recommendation of a sound level meter

Spend spend spend. IVIE 33, so cool you need gloves to hold it.

Wow. That was helpful.

Here is a link to the The Audio Toolbox Plus, a handheld audio and acoustic lab.

http://terrasonde.newmediaone.net/02/default.htm

I will be checking out the IVIE33 at CEDIA. I've contacted them and they said they will give demonstrations there. It does look pretty interesting. I have examined the audio toolbox. We considered it as substitute for our test kits, but upgradability, flexibility, and being able to program our BARE software into it was pretty limited. However, for a basic one piece unit it's pretty powerful and as I recall much less expensive than the Sencore unit. The Sencore is great--well made, near bulletproof, and priced accordingly. The one thing I don't like about the Sencore and Toolbox is lack of resolution--sure you can zoom in on a graph, but that's not terribly convenient. This is one other reason we chose a laptop based system--but then again--you need a laptop, which is more to buy and more to carry.

Edle, or anyone...Why not the digital version of the meter?
Except for the readout device (DVM vs Analog voltmeter) it's the same instrument. The digital unit has a bargraph display as well as the numeric readout, so it is easier to read in every way. For example, when balancing speakers of a multichannel system, it's a lot easier to remember "87" as the test tone moves from speaker to speaker, than to remember where the needle ended up. The price difference was $10, so I presume that is not the reason to recommend the analog version. Do we have another case of digiphobia here?