REW presonus ione and sonarworks xref20

reinhout

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Hi!

I'm new to REW and I'm having trouble setting up my measurements. I managed to calibrate the presonus ione sound card and added the sonarworks xref 20 calibration file just fine.
I wanted to start measuring my speakers and I get the message that my line in signal is to low. I have set the volume at my amplifier so that the "In ref" on the SPL in REW reads around 14. I also have set the in signal maxed out on the presonus sound card. I can record just fine in audacity and audition.

I must be missing something here. Could you help me out?
I have uploaded some screenshots here: https://imgur.com/a/wqmEIvb
 

John Mulcahy

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Which input channel is the mic on, the Right? -45 dBFS is probably OK, depending on the level you are measuring at. Go ahead and make a measurement and post the mdat file here for review.
 

reinhout

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Hi John,

You were right..I should have picked the other channel. Now the line in signal is loud enough.
I added the mdat and a very sophisticated drawing of my living room. Windows are red, furniture gray, speakers green.
On the left side you see that my 2way speakers (dayton rs 150 and dc28) are standing on ear-level behind the couch. Inside the 'knee-wall' they are standing on, there's a wall-facing subwoofer box (pretty cheap car subwoofer).
I also made a soundbar (dayton nd90, nd25 double MTM) that's on the bottom left of the floorplan.

I'm looking to identify the speaker-related weak spots and I think I have a lot of room-related problems too. I have a lot of hard surfaces (windows on 3 sides) and the furniture. I do have a carpet beneath the coffee table. We are thinking about hanging curtains on the left and right windows.
My other half is not keen on 'visual' sound enhancements (foam or carpets on the wall) so that doesn't help..I do think we could add some foam behind a painting if that helps?

Kind regards,
Reinhout
 

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John Mulcahy

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You should ditch the soundcard cal file, it isn't a valid result. You can use the Change Cal button to remove it from existing measurements and clear it from the Soundcard Preferences to ensure it isn't used for new measurements. Don't worry about making another one.

To measure the speakers rather than the room you would need to measure them at a distance of 1m from the mic and as far away from other surfaces as they can be moved - at height outside is good - and window the impulse response to exclude reflections.

Measure one speaker at a time rather than pairs together. Worth trying the sub with polarity inverted to see if it blends better with the soundbar that way. Your 2-way and soundbar look like they may have opposite polarity to each other.

Does look like the room is a bit lively, curtains would probably help.
 

reinhout

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Alrighty I ditched the soundcard calibration and measured the speakers outside.

I changed the polarity of the soundbar and it does sound better. The sub is on a subwoofer amplifier with a changeable phase so I played a bit with that too.

As to learn something from this: how did you see the 2-way and soundbar needed to be inverted?
I think the graph of the speakers (impulse and frequency spectrum) is pretty ugly or is this type of jumping up and down normal? If not, what are my options to make it better?

I am very thankful for your help John! The world of sound is so interesting but it's not that easy to get a hold of..I'm glad you are here to get us noobs on the right track :)

Kind regards,
Reinhout
 

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John Mulcahy

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For polarity I looked at the impulse responses using the % FS scale and looked at which way around the largest peak was. Generally a good indication for full range measurements.

There is always a lot of variation in measurement responses. Measuring in an anechoic chamber cleans things up quite a bit, but not an option for most folk. The latest measurements show additional variations at low frequencies that may relate to background noise or perhaps wind.
 
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