Tools to measure in room response

Primitive and tedious.

The optimal cost/precision/effort way is to use RoomEQ Wizard freeware with your laptop. You can get away with RS meter for this but a better mic is advised.

This will give you measurements of swept tones (without resorting to pen-and-paper or spreadsheet entries) and will also provide lots of other info.

See http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/

Kal

The test CD and RadioShack SPL meter worked for me. Just take the measurements from your usual listening position.

One problem is that there is no since "usual listening position." Moving the mic or the SLM only a few inches can change the FR substantially, especially if it is handheld. Using REW, one can take several sweeps from different positions within the listening position in a matter of minutes and average them.

I guess it depends on whether you want to know something or just get a feel of what's going on.

Kal

I'm with Kal - I use Fuzzmeasure and a measurement microphone - examples are on my virtual system. Even with a tool like this it took me several days to make adjustments. A good understanding of physics helps but is not a prerequisite to using tools like Room Eq Wizard (provided you read up on the subject).

If your idea of system tuning is swapping out your $500 speaker cables for $1,000 speaker cables in order to match the brand of your $500 interconnects then simply ignore this post. (There is absolutely no point in taking measurements if you are not prepared to take appropriate action to do anything about it - in that case it may be better not to know and you'll have more fun spending your money on some cable elevators instead)