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What SPL meter did you use?

I can tell you (from my opinion) that the difference between the EP500 and the EP800 is mostly FEEL (some sound though!)... Review to follow on my thread shortly.

So, Nick, your post prompted me to review all of my BFD settings to make sure they were correct and tuned to my Radio Shack Analog Meter (one of the newer analog models, to answer thefwam's question above). It turns out that I did not have the correct calibration file loaded for the SPL Meter, it must have dropped out when I updated the REW version awhile back.

However, even once I implemented the new correction file, the results were not far different (< ~1.5 dB difference at most in any one spot), so my readings weren't too far off to begin with.

The main thing I was worried about was my post-Audyssey BFD tuning screwing up the Dynamic EQ feature, but after testing today I'm happy to report that it does not affect it at all. Seeing that, I'm going to happily leave things as they are, because as Tom forced me to say before, it does sound good like this.

Thanks, Jason. I was reading up on the BFD guide on Hometheatershack trying to decide if I should be worried that my radioshack SPL meter wouldn't work, since they cautioned against it. I'm glad to know it works well for you

No problem Steve. Admittedly, it's not as accurate as the $150 mics they recommend, but from the reading I've done, it's accurate enough for most home users. The oldest versions of the SPL meters apparently are off quite a bit, but the version I have appears to be close enough for general use if you follow the instructions they provide for it (or so I think at least!).

Yeah That's what I understood from my reading as well. Especially for subwoofer frequencies the radioshack meter seem to be up to the task. I downloaded the Radioshack .cal file and it seems to be doing just fine for my purposes thus far.

I actually have a second question. What kind of interface is used to connect REW to the BFD? I was reading fredk's post about uploading your own filters into the BFD. Do I need to have a fancy external soundcard (given that I have a macbook that has only 1/8" in and outputs)?

I doubt very much that the Audessey mic is any more accurate than the Ratshack meter. For sub callibration the Ratshack meter is just fine. If you want to measure higher than say 2KHz, you need to go to the $150 Behringer mic/amp combo as the RS meter is useless that high.

FWIW: The Behringer ECM800 mic has been verified to be extremely accurate from 15Hz to 20KHz.

I entered everything manually into the BFD. Its dead simple. REW generates the numbers and gives them in table form so they are easy to read and enter. It takes about 2 minutes per filter and you should not have more than say 4 or 5 filters to EQ your sub.

Same with me - all manual entry, and that's plenty easy. There apparently is some MIDI interface you can buy to have them talk to each other directly, but it's easy enough to do by hand that it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to spend more money on an interface just for that purpose. (I only loosely remember the direct connection works - so check my facts if you're really interested)

There is a midi interface, but I agree. I am impressed with how intuative the BFD is.

C'mon tweakers not interested in getting one more piece of the puzzle to try a quick reconfig over and over again with out having to do any manual entries, think about how much faster this would have been.