Should You Get Your Measurement Microphone Professionally Calibrated?

fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
As someone with a CSL calibrated mic, IMO they're more than worth it.
 
agarwalro

agarwalro

Audioholic Ninja
I got the CSL calibrated UMIK. For me it was about the peace of mind (at the time there was questions on the accuracy of MiniDSP calibration files) for a minor up charge. The second reason was that CSL provided 6 calibrations based on mic orientation and some other parameters I forget ( maybe, sensitivity correction). MiniDSP only gave one file.
 
WaynePflughaupt

WaynePflughaupt

Audioholic Samurai

http://seriousaudioblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/should-you-get-your-measurement.html

tldr; Yes,but only if +/- 2 or 3 db above 10khz would be an issue for you...
To make that determination you’d have to compare calibrated and uncalibrated response, not response from two different calibrated orientations. As you can see from the graphs below (generated by Herb Singleton at Cross Spectum Labs), the response of the cheap mics we commonly use can vary 5 dB at the low end and even more at the top end, and below 10 kHz.



Variations Between Behringer ECM800 Mics


Variations Between EMM-6 Mics


Still, there are definitely some issues with that article.

I wish I knew who started the idea that on-axis measurements were for speaker-designing and 90°orientation was for room measurements. You won’t find any support for this in any B&K literature or the product manuals of professional measurement hardware. And in fact, both Herb at Cross Spectrum and John Mulcahy of REW have always recommended the opposite: On-axis for frequency response, and upright for acoustics measurements (e.g. ETC, RT60, etc.)

Plus something is really fishy about the mic calibrations presented in the graphs. Even omnidirectional mics become increasingly directional as frequency rises, so with 90°orientation high end response starts to droop at about 1-2 kHz. Thus, a calibration file intended for upright orientation must boost the high end to compensate. Yet, the article shows just the reverse: Calibration is boosted for on-axis orientation. Huh?

He’s right about the Dayton calibration, though. They’re pretty useless. Check out the ones presented at this thread.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
 
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