Test tones CD, or converting MP3 files....

[Ricardo]

I am looking for a good test tones CD to measure frequency response; anyone have any good experience with what's out there? Need something that can be burned into a CD; don't have my computer connected to the stereo rig.

I found these that look good but are in MP3....can I convert these into something that can be played by my non MP3 CD player??
http://www.realtraps.com/test-cd.htm

Thanks.

[hoosier21]

yes, you can use windows media player to convert them to CDA files

[tryrrthg]

Download Room EQ Wizard and use your computer/laptop to run frequency sweeps. It's a slick little program and MUCH faster than running sweeps manually with test tones.

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

Just note that if you're using the radio shack SPL meter that it's not very accurate for high frequencies. (not very accurate for bass either, but it does the job, don't forget the correction factors either).

[Ricardo]

Thanks hoosier; will see what i can do with the media player.

tryrrthg, in a few words, how does this work? I don't have my computer/laptop hooked up to my system.

Thanks.

[tryrrthg]

You download the software and set it up. You calibrate everything to a certain decibel level. Then you push a button and it runs a quick sweep and plots the response. it takes a few seconds to run a sweep. Then you can adjust whatever you need to (acoustic treatments, speaker placement, etc) and then run it again. You'll see almost instantly what the response looks like. The only downside (unless they've fixed it since I last used it) is that you can't overlay multiple sweeps, it can only display a single sweep at a time, so you can't see multiple results or room configurations...

I used it to EQ my sub in my HT and I also used it on my two channel rig to run before and after sweeps after installing some corner acoustic traps. Worked like a charm in both cases.

Just a note about using the software with a laptop. you CAN'T just use the microphone output when hooking it up with a laptop. You need a soundcard with inputs and outputs. I bought an external soundcard for like $15 on ebay.

set up and using the software is not super straight forward but if you go to the home theater shack (where you download the program) they have a lot of helpful stuff on using it.

[Ricardo]

Sounds cool.....a bit more complexity that I want though (sound card, long interconnects, etc..) I think I'll go with the traditional test tones. Thanks for the tip though.