RAAD

[DrWho]

So I just finished senior design, which entailed building a device that captures the impulse response of a room. We're calling it "RAAD" (Remote Acoustical Analysis Device). The current incarnation is kinda dissassembled, but I was thinking about building a slightly better version next semester if enough people were interested in measuring their systems.

Here's the project website:
http://courses.ece.uiuc.edu/ece445/?f=Projects&sem=fall2007&proj=18#a18

Check it out, we made the Hall of Fame too!
http://courses.ece.uiuc.edu/ece445/?f=Hall%20of%20Fame

[Colin]

Congrats! Very impressive.

Can't I do something like this with a EQ and either a built-in tone generator or a test disc?

[DrWho]

The problem with a tone generator or test disc is that you don't get any information about how the room reacts over time. Usually, the sound coming from the speakers changes over time, which often means EQ isn't the correct tool for fixing problems. If you can correctly capture the impulse response (which the RAAD will do), then you know everything there is to know about the room-speaker interaction (assuming the measurement is perfect which is never the case). The biggest advantge to obtaining the impulse response is that you can tell exactly where acoustical treatments need to go in the room...and if you're really good at interpreting data, you should be able to figure out what types of treatments to use too, and accurately tune the ones that need to be tuned.

[colterphoto1]

oooo PRL's!

Ain't you graduated yet college boy?

give me a call tonight Doc!