On Sat, May 09, 2009 at 09:42:08PM +0200, hollunder(a)gmx.at wrote:
I plan on using the K-System [1] and Fons Adriaensens
jkmeter [2] with
my monitors once they arrive but I'm unsure about the calibration of
the monitors.
Basically I want to know which kind of sound level meter is sufficient.
From what I gathered there are many standards and
two categories:
1) The kind you find in bars and clubs, affordable (<100 Euro), mostly
don't comply to any standard, frequency response up to 8kHz, +-2dB,
feature the required C-weighting and slow speed.
2) The kind that complies to all kind of standards and is immensely
expensive.
It would be easy to get my hands on one of the cheap kind, but would it
be sufficient? If not, which standards should the meter comply to?
The important thing is to always use the same monitoring gain
and getting used to that. Unless you are moving between different
work locations the absolute calibration is not that critical.
Several people have reported that the reference SPL suggested by
Bob Katz is quite high anyway. This is most certainly the case if
you are in a relatively small listening room with close speakers -
there seems to be a psychological effect that makes it seem unnatural
and unpleasant to have high SPL in small enverinments.
So unless you go for scientific accuracy the cheaper meters will
probably do.
Ciao,
--
FA
Io lo dico sempre: l'Italia รจ troppo stretta e lunga.