Anyone check this out???

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.mu...meq/index.html

And there is an AVS thread talking about it here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=529224

I have not actually tried to use it, but I did load it and fired it up, and am going through the documentation as we speak. If I am reading this right, this software, after taking room measurements, will actually identify the peaks, and then calculate the required BFD filters for you.

Judging from the literature, it seems to be pretty easy to use, which hopefully will translate to a short learning curve.

This looks to be way cool if it works as it appears it will.

BGL

[MikeyWeitz]

Let us know how it works for you :-)

[Kevin C Brown]

Looks interesting...

I figure that any sub that has this stuff (Velodyne, and some others) has this kind of software built in. Kind of neat that someone would just offer up for public use. Brian, let us know what you think.

I already use ETF5, and this looks to be a lot easier to use than that.

If all goes to plan, I am going to give it a run through tomorrow afternoon.

It looks to be very user friendly, and has already found my soundcard without my having to do a deep dive into Windows. It has a built in tone generator that will do Sines, Pink Noise, Stepped Sines, etc.

The user documentation is very well written, at least from the perspective of basic set-up procedures. Dare I say it, it almost looks idiot proof...'course, I will be able to test that theory tomorrow!

BGL

[BradJudy]

I tried this tonight and here are my thoughts copied from the AV123 fourm:

It seems to be pretty well done. It has a loopback function to eliminate the soundcard from the equation. It seems to be able to do a variety of tone generation and automated measurement. The default subwoofer 20-200Hz sweep went in 1Hz increments and took 10 minutes, but I think the interval can be tweaked to speed that up.

The only problem after this sweep was that my big 20-40Hz hump (which measured as peaking at 20db above normal on both the RS SPL and ETF) measured as peaking 30db high. I'll have to do more measurements to see if this holds, but I'm done for this evening.

(Techhead note - it is a Java app, so it requires you download and install the Sun Java JRE)

Overall, this could be an excellent free alternative to TrueRTA or ETF for those just wanting to do frequency response measurements. For those with a BFD, it looks like it could be even more useful (not as nice as the R-DES software, but probably better than what you're using now ).

[PaulDA]

Does it require a special microphone for room measurements? If so, what kind?

Not at all, in fact they recommend the RS SPL meter, and have compensation built in for the fact that the meter will be run in C weighting.

I would encourage anyone to go to the link and download the help files...very comprehensive, yet simply written. I didn't see anything that I thought would be difficult to understand.

Oh, and the price is pretty damn good to.

For those that did not check the link, this is software written been one of the lead tech guys at the now defunct TAG-Mclaren (well, the consumer audio part of TAG, anyway). He said he wrote this in his spare time, but it was based on software that was initially written for the TAG units.

BGL

[MikeNg]

BradJudy,

Aside from the 30dB hump it reported, did you find that the measurements/recommendations were accurate/close to how you have your room calibrated? Of course, I'm presuming you have already calibrated your room before and you're just testing the app now.

Mike

[PaulDA]

I don't suppose it'll run on my PowerMac notebook, will it? Otherwise, I'll have to borrow a PC laptop as my desktop is nowhere near the system.

[Chu Gai]

Good question. It is a java applet. Ask the maker.

[BradJudy]

Aside from the exaggerated hump, the measurements appear good. I'll do some more testing this weekend to see what setting works best for faster sweeps (a ten minute sweep is pretty absurd). I'll also have to see if I had the RS compensation turned on which would explain the discrepancy for the hump.

BTW: Yes, I am doing this to test the app, and since I have a pretty reliable measuring setup, I thought I would do some validation for everyone. Posting follow-ups in multiple fourms is annoying though. I haven't even looked at the AVS thread yet and I'm already posting on this in three forums.

I was only able to give it about 90 minutes this afternoon. Too soon to say if I trust the data yet, but it was pretty easy to use. I did find that the onboard soundcard of my laptop lacked line level stereo inputs (mono Mic in only), thus off to Best Buy for a PCMCIA sound card.

Once that was installed, things went pretty well.

I do find the ability to program a start and stop frequency, as well as the spread (1/3 Oct, 1/6 Oct. 1Hz increments, etc.) very handy; press one button, and it plots the FR of the speaker in question pretty quickly.

While I did not actually re-calibrate my sub as yet, I did run some 80 to 800 Hz 1/3 octave tests on my LCR speakers (I had an Audio Control Bijou for those). It made small work of dialing those in.

One oddity which I would guess is related to the setup of my machine is that I am hearing some feedback from the Mic. I would have expected that the program would record the input from the meter w/o sending it back via the line-outs to the Receiver. Surely that's an issue with the soundcard set-up.

Something else that perhaps relates to how I have the software set up is that it will not compute filters that boost any frequency; only cuts. I am fine with the notion that you can't boost a null, but not all valleys in the FR plot are nulls.

Well, lots more to do, but unless the family hits the road for a day, I am not sure when I will be able to take a 2nd pass at it. Dang!

But, so far so good....I was getting some use out of it in less than two hours....not bad at all!

BGL

[Kevin C Brown]

Hey Brian- Does it differentiate at all between t=0 measurements with after the nodes have built up? Just curious...