Sound meter question

[meyer]

I am currently in the market to buy a sound meter to calibrate my ht. I noticed alot of websites recommend an analog sound meter from radio shack which is no longer made. I have also found an analog craftsman sound meter which seems to be only available at Sears in the U.S. and not at its Canadian stores. Radio shack seem to still makes a digital sound meter. My question is do the digital sound meters work as well as the analog meters for calibration purposes?

[richieb]

I am currently in the market to buy a sound meter to calibrate my ht. I noticed alot of websites recommend an analog sound meter from radio shack which is no longer made. I have also found an analog craftsman sound meter which seems to be only available at Sears in the U.S. and not at its Canadian stores. Radio shack seem to still makes a digital sound meter. My question is do the digital sound meters work as well as the analog meters for calibration purposes?


Its just a preference, they both do exactly the same thing and both should give you very close to "perfect" results.

[mtrycraft]

I am currently in the market to buy a sound meter to calibrate my ht. I noticed alot of websites recommend an analog sound meter from radio shack which is no longer made. I have also found an analog craftsman sound meter which seems to be only available at Sears in the U.S. and not at its Canadian stores. Radio shack seem to still makes a digital sound meter. My question is do the digital sound meters work as well as the analog meters for calibration purposes?


The drawback to digital if you are after level matching is that you can only get withing 1dB spl.
The digits flop from one to the other at some level. So, you could be at the low end for one and the high end for the other.
Analog ont he other hand can be set much closer to each other as well as you can interpolate the needle position.

Try and see if RS still have some left over in stock at a local store.

[Kursun]

I have both. I do DIY speakerbuilding. I bought the digital one after I grew tired of doing interpolations on the logarithmic scale of the analog meter. Doing constant interpolations to interperet the analog meter is no fun and you may not even get that 1db accuracy in most cases in my opinion. The analog meter has some nostalgic value for me now.

[poneal]

Being in the market for a sound meter myself, I appreciate all the comments here. I have asked Santa to bring me one from RS. Its digital, like the original poster noted. So a new toy to play, o boy!

[mtrycraft]

I have both. I do DIY speakerbuilding. I bought the digital one after I grew tired of doing interpolations on the logarithmic scale of the analog meter. Doing constant interpolations to interperet the analog meter is no fun and you may not even get that 1db accuracy in most cases in my opinion. The analog meter has some nostalgic value for me now.

You are using the digital meter for a different purpose, not level matching :)

The analog meter doesn't need to be interpolated, justthe receiver adjusted for each channel to read the same on the meter. You can set the level so it fall exactely on a whole number.
Unfortunately a digital meter will only read in whole numbers and you don't know where the level of each channel really is within that 1 dB. So your level could be off 1dB spl. Too much error for me:)

[yakkosmurf]

And in case it wasn't very clear, the only difference between the RS analog and digital meter is the display. The rest of the units is the same.

I think you could do just fine with the digital meter if you had to. I would just run the test more often to make sure I got the levels right.

[JDaniel]

I am currently in the market to buy a sound meter to calibrate my ht.

The Parts Express Sound Level Meter looks pretty nice. It costs $49. In addition to the normal features, this one has internal battery and calibration tests.

Here's the link:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&User_ID=15528184&St=8419&St2=36292432&St3=-54992162&DS_ID=3&Product_ID=10729&DID=7

In case the link doesn't work for you, it is part # 390-750

JD

[meyer]

The parts express sound meter is only a "A" weighted. The more I look around the more I think I will buy the old radio shack analog sound meter off of Ebay. Since I will be using it for some level matching I really don't want a digital meter. Thanks for all the input.