At the moment I would give the Echo card a “no go” for acoustic measurements.

The ECHO soundcard was not the problem.
HOLM and REW were also not the problem.

I’ve narrowed it down to my Fujitsu laptop (XP). Actually, I have two identical Fujitsu laptops with Echo soundcards. Both setups could not produce a proper soundcard calibration measurement in either HOLM or REW. Analyzing the two setups with RightMark, I discovered “very poor” FR and IMD--

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/1...cardsonfuj.png


I then tried the two ECHO soundcards in an old Dell laptop (XP). Voila ! Normal soundcard readings--

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/4...ardsindell.png

And…. I was able to make proper soundcard calibrations in both HOLM and REW--

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/8048/holm48cal.png

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/2878/rew48cal.png


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I don’t know whether it’s a software or hardware issue in the Fujitsu, but the troubleshooting ends here. I’ll use the Dell & ECHO card.

I need to get my life back….I’m not going to be victimized by this!


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A few observations on the free software I’m using:

HOLM detects & provides a choice of interfaces (ASIO, MME, DIRECT),
REW does not (I didn’t see any interface options, and was not sure which was used).

HOLM will sample to 96khz and above,
REW only to 48khz

HOLM plots a max of three measurements,
REW plots more… It also has waterfalls, spectograms, and other cool stuff.

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Quote Originally Posted by Panomaniac View Post
I always check the loop measurement when I calibrate. I.E. , after all is set up and calibrated just run a measurement of the loop to see if there are any artifacts. The FR and impulse should be close to perfect. If they aren't, you've got problems.
Good advice!