Can you really make accurate measurements using off-the-shelf and/or built-in computer sound hardware?
Yes! There are two main reasons for this. The first is that SIA-Smaart uses only the Analog-to-Digital section of the computer’s sound hardware. The 16-bit A/D converters used in even inexpensive and/or built-in computer sound hardware today are really better than you might imagine in most cases. The second reason has to do with the nature of the dual-FFT transfer function measurement technique used for both real-time frequency response (SmaartLive) and impulse response/delay measurements (SmaartLive and Smaart Acoustic Tools). Because both the reference (stimulus) and measurement (system response) signals in a dual-channel transfer function measurement travel through the same components as they enter the measurement system (the computer) and the object of this exercise is to find the difference between the two signals, many imperfections in the computer s audio input section will tend to “cancel out” of the measurement almost entirely. We have performed a number of head-to-head tests
