Using REW with a Soundbar

[Nordo]

I came from a dedicated Home Theatre complete with full room treatment, infinite baffle subs, etc. to our current home with a small media room and a Samsung HW-Q950T soundbar (which includes a small ported sub and two surround speakers).

I've had a quick try at running REW through the soundbar with no success.
Has anyone managed to use REW with a soundbar?

The soundbar sounds like crap compared to my previous set-up.
I can't move the soundbar, but I'm hoping maybe I can optimize my listening position or add some useful room treatment.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

The manual shows the soundbar has HDMI inputs, so it should work, assuming that’s what you were using on your AVR.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/202402/20240215063856001/AH81-13332K-02_FM_HW-Q950T_XU_ENG_240213.0.pdf

Regards,
Wayne

 

[Nordo]

Hi Wayne
Wow, you bring back memories.

There is a HDMI input but doesn't appear to allow a connection to my laptop (see below).
I'm using ASIO4ALL in REW, if that helps.
Cheers

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I don’t know anything about ASIO – I’m still using and old-school soundcard and phantom-powered mic. Maybe the soundbar can’t process it? Might try using REW without it, if that’s an option.

Regards,
Wayne

 

[JStewart]

In newer versions of REW there are drivers starting with EXCL you can try.

 

[Nordo]

I don’t know anything about ASIO – I’m still using and old-school soundcard and phantom-powered mic. Maybe the soundbar can’t process it? Might try using REW without it, if that’s an option.

You old fossil.

Years ago I struggled with a cheap mic and an external SB sound card.
I then upgraded to a calibrated Dayton EMM-6 with a small mixer for the phantom power.
But I found it fiddly having to do all the calibrating and level checking each time before starting any measuring.
Eventually I bought a USB miniDSP UMIK-1 and never looked back.
I know many shudder at the thought of the mic going through the USB port, but it makes a measurement session a breeze.
I also find that ASIO4ALL instantly picks up the whole speaker setup every time. Another time-saver for me.
I used REW the other day, for the first time in many years, on my daughters new AVR setup, and was measuring within a couple of minutes. Which is amazing considering my current memory ability (I may even be older than you).

Cheers

 

[Nordo]

OK, an Update.
I've solved my connection problem.

My main problem was that the normal audio driver in the laptop (Realtek Audio) does not generate/control the audio in the HDMI port.
In the laptop's audio settings, I had to swap over to EP-HDMI-RX (Intel(R) Display Audio), which is a driver I never knew the laptop had.
I also had to make sure the only connections recognized by ASIO4ALL was the Intel HDMI driver and my UMIK-1.
The Input Options then displayed the full 8 channels the soundbar system has (e.g. Audio Output 1.1.1; 1.1.2; 1.1.3; etc.).

However, when trying to determine which channel was which, some speaker drivers were being repeated, and others weren't being used at all.
One channel (1.1.4), which was possibly the sub, produced no sound from any speaker driver.

So in the end I gave up, as a lost cause.
Thanks everyone though for the help.