Posted August 19, 200916 yr At work we have numerous rtas used to test the frequency responses of circuits. This is tested through an osciloscope input. My question is if I were to find a mic that had an osciloscope conenctor at the end of it would the rta work for what I want it to do?
August 19, 200916 yr Sort of. You need a power supply for a microphone a well. Then of course it will output a voltage and allow you to connect to an RTA; however, I will add that the utility of the RTA is extremely dubious. The ONLY thing that I think that anyone not really familiar with acoustics should use one for is to find resonant anomalies so that it is easier to use an eq to cut them out of their system response. I guarantee you won't like a flat response, I guarantee your ears won't prefer a flat Fletcher-Munson response, and lastly if your ears like it why do you care what it says on an RTA?For work I regularly carry a $50k+ RTA, $2k measurement mic and all sorts of other NVH gear but other than when I setup my t/a I haven't bothered to use it in my car other than dicking around. Generically speaking your ears are a better measurement system as your system is for YOUR ears.
August 19, 200916 yr Author Sort of. You need a power supply for a microphone a well. Then of course it will output a voltage and allow you to connect to an RTA; however, I will add that the utility of the RTA is extremely dubious. The ONLY thing that I think that anyone not really familiar with acoustics should use one for is to find resonant anomalies so that it is easier to use an eq to cut them out of their system response. I guarantee you won't like a flat response, I guarantee your ears won't prefer a flat Fletcher-Munson response, and lastly if your ears like it why do you care what it says on an RTA?For work I regularly carry a $50k+ RTA, $2k measurement mic and all sorts of other NVH gear but other than when I setup my t/a I haven't bothered to use it in my car other than dicking around. Generically speaking your ears are a better measurement system as your system is for YOUR ears. Alright. I get what you are saying. The RTA is useless to me unless I plan on doing a SQ competition. Other than that it is pointless because it will most likely sound like crap to me even though it was probably intended to sound like that. I guess it would be better without because everyone has different preferences in the way that they listen to music. Some people like to hear symbols and whatnot while others like to hear more drumpedal notes.
August 20, 200916 yr Sort of. You need a power supply for a microphone a well. Then of course it will output a voltage and allow you to connect to an RTA; however, I will add that the utility of the RTA is extremely dubious. The ONLY thing that I think that anyone not really familiar with acoustics should use one for is to find resonant anomalies so that it is easier to use an eq to cut them out of their system response. I guarantee you won't like a flat response, I guarantee your ears won't prefer a flat Fletcher-Munson response, and lastly if your ears like it why do you care what it says on an RTA?For work I regularly carry a $50k+ RTA, $2k measurement mic and all sorts of other NVH gear but other than when I setup my t/a I haven't bothered to use it in my car other than dicking around. Generically speaking your ears are a better measurement system as your system is for YOUR ears. Alright. I get what you are saying. The RTA is useless to me unless I plan on doing a SQ competition. Other than that it is pointless because it will most likely sound like crap to me even though it was probably intended to sound like that. I guess it would be better without because everyone has different preferences in the way that they listen to music. Some people like to hear symbols and whatnot while others like to hear more drumpedal notes.IMO it isn't very useful even if you want to compete because you won't find a judge who likes a ruler-flat response. Plus the sensitivity of the ears is not flat.
August 20, 200916 yr Sort of. You need a power supply for a microphone a well. Then of course it will output a voltage and allow you to connect to an RTA; however, I will add that the utility of the RTA is extremely dubious. The ONLY thing that I think that anyone not really familiar with acoustics should use one for is to find resonant anomalies so that it is easier to use an eq to cut them out of their system response. I guarantee you won't like a flat response, I guarantee your ears won't prefer a flat Fletcher-Munson response, and lastly if your ears like it why do you care what it says on an RTA?For work I regularly carry a $50k+ RTA, $2k measurement mic and all sorts of other NVH gear but other than when I setup my t/a I haven't bothered to use it in my car other than dicking around. Generically speaking your ears are a better measurement system as your system is for YOUR ears. Alright. I get what you are saying. The RTA is useless to me unless I plan on doing a SQ competition. Other than that it is pointless because it will most likely sound like crap to me even though it was probably intended to sound like that. I guess it would be better without because everyone has different preferences in the way that they listen to music. Some people like to hear symbols and whatnot while others like to hear more drumpedal notes.IMO it isn't very useful even if you want to compete because you won't find a judge who likes a ruler-flat response. Plus the sensitivity of the ears is not flat.Dangerous in fact. On top of that there are all sorts of settings on a RTA that will greatly effect the results. A, C weighting, time constants, going beyond 1/3 octaves...
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