Help Finding a GOOD SPL Meter

[Cliff]

I'm in need of a good quality SPL Meter for my HT. I know very little about them, so I'm asking for your help and knowledge. I would prefer to stay away from Radio Shack quality. I don't mind spending the extra money to get a more accurate one. Not sure how loud my current system can get, but I imagine a 120dB meter would be plenty. Do any of you have experience with meters, and where to get them? Any thoughts on different brands? Thanks in advance.

[FabFourFan]

If you want to spend more money,
they buy the Radio Shack meter
when it's not on sale. ;)

My recommendation is simple enough -
buy the Radio Shack meter (analog display)
and see whether it 'works' for you.

If you then get a hankering for something
more 'laboratory-like', you can chase down
a more expensive meter and keep the simple
Radio Shack meter as a sanity check for the
'good' one.


FFF

no i don't work for Radio Shack ha ha :)

[Khorn]

Originally posted by Cliff
I'm in need of a good quality SPL Meter for my HT. I know very little about them, so I'm asking for your help and knowledge. I would prefer to stay away from Radio Shack quality. I don't mind spending the extra money to get a more accurate one. Not sure how loud my current system can get, but I imagine a 120dB meter would be plenty. Do any of you have experience with meters, and where to get them? Any thoughts on different brands? Thanks in advance.

I second the advice for the RS meter for the purposes (Sound level & speaker balance?) you are describing. Getting into more expensive (pro) stuff like B&K would probably be a waste of money just for slc purposes unless you wanted to get into more detailed analysis and room corrective EQ and retain memory storage of different frequency curves.

[Jetsons]

The Rat Shack analog SPL meter is now on sale for $24.99, reg is $35.00. Available at your neighborhood RS store.

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=33%2D2050

Nice timing!

Jet

[Cliff]

But I've heard it's fairly (~3dB)inaccurate for bass. Was I misinformed? That's the only reason I wanted to stay away from it.

[Pope V]

Here's an upgrade in price - don't know if it's actually better.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/productdetail.jsp?xi=xi&ItemId=1611724823

They have several others, all the way up to $1200 or so...

[GabeG]

Originally posted by Cliff
But I've heard it's fairly (~3dB)inaccurate for bass. Was I misinformed? That's the only reason I wanted to stay away from it.

There are a couple of tweaks on the web for fixing the inaccurracy, but you're going to be hard pressed to find something more accurate without spending alot more money. If you do go for the Radio Shack model don't go for the digital version.

[Cliff]

Thanks for the help everyone. Man, for $25, that's almost disposable :D I'd be crazy to buy anything but the Radio Shack Analog Meter (since all of you have recommended it) :) I'll do a search on the web after I buy it, Gabe, if the bass readout seems inaccurate to me. Thanks again guys.

[KLM]

I recently purchased the Analog Radio Shack Sound Meter and have to confer that it's a great tool. As to it's accuracy, there are some variances especially in the < 1 kHz range but can easily be fixed by:

-upgrading internal works with about $50 in new parts
-manually calculating differences published on the web in many places
-buy the Riles Test Tone CD which has a 20 kHz - 20 Hz range of test tones that have been adjusted to coincide with the reported variances of the Radio Shack meter.

I just bought this disc ($18 at Music Direct) and will try it once it arrives. Go for the Radio Shack.