CARA - Room Acoustic Software


We're very much not into doing sales-pitch type posts, but after reading through several threads in this forum, we realized that questions regarding software for room acoustics were frequent enough that if we tried to answer every thread, we'd *really* feel obnoxious!

So... the lesser of two evils

CARA is a comprehensive room acoustic modelling package designed and developed by German physicist: Dr. Ulrich Thomanek. Dr. Thomanek worked with ELAC GmbH for many years and used computer models to bring their loudspeakers to be the number two in Germany.

He started ELAC Technische Software as a spinoff dedicated to his computer programs associated with loudspeaker modelling and room acoustics. CARA 2.0 is the product.

Rather than get into too many details here, I'll send you to www.cara.de where they have lots of information regarding CARA and a walkthrough. The site is in both English and German.

Early last year, Rhintek became the US representative for ETS and CARA. We have a strong background in software development, but are relatively new to the high-end audio industry. Our website is: www.rhintek.com

Thanks for your time, I'll probably be lurking around here on occasion as it looks like this forum is a good place for me to gain more understanding.

Kristin VanVranken,
Rhintek Incorporated
kristin3e25
Personally, I appreciate your post. I am about to completely rebuild my living / listening room and would like to be certain the acoustics are as good as possible. I am currently having dialogue with Owens Corning's Acoustical division, they have acoustic panels that are designed for wide band treatment, that hide under a special decorative cloth. I am told that "flipping" one panels (two treatment sides) makes a significant difference in the room acoustics.

I will go have a look at the site you are suggesting. However, my first concern is how to measure the room, before and after treatment. I doubt I could not afford a microphone precision enough to be as accurate as the software. Is there a way around this?

By the way, I wonder how many remember that Miracord was the engineering behind Preputium ( PE ), Dual and Elac Miracord turntables produced in Germany in the late 60's and on. Often the stickers covering the mechanisms on the bottom could be pealed to reveal the logo. Thanks for reminding me of Dr. Thomanek and his fine company.
Albert, I took a detailed look at the site and I am quite excited by the capabilities of the CARA software. This is by far the most sophisticated modelling software I've seen. I have been quite interested in sophisticated RTA measurement vs "sounds" particularly as per the use of room treatments and DSP. ( I own Sigtech, Dunlavy V's and dCS gear). It is prohibitively expensive to buy all the gear needed for the real time analysis that CARA models. However, you should be able to hire a professional consulting audio engineer for about $100 per hour to do all the sophisticated measurements for you to check the veracity of the model. I've used this approach to check on the accuracy of the Sigtech gear, software modelling speaker of placement and the results of my experiments with room treatments. It takes about four hours to run measurements allowing for tweaking during the session.
I'm going to buy the CARA package but my schedule won't really allow me to commit the time that something this complex really requires for the next few months.
Good luck on your remodel.
Thanks Pls1, If this thread has lost it's momentum by the time you are finished, please start a new one and give us a report. I would consider this of great value.
I just bought a copy of CARA and have started digging into it. After a bit more exposure I plan to post a review on it.