[pjchappy]

The one i got with mine was a generic calibration plot. Not even close to the paid for extra calibration.

dave

That stinks.

[DanTheMan]

Perfect. Thanks Dan.

No problem.  They're a good company.  I couldn't be happier with their price/performance.  The calibration won't be NIST traceable, but your file will be well less than a dB off at any frequency.  That's close enough for me.  You will be able to take some serious measurements indoors once you learn what you are doing and what the limitations are.

[pjchappy]

Thanks from me, too, Dan.  I'll be returning the Dayton mic (once it arrives) and then order that calibrated Behringer.


Paul

[poseidonsvoice]

First of all a HUGE thanks goes out to DougSmith, who helped me out with all of this and is very patient. They system detailed below works great with Windows XP and Windows 7.

Kris,

What you are doing is perfect and completely fine. I did exactly the same except, I used Room EQ Wizard since I am familiar with it.

• Calibrated Behringer ECM-8000 from Cross Spectrum (not necessary to be calibrated, but its cheap for me, and I'm not on a college budget so why not). You have to load the calibrated file into your HolmImpulse software or Room EQ Wizard.

• M-Audio MicPre USB

• 15 foot USB cable

• 1/4 inch phono cable connection for calibrating the M-Audio Mic Pre (the loopback connection, only, otherwise, it is not used during actual measurement of the speakers in the room).

• Mic Stand with Boom Mic apparatus. The Boom Mic is important. You need to position the mic exactly where the listening position(s) will be, without moving other things like the sofa you will be sitting on

• XLR cable for the Behringer Microphone

• 1/4 inch to dual RCA splitter, which goes from the signal out of the M-Audio MicPreUSB.

• RCA to dual RCA splitter (so you can connect it directly to your subwoofer amp/crossover or Behringer DCX 2496 like I do).

• Long 10-20 feet RCA cables to connect to your receiver/processor/preamp and to your sub amp/active crossover/Behringer DCX2496

I know you own the Nathans so I know you are trying to optimize them with your subs. I have a pair of Abbeys (which I cherish) and a pair of XJ-12 U-frame subs. Originally the U-frame subs came with their own crossover board however, I got rid of that, purchased a Behringer DCX2496 and now have a very optimized system from 200Hz on down. I had to fool around with phase, polarity, crossover point, crossover slope, etc...I ended up with Butterworth 24dB/octave at about 90Hz. If you have a snail mail address, I can send you a Jpeg of what my response looks like now. I used to have 25-30 dB swings, now have +/-3dB for the most part except a small area where it dips down to -5dB from reference.

Anand.

[DanTheMan]

Thanks from me, too, Dan.  I'll be returning the Dayton mic (once it arrives) and then order that calibrated Behringer.


Paul

You're welcome Paul.  Hope all works out for you.

Dan

[Anechoic]

The cheap Dayton & the Behringer are the same, i own both.

Hi guys, this is Herb from Cross-Spectrum.

I just wanted to point out that although the ECM8000 and the EMM-6 look the same, they're not the same mic. They have different electronics and the capsule is mounted differently in the mic (I'm not sure if the capsule is the same, although my guess is, there not).

The biggest differences:

1. The EMM-6 has a higher output impedance than the ECM8000 (~250-300 ohms for the EMM-6 vs ~100 ohms for the ECM8000). In theory this makes the EMM-6 harder for a mic power supply to handle, although as long as you use a quality interface, it shouldn't be a big deal.

2. The EMM-6 has much less unit-to-unit variation than the ECM8000, and the "average" EMM-6 tends to be flatter than the "average" ECM8000.

3. The accessories that come with the EMM-6 are much flimsier than those that come with the ECM8000 - again, not a huge deal.

The EMM-6 is a great buy for the price, but it's not the same as the ECM8000. Overall I do think it's a better mic than the ECM8000.