Does PE ever have OmniMic on sale?

[KEW]

The title says it.
I guess I need one of these, but I can wait if a discount is to be had.
Thanks!

 

[Irvrobinson]

I've never seen it go on sale. The best I've seen is them throwing in a free mic stand.

 

[theJman]

If they do it's rarely. I've been watching for about 2 months now, but it's never dropped even a penny. After black friday and cyber monday came and went I figured it was never going on sale, so I just bit the bullet and ordered it.

 

[Irvrobinson]

If they do it's rarely. I've been watching for about 2 months now, but it's never dropped even a penny. After black friday and cyber monday came and went I figured it was never going on sale, so I just bit the bullet and ordered it.

Smart move. I use mine a lot; it's amazing what it teaches you about your room and your system.

 

[Steve81]

I'm actually thinking about picking one up myself in the not too distant future. It's not cheap, but with what most of us have invested in our systems, it's probably not a bad idea to get such a tool to help optimize it. If nothing else, I'm curious to see just how accurate my cheapo SPL meter is (I don't have high hopes).

 

[jcl]

I've been meaning to get a system like this myself. Can anyone from personal experience compare the omnimic vs. REW vs. the XTZ room analyzer?

 

[theJman]

I've been meaning to get a system like this myself. Can anyone from personal experience compare the omnimic vs. REW vs. the XTZ room analyzer?

I'll be able to do Omnimic vs XTZ shortly, because the latter is what I have now.

 

[JohnA]

For the price it can't be beat for all the stuff it can do, and right now you get a free tripod boom stand.

 

[lsiberian]

Why would you pay 300 dollars for a measurement system?

You can simply use REW with an SPL meter or a Mic.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Why would you pay 300 dollars for a measurement system?

You can simply use REW with an SPL meter or a Mic.

Not as good.

 

[lsiberian]

Not as good.

How so? I'm not sure I buy that it's really any better.

 

[Steve81]

How so? I'm not sure I buy that it's really any better.

To my knowledge, with REW, you've got to already have some decent computer hardware on hand, namely a pretty good sound card. I'd also bet having a half decent mic might be a bit better than a $40 rat shack meter. OTOH, AFAIK the Dayton kit is a full service system, ie you plug it into a USB port and you've got a fully calibrated measurement tool ready to roll.

 

[jcl]

My limited understanding is that omnimic and room analyzer are
1. Complete packages - software, mic, soundcard/computer interface.
2. Much closer to plug and play

So for those who don't want to purchase and setup the individual components they are the the simplest solutions.

Myself, I have mics & a sound card and I've downloaded REW and played around with it just a bit. It's not exactly plug and play but I haven't given it a fair chance yet. And unfortunately there always seems to be something else I need to do before I get to sitting down with it again. So for now thriftiness is winning out over laziness, but that has a tendency to change with me...

 

[Irvrobinson]

My limited understanding is that omnimic and room analyzer are
1. Complete packages - software, mic, soundcard/computer interface.
2. Much closer to plug and play

So for those who don't want to purchase and setup the individual components they are the simplest solutions.

Agree. I wanted a full solution that I could depend on and not waste time debugging and supporting. When my V1 OM mic acted up Parts Express sent me a whole new V2 set-up, for nothing. I also liked the user-friendliness of the interface with OM better than REW. And I don't have a sound card.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I agree with lsiberian
this:
Dayton Audio EMM-6 Electret Measurement Microphone Allows For Accurate Acoustic Measurements At A Fraction Of The Price 390-801
With Free calibration file
plus this:
Lexicon Alpha | Sweetwater.com
or
Amazon.com: Behringer 302USB Premium 5-Input Mixer with XENYX Mic Preamp and USB/Audio Interface: Musical Instruments

Plus Rew
Option:
Talent MS-3 Low Profile Tripod Mic Stand w/Telescopic Boom 233-020

plus XLR cable

Total cost about: $100 (with REW).
Precision - 99% (if not 100% same as OmniMic)

Better GUI and Support is a good and valid points - One needs to decide for himself if they worth extra $200

 

[agarwalro]

I donno about the support being necessarily better with Onmi. REW users have grown into a huge community. In addition to the huge online help/FAQ, forum discussions, there are even YouTube videos. That REW can output to filter files preformatted for DCX2496, MiniDSP and other popular processors is icing on the cake.

The Behringer EMC8000 is a cost effective measurement mic. Here is an article on $40 to $1800 measurement mics compared.

 

[agarwalro]

Kurt, did not mean to hijack your thread but this might just be the clincher.

Paul Spencer does a great job of getting people going with his REW Quickstart Guide and a 3 part tour de force on REW's use in Bass Integration. The latter is pretty much mandatory reading for any audio aficionado and the navigation frame on the right is full of diamonds like, Digital Direct - The MiniDSP Stack.

 

[KEW]

I found this link to Kal Rubinson's review of the OmniMic. Comments comparing it with REW and XYZ are near the end:

Music in the Round #51 Page 2 | Stereophile.com

I believe this review is for version one, but it sounds like the changes for Version 2 would not affect the performance.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Dayton Audio UMM-6 USB Measurement Microphone  390-808

New Dayton Audio UMM-6 USB mic - Home Theater Forum and Systems - HomeTheaterShack.com

 

[KEW]

In case someone is doing research on the OmniMic and sees this thread, they should also check this thread:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/general-av-discussions/82938-measurements-everyone.html