How to use a generic Sound Level Meter to calibrate your home theaters, loudspeakers, or sound-reproduction systems for best performance?
Answer: Calibration is easy in five steps.
Step 1: Get a Sound Level Meter that has an option called "No Weighting", also known as "Z Weighting" .
● If your Meter does not have this option, you can use a professional grade meter - "SoundMeter+".
Step 2: Select the "Z Weighting" option.
● In this way, your Meter will not apply any weighting factors onto original frequency response of a speaker system.
Step 3: Download all the pure-tones below (right click and save).
● Please copy the pure-tones into a music player. The music player should have connected to your speaker system. For exampe, the music player can be a computer, a MP3 player, an iPhone/iPad/iPod, or a control console provided by the speaker's manufacturer.
No. Pure-Tones at Octaves
(each 15MB)No. Pure-Tones at Half Octaves
(each 15MB)1 31.25Hz 2 44.19Hz 3 62.5Hz 4 88.39Hz 5 125Hz 6 176.78Hz 7 250Hz 8 353.55Hz 9 500Hz 10 707.10Hz 11 1,000Hz 12 1,414Hz 13 2,000Hz 14 2,828Hz 15 4,000Hz 16 5,657Hz 17 8,000Hz 18 11,314Hz 19 16,000Hz - -
Consequently, the frequency response of your speaker system is illustrated as follows:
Step 4: Play a pure-tone. Read your Meter and write down the sound level.
● In total, you will write down 19 sound levels for 19 pure-tones. For convenience, let us assume the levels are as below.
No. Puretones (Hz) Measured Sound Level (dB) 1 31.25Hz 60 2 44.19Hz 64 3 62.5Hz 68 4 88.39Hz 63 5 125Hz 72 6 176.78Hz 64 7 250Hz 75 8 353.55Hz 76 9 500Hz 77 10 707.10Hz 79 11 1,000Hz 80 12 1,414Hz 67 13 2,000Hz 66 14 2,828Hz 65 15 4,000Hz 73 16 5,657Hz 63 17 8,000Hz 61 18 11,314Hz 59 19 16,000Hz 57
Conclusion: With a Sound Level Meter plus simple math, you can perfectly calibrate a speaker system to become "transparent" for best enjoyment, be it home theater, loudspeakers, or other Hi-Fi sound-reproduction system.
● AuralWare's SoundMeter+ provides both real-time spectrum and "Z-Weighting" for best calibration.
● If you prefer an even quicker calibration, you can just calibrate octave-frequencies 31.25Hz, 62.5Hz, 125Hz, ....
● Final Verification of Flat Frequency Response (Optional):
· After calibration, you may like to verify the flatness of frequency response.
· If so, please download a white noise wave file here.
· Finally, while playing the white noise, you can open a spectrum analyzer (e.g. SoundMeter+) to see the flatness.
Step 5: Do simple math.
● Find the max element of the above table is 80dB.
● Subract every element from 80dB, as follows.
Find a hardware equalizer. Put it in the middle between your speaker system and the music player.
● Simply apply the "Gain Setting of Equalizer" column below onto the hardware equalizer. Now, your speaker system has been calibrated to become transparent for best performance!
● If you do not have a hardware equalizer, you can alternatively apply the "Gain Setting of Equalizer" to a software equalizer. For example, the software equalizer can be an iTunes equalizer, a Winamp equalizer, or a software equalizer provided by a manufacturer of your computer sound card or your speaker system.
No. Puretones (Hz) Subtract Sound Levels (dB) Gain Setting on Equalizer (dB) 1 31.25Hz 80 - 60 20 2 44.19Hz 80 - 64 16 3 62.5Hz 80 - 68 12 4 88.39Hz 80 - 63 17 5 125Hz 80 - 72 8 6 176.78Hz 80 - 64 16 7 250Hz 80 -75 5 8 353.55Hz 80 - 76 4 9 500Hz 80 - 77 3 10 707.10Hz 80 - 79 1 11 1,000Hz 80 - 80 0 12 1,414Hz 80 - 67 13 13 2,000Hz 80 - 66 14 14 2,828Hz 80 - 65 15 15 4,000Hz 80 - 73 7 16 5,657Hz 80 - 63 17 17 8,000Hz 80 - 61 19 18 11,314Hz 80 - 59 21 19 16,000Hz 80 - 57 23