SVO

Just found this product: Cross·Spectrum - Calibrated Dayton Audio UMM-6 Microphones for Sale Runs off USB power. Make that $90 is now entry level.

For the full kit you really need 2 mics, 2 cables, 2 stands, a basic mixer as a phantom power source and A/D conversion to USB out to your computer. $200 total. The cheapest way would be to go mono, duck tape it to your chair. About $120. Here is a version of the EMC8000 that comes with a calibration file: Dayton Audio EMM-6 Electret Measurement Microphone Allows For Accurate Acoustic Measurements At A Fraction Of The Price 390-801 Simplest: There are cheap RTA applications for smartphones but the mics built-in are terrible. You could get an mini external microphone for it but the ones I've seen are pretty poor- they claim but don't deliver 20-20k Hz.

Bear in mind that I used to own/operate a high-end home theater business pre auto-EQ and knew my way around signal generators, real time analyzers and spectrum analyzers long before that. So I have done a lot of EQing of home (and auto) systems. I'd recommend downloading Room EQ Wizard (free- must register at Home Theater Shack, I think) and read the tutorial (not long). REW is an astounding tool. Freestanding hardware that could do some of this used to cost $10k. It is not super-intuitive but not impossible either. You can of course tune by ear but that is tough, especially if you have not done a lot of it. I strongly suggest buying at least one decent microphone to plug into your PC. Now get a pink noise track (iTunes store) loaded into Fidelia library. Although REW has a pink noise generator it won't present the EQ adjustment from MEQualizer. Put the mic at your head position, play the pink noise and run REW in RTA mode. And you should play the pink noise a bit loud to wash out background noise from the computer, etc. Options in the RTA window across the top right: Scrollbars- Ignore Graph- Logarithmic Axis limits- Resize so graph fill most of window Options wheel: Mode-1/12 octave, FFT- ignore, Averages- 8, window-ignore, Overlap- ignore, Update interval-1. Play around with it, especially the Mode. Now bring up MEQualizer and start adding filters: Type: Peak Frequency: Center Frequency Q: Filter width - SMALLER NUMBERS ARE LARGER WIDTH Gain: Filter Height General guidelines: DO cut any large peaks anywhere in the spectrum. Large meaning total area above the average level horizontal line. Make the MEQ filter like like an inverted volcano that is the mirror image of the peak in the RTA window. DO cut any medium peaks that are below about 200 Hz. These affect overall balance and correcting them does not mess-up the sound in aspects other than frequency response much at all. BE CAUTIOUS in boosting dips anywhere in the spectrum more than a few dB. It can really mess-up phase. I wouldn't do more than 3-4 dB above 200 Hz. DO NOT boost bass dips below 100 Hz more than a couple dB. These are caused by room modes mostly and are not fixable via EQ. It's a fools errand and the sub will run of headroom VERY quickly on the desktop and the driver will do nasty things. INSTEAD try moving the sub and see what that does in the RTA. Even a few inches can make a difference. DO NOT be too anal about it. Fix the glaring flaws and accept that audio reproduction is inherently very flawed. I use two Behringer EMC8000 microphones and a mixer/phantom power supplier and custom cable to feed directly into my computer and REW. FYI_ I am considering selling them with mic stands if anyone is interested. They are NOT expensive. Good luck!

Hmm. Interesting you quoted me yet failed to answer my honest questions directly. Firstly, there are simple adapters available to convert pretty much any form or digital audio signal to any other format, including SPDIF to USB. That would get you bit-perfect into the KEFs via the Airport Express, if the source resolution is no higher than CD. Secondly, you did not say what your source is. So the questions are about your use and installation, not the design of the KEF product.

I have had a lot of speakers on my desktop, the Audioengine A2 most recently. I was rather disappointed with the sound: huge bump 2-300hz that muddies the sound terribly. HF dip around 3khz that loses air. No bass at all essentially. Adding in my compact sub didn't help much. I was about to return them. Then I decided that there simply MUST be a Mac-based EQ that could help. After WAY to much searching and experimentation, the best solution I found was Fidelia combined with Mequalizer PEQ AU plugin. I used Room EQ Wizard RTA, my calibrated mic, a pink noise track running on Fidelia and two copies of the MEq (11 total bands of PEQ) to balance the sound. A HUGE improvment. The dirvers are of good quality, but the upper bass is radically over-emphasized to give hte impression of actual midbass- bad idea. As I said, I've had a lot of speakers in this set-up: So I know it's not the room. But as I say. I'm quite pleased now. I did have to do some radical EQ levels though- which I avoid as a rule. As much as -9db@240Hz. Inner detail is fantastic now. Bass still a little lumpy- asking my sub to reach to 200hz, where the A2s actually peter-out. Not suer I can recommend the A2, but Fidelia is good (somewhat unstable, though) and Mequalizer is great and the base version is free. With 3 plug-in slots in Fidelia you can have up to 18 bands of PEQ- a very powerful tool! FYI PS: The graph is not the result- I just grabbed a screen shot with the internal iMac microphone running

duplicate

I'm confused: A) What's the source? If it's lossless ripped CD then how is 44.1/16 a limitation? If not CD then what is the source? B) How does the Airport Express limit the DAC use? It has an optical digital out without D/A conversion, no?

Hello everyone, I am trying out Fidelia as a means to employ EQ plugins and am having trouble. All the stock Apple AU plugins show in the drop menu of Fidelia. But I am trying to use some of the better third-party EQs. I have loaded several into the supposed correct folder for AU type: (HD)>Library>Audio>Plug-ins>Components and they refuse to show in the Fidelia drop menu. Furthermore the stock Apple AU plug-ins are NOT located in that folder. So Fidelia is locating the Apple plug-ins correctly, it just is not that default folder that many seem to think is the correct one or used to be correct. Anyone know where the audio Plug-ins actually reside in current OS X? Thank you!

I learned a good bit off this site so I thought I would contribute my resulting system. I am coming off old-school Monsoon planar magnetic PC 3-piece speakers. As those kist go, it was very good, but I have taken a major step up. I use a Macbook Pro with a large external HD and all files in ALC. My system: -DAC/Preamp: Chinese Zero via ebay- $150. Comes with USB to Toslink converter. Recognized as generic USB audio device without installing any driver. -Amp: Parasound Zamp v.3. $300. Same size as Zero, i.e. very compact. -Speakers: Magnepan MMG-W planar, mounted to wall just behind monitor. $300/pair -Subwoofer: Essential as the Maggies have no bass. Hsu STF-1 (their smallest). $250. Great extension at the low end, but not a good match for the Maggies as response rolls off above 100 Hz. A small sealed sub would be a better match, but I already had this unit. I tried mating the sub to the speakers many different ways and finally settled on using the high-level inputs, with which the sub response goes higher. Thought I would get some degradation in the main signal, but could perceive none. I am very happy with the sound. The Maggeis are brilliant as near-field monitors and minimizes their second blatant weakness beyond bass response: very small sweet spot. They are designed for wall mounting so there is no compromise in their performance in this set-up. Very transparent. A small response trough remains between the sub and mains so I will probably eventually replace the sub with something more suitable. Sub needs to be near speakers as localization is a concern with a high crossover point. The Parasound can drive the notoriously inefficient Maggies to high levels. The Zero is an amazing value, plus it's a good headphone amp too. Highly recommended.