Is DEQX a game changer?

P.S: I just took a look at the CD that came with my HDP-5. Viewing the files on it via the File Explorer in Windows I see that there is a folder called "Microphones," and under that "Dayton," and under that "Dayton" again, and under that "6780EMM6-INV.mic" among many other listings. If you can find that file on your CD, copy it to a location on your hard drive and proceed as I indicated above.

Regards,
-- Al

Ozzy, if it isn’t on your CD, you can also download your mic file by going to the DEQX website:

From the bar across the top of the page, choose: Owners, then upgrades from the dropdown box, scroll down to Dayton mic files & Dayton all Microphones - download (mic).

You will be asked for authentification.....
User name = beta
Password = nyquist (all lower case).

Once you unzip the folder, the file "6780EMM6-INV.mic" is in there.

As for the two different mic types, I originally used a Behringer ECM8000 (DEQX predecessor to the Dayton) with the HDP-3 & later upgraded to an Earthworks M23 before I purchased the HDP-5.

I would not worry too much about the different mic’s because the critical frequency range is going to be somewhere between 200hz & 10khz & the reference mic really comes into its own at the highest frequencies, although measurements across the board do appear to be a little more precise. My measurement routine, calibration and setup is quite OCD and therefore the benefits gained by the M23 proved worth it (I am able to use much lower levels of smoothing & greater accuracy in calibration across the entire frequency range if I choose to).

Listening to music via the same speakers based on an outdoor measurement, there is definitely an audible improvement for the M23 but it is not that great. If I had never made the later calibrations, I would still have been extremely satisfied with those from the lower cost microphone.