I am considering buying TrueRTA. I've been doing the frequency balance by hand graphing, and RTA would definitely speed up the process.
However, i have a few questions. The Radio Shack SPL meter has an output, can i feed this output into my mic input on my sound card and get relatively accurate results? If this is not the way to do it, then how would i interface the RS meter with my computer to use it with TrueRTA?
And question two, is there a place to get a correction table specifically for the digital RS meter? Or do the analog and digital meters perform equally so one correction table will work with the other?
Thanks in advance :)

1. The RS output is line level, not microphone level. You need a line input.
2. The correction files are generic and can be found here on AVS using search.
3. For the output function, analog and digital are equivalent.

HomeTheaterShack has a great forum about different Mic and SPL measuring tools and from everything I read and owned the RS meter is not good enough for anything above 100Hz, heck I do not think its good enough for any frequence period (too in-accurate) but that is just a subjective thing that I want better accuracy.

I instead I use a Nady CM100 mic that has been calibrated. Its almost the same Mic as the Behringer mics. There is another highly recommended measurement device but I can not think of it, its on HomeTheaterShack.com

Excellent, thanks for the answers. My sound card also has a line input, so i'll use that. I'll attempt to see how accurate the results are. If they aren't i'll look into the Nady mic, which really isn't priced too bad.

I'll attempt to see how accurate the results are. If they aren't i'll look into the Nady mic, which really isn't priced too bad.


The problem is that you have no way of knowing if your RS meter is accurate unless you compare it vs an accurate measurement.

Example The RS meter could be down 10dB @ 30Hz and you would never know it.

Thanks for the advice!
To give an update i've ordered the cm100 mic and it will be arriving next week. Looking forward to giving it a try.

The problem is that you have no way of knowing if your RS meter is accurate unless you compare it vs an accurate measurement.

Example The RS meter could be down 10dB @ 30Hz and you would never know it.

Isn't that true of any mic?

From what I've seen on the net here, at hometheatershack.com and Ethan's RealTraps mic review (http://www.realtraps.com/art_microphones.htm), the Realistic meters are fairly consistant and reasonably accurate below 1.5 kHz and compare well with better and calibrated mics in that range. Not laboratory grade for sure, and not even more discriminating than someone with good hearing, but good enough for many listening rooms.