Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Radio Shack SPL meter

According to radioshack.com it's still available online and in-store.

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F008%5F021%5F006%5F000&product%5Fid=33%2D2050

Unless my memory is failing I believe only the digital one is available in Canada, not the analog one.

Radio shack only had the analog one, so I bought that. I believe someone mentioned a goodsound test CD to use with it. Should I use this, just the test tones on the receiver, something else? What's best to use to set everything up now that I have the meter?

I would use the receiver's test tones first. But if you want to calibrate both audio and video (TV monitor or whatever) parts of your system, go get the AVIA DVD. It is a "must" for all serious hometheater owners. The AVIA DVD also contains a chapter explaining how to use the RadioShack meter.

The sound and vision home theatre tuneup dvd is also a good choice for home theatre tweaking.

It may vary from receiver to receiver. On my Denon 3803, I could not use the test tones from the CD. I had to use the test tones from the receiver. Either way should enable you to calibrate your speakers.

I've only had about 10 minutes to play with it, but either my meter doesn't work or I'm doing something stupid. I set it to C for weighting slow for response point it towards the speakers and turn it on with the range knob. The battery test brings the needlee up fine into the red batt test area. Then I go through all the numbers in the range and nothing registers!

Leave the meter's range knob at 70 and start the manual sound calibration from your receiver. (I find it difficult to adjust the sound using the automatic option.) Point to the speaker and adjust the gain on the receiver until the meter registers 0. As long as all your speakers are calibrated the same way, you will be fine.

I am assuming you have problem calibrating

If you are playing music, that is normal. The reading will keep changing every second or so, since the sound level changes all the time in music. You should get a stable reading when playing a stationary test tone, such as pink noise. Incidentally, you should hold the meter with the mic pointing to the ceiling, at the ear level, in your listening location.

Why towards the ceiling? I was pointing towards the speaker. Nothing registered even when using the pink noise. I'll try it again tonight if I get a chance.