Rippyman

Rippyman

Audioholic
Can anyone point me in the right direction for purchasing a decent USB SPL Meter that I can plug directly into a laptop so that I can record SPL readings and automatically graph using software.

Thanks,

B
 
pbc

pbc

Audioholic
... might want to check online for recent reviews/commentary just in case (haven't been online much in the last several months, but it used to be in favour).
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
UMIK-1 | MiniDSP

$75+shipping, supposedly calibrated to 15hz, plugs directly in with no phantom power required, REW support.

I would stay away from the the UMIK. As someone with 2 of them, even if they "fixed" the problems it's not worth it with the poor customer service I and many others have experienced. I still don't have corrected calibration files from my batch 1 mics and there's still no way to get them and have it deliver the performance that was promised.

This is exactly why I recommend getting something from cross-spectrum. They calibrate even lower and you can actually have confidence in their calibration. Plus Dayton has tremendous customer service.

EDIT: So the the UMM6, but without the QC issues and poor customer service :)
 
Rippyman

Rippyman

Audioholic
Oh well, I just ordered one, hopefully it does the job. I'm not expecting Pro results, as its only $75 LOL.
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
The issue at hand is that you won't really know whether it is or it isn't. It all depends on how much trust you put into miniDSP and/or until some third party compares it against something known to be accurate.

+- 1db and down to 15hz is what they originally claimed. Then that blew up in their face. I'm surprised to see them so confident that they fixed ALL of the issues.
 
Rippyman

Rippyman

Audioholic
The issue at hand is that you won't really know whether it is or it isn't. It all depends on how much trust you put into miniDSP and/or until some third party compares it against something known to be accurate.

+- 1db and down to 15hz is what they originally claimed. Then that blew up in their face. I'm surprised to see them so confident that they fixed ALL of the issues.

Its only $75, you can't expect perfect. I'm sure it will provide enough information to see how my room measures.
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Its only $75, you can't expect perfect. I'm sure it will provide enough information to see how my room measures.
So it's unrealistic for a product to deliver upon it's rated specs? Would you say the same about speakers, amps, receivers?

Only $75 is what I paid twice to have two mics that don't deliver what the company promised.

I fail to see how expecting something to deliver what they say they will is expecting perfect.
 
Rippyman

Rippyman

Audioholic
So it's unrealistic for a product to deliver upon it's rated specs? Would you say the same about speakers, amps, receivers?

Only $75 is what I paid twice to have two mics that don't deliver what the company promised.

I fail to see how expecting something to deliver what they say they will is expecting perfect.

I've read others have had great success with it? What kind of problems has it given you?
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
I've read others have had great success with it? What kind of problems has it given you?
Everyone thought they were having great success with them, until all the news came out about the corrupted or just plain wrong calibration files came out. I was the one who started a UMIK thread here, HTS, and I think AVS. I was psyched about the mic and tried to really promote it.......because I thought I was having great success.

I have experienced zero hardware issues, however, I also have a Behringer ECM8000 from cross spectrum. Terrific mic, with excellent calibration files, but it needs phantom power to run and I've had problems getting my external soundcard to be recognized on my mac so I had been looking for a new option. Voila, the UMIK came out and everyone thought it was perfect.

More to the point, if you read through the miniDSP forum on their own website, it is well documented what the problems are/were. To sum it up, first batch mics were fine in terms of hardware, but their calibration files were off below about 1khz. Not very useful. The batch 2 mics had hardware and software issues. The batch 3 mics are shipping now and everything is supposedly fixed. So now I have two mics, that function fine, but have no cal file so everything below 1khz is suspect.

To be fair to miniDSP they had a return/repair/swap option for all batch 1 and 2 people. I chose not to take them up on the return, because there's nothing wrong with the mic itself. I chose not to swap because I have no idea what I'd be getting in return. So now I'm just going to send one or both of them to cross spectrum at some point, pay a little more to have cal files that are accurate down to 5hz and up to 25Khz and that are guaranteed to be accurate.

I hope the UMIK issues are worked out because then it will finally be the product we all hoped it would be, but my trust in them (as far as the UMIK goes) is low so I invested my money elsewhere and am getting my ECM a little easier to use. At this point it should be as plug and play as a UMIk and twice as accurate.
 
Rippyman

Rippyman

Audioholic
Everyone thought they were having great success with them, until all the news came out about the corrupted or just plain wrong calibration files came out. I was the one who started a UMIK thread here, HTS, and I think AVS. I was psyched about the mic and tried to really promote it.......because I thought I was having great success.

I have experienced zero hardware issues, however, I also have a Behringer ECM8000 from cross spectrum. Terrific mic, with excellent calibration files, but it needs phantom power to run and I've had problems getting my external soundcard to be recognized on my mac so I had been looking for a new option. Voila, the UMIK came out and everyone thought it was perfect.

More to the point, if you read through the miniDSP forum on their own website, it is well documented what the problems are/were. To sum it up, first batch mics were fine in terms of hardware, but their calibration files were off below about 1khz. Not very useful. The batch 2 mics had hardware and software issues. The batch 3 mics are shipping now and everything is supposedly fixed. So now I have two mics, that function fine, but have no cal file so everything below 1khz is suspect.

To be fair to miniDSP they had a return/repair/swap option for all batch 1 and 2 people. I chose not to take them up on the return, because there's nothing wrong with the mic itself. I chose not to swap because I have no idea what I'd be getting in return. So now I'm just going to send one or both of them to cross spectrum at some point, pay a little more to have cal files that are accurate down to 5hz and up to 25Khz and that are guaranteed to be accurate.

I hope the UMIK issues are worked out because then it will finally be the product we all hoped it would be, but my trust in them (as far as the UMIK goes) is low so I invested my money elsewhere and am getting my ECM a little easier to use. At this point it should be as plug and play as a UMIk and twice as accurate.
I see. Well hopefully the one I ordered has all the bugs worked out, haha.
 
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