB802 mic mixer, Behringer
ECM 8000 mic.
Stereo: Jolida 302B tube amp, marantiz cd, Aria 5R1
speakers (DIY ribbon tweeter speakers), NHT 12" powered
subwoofer.

[Ethan Winer]

Jim,

I know that the best situation would be to use a chamber for testing.

As Kal said, outside works pretty well. If you put the speaker up high on a
ladder this works even better. You can also use software that has a gate
feature, which cuts off the measuring before the first reflection arrives. I
use the ETF and R+D software for Windows which can do that. There's also
FuzzMeasure for Macs. The Room EQ Wizard software is another, but I'm not
sure if it allows for gated measurements. Gated measurements are not good at
low freqencies (low resolution), but works very well above a few hundred Hz.
The accuracy of the results depends on how far the boundaries are from the
speaker and measuring microphone.

Some people say "just trust your ear and go with what sounds good to you."
That is good advise generally.

Actually, I think that's bad advice generally. People's hearing is very
prone to error. What sounds good one day can sound terrible the next and
vice versa, even when nothing has changed.

--Ethan