Audio analyzers. Which one?

[videobruce]

I'm looking at these two analyzers;

http://www.phonic.com/partner/modules/product_explor/products_detail.php?product_id=130#

http://www.gold-line.com/30mp.htm

Other than the 2x plus price difference and the fact the Gold Line is made in the US (a big plus IMO) any comments on either?

It would be used for home theater setup, not professional calibration, but I still don't want a toy. I would also use it as a SPM.
I know alot of guys use SPM's but almost all of them cut off at 8 kHz which seems to make it useless here.

 

[gene]

The phonic one looks like a good option. Also check out Sencore. They have a new portable RTA that looks promising. If you do get any of these, please give us some feedback. Let us know if they have a plotting and graphing feature and if you can adjust the scale. Thanks.

 

[videobruce]

I have the Phonic ordered. Sencore is out of my price range. I found these;

http://www.sencore.com/products/sp295c.htm

http://www.sencore.com/products/sp395.htm

 

[gene]

I have the 295C and its very antiquated and limited in function. You can change scale, it has no file management system (primitive store registers), the graphs transer to computer are very poor. Its a good unit for spot checking and calibrating your system, but not so great for publishing the results ;(

I look forward to hearing how the Phonic works out. I may contact them for a review sample in the future.

 

[videobruce]

I have the 295C and its very antiquated and limited in function.

The 295c is $2,300 Not a very 'antiquated' price!
the 395 is $2,700

way out of my price range!

 

[gene]

I know, the Sencore stuff is way over priced.

You may wish to look into this program assuming you have a laptop with a good soundcard. We are going to evaluate this tool soon because it looks so promising and is dirt cheap!

http://www.purebits.com/

 

[videobruce]

Laptop, yes. Good soundcard, no.
Only a mic in.

The Phonic is ok for what I will use it for. Considering the price, I can't realy complain. I have seen SPL meters sell for more than this and they only do 8kHz.

 

[BGLeduc]

You might give this a peek:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.mulcahy/roomeq/

Its free, and works with venerable RS SPL Meter. It does not have RTA functionality yet, but the author said that is coming. I used it to dial in my sub via a BFD, and it works very well.

Brian

 

[Doug Plumb]

Audio Analyzers

I don't understand why anyone would spend big dollars on an audio analyzer when a PC based one with a $5.00 sound card will do exactly the same thing.

Just because something is inexpensive doesn't make it a toy. Even if it did, when a toy would do the same thing, why not ?

People in audio always think they have to spend big dollars. The big dollars that get spent often get used for brainwashing. Good audio does not have to be expensive.

 

[WmAx]

I don't understand why anyone would spend big dollars on an audio analyzer when a PC based one with a $5.00 sound card will do exactly the same thing.

Just because something is inexpensive doesn't make it a toy. Even if it did, when a toy would do the same thing, why not ?

People in audio always think they have to spend big dollars. The big dollars that get spent often get used for brainwashing. Good audio does not have to be expensive.

The very nice units have some critical features for specialized applications. Some features that are important for some applications:

-Include a portable calibrator[to keep SPL calibrated precisely]
-Robust/durable construction
-Very small integrated unit[important for portability and simplicity]
-Some units are dedicated data collection devices; an all in one small integrated device that can be set up to store data over time for later review.

However, if the size/bulk and other inherant physical attributes are not a distraction for a specific purpose, then a notebook with a good soundcard, software and a calibrated measurement microphone is a more powerful data aquisition/analysis tool.

-Chris

 

[gene]

I don't understand why anyone would spend big dollars on an audio analyzer when a PC based one with a $5.00 sound card will do exactly the same thing.

Um, not quite! In fact, most PC based audio analyzers are serverly limited b/c of noise, distortion and resolution. Its fine to do spot check measurements for the most part, but doesn't cut the mustard for developing new hardware or doing precise measurements. Its funny when I see some web publications measuring amp distortion and noise floor with a $5 soundcard and PC software as you put it, when at best they are usually measuring the limits of their test setup.

 

[WmAx]

Um, not quite! In fact, most PC based audio analyzers are serverly limited b/c of noise, distortion and resolution. Its fine to do spot check measurements for the most part, but doesn't cut the mustard for developing new hardware or doing precise measurements. Its funny when I see some web publications measuring amp distortion and noise floor with a $5 soundcard and PC software as you put it, when at best they are usually measuring the limits of their test setup.

Well, I don't know about a '$5' soundcard for electronics benchmarking.... but a $200 sound card, such as E-MU 1212M, has distortion residuals into the ten-thousandths of a percent, and signal:noise ratio exceeding -115dB. The software solutions are perfectly viable given competant use/application. The only limitation is bandwidth, which is practically limited to 192kHz sample rate. For high frequency oscillation analysis/stability of a circuit during development, it should be apparent to a designer that sufficient equipment should still be used to analyse this particular detail[o-scope]. If the equipment being measured is being masked by the residuals of an impeccable card such as the E-MU 1212M, then it is indeed incredible hardware being tested, and of such small residuals that to gather actual absolute measurements under this residual threshold is only of academic interest.

For acoustical testing, a $60 Creative card is more than sufficient for accurate testing/analysis when combined with a calibrated microphone and powerful software such as LSPLAB, LEAP, ETF, etc.. A stand alone portable meter will not have the extensive analysis ability of a computer paired with such software.

-Chris