# External Sound Card with XP, DELL Dim 4300S



## DACS4 (Feb 19, 2009)

OK...I never got very far with REW on our Vista Laptop....now there are some changes. I have moved our DELL Dimension 4300S Desktop into out HT Room and have it connected to our 50" Pio KURO.

Will be downloading REW on the desktop.

Looking for sound card suggestions that will not break the bank but will get the job done right with REW??? Our DELL is 9 years old so the soundcard in there isn't cutting it.:help:

I should also add that I have just added a Seaton Submersive Sub to our HT. :yikes:


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

> Our DELL is 9 years old so the soundcard in there isn't cutting it.


Wow, what is it running, Windows 95?  Most of the soundcards we could recommend are compatible with XP. 

Regards,
Wayne


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## DACS4 (Feb 19, 2009)

Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:


> Wow, what is it running, Windows 95?  Most of the soundcards we could recommend are compatible with XP.
> 
> Regards,
> Wayne


Got XP on it. She's been good to us and we don't have that much stuff on it. Maxed out the RAM obviously. Would love to get some suggestions of Ext. Sound Cards that would get the job done.

Dave


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

People with XP have had good luck with the Behringer UCA-202. Sound cards don't get much cheaper than that.

Regards,
Wayne


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## DACS4 (Feb 19, 2009)

Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:


> People with XP have had good luck with the Behringer UCA-202. Sound cards don't get much cheaper than that.
> 
> Regards,
> Wayne


Thanks Wayne...I'll take a look.


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## DACS4 (Feb 19, 2009)

Wow...very affordbale sound card. I think I'm going to try this one with my Rad Shack meter to get myself moving with REW.


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## htsas11 (Mar 3, 2010)

DACS4 said:


> Wow...very affordbale sound card. I think I'm going to try this one with my Rad Shack meter to get myself moving with REW.


Great DAC4, I am interested too. Could you please post the progress and the steps involved. 
I am new to this and would like to get the graphs and waterfall. So far this is where I am. Thanks

1. I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 with Win 7 Ultimate.
2. Ordered the Antimode
3. Downloaded REW today
4. Have the Radio Shack meter - Digital.
5. Looked at the UCA 202 good price


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## htsas11 (Mar 3, 2010)

*Will this work*

I would like to use REW and create graphs and waterfall. I am however new to this and was wondering if the connections I have in the image, which I modified from the EQ Wizard site, will work for me. I will be using the following:

Dell Inspiron 1720 with Win 7 Ultimate.
Antimode 8033
REW 
Radio Shack meter - Digital.
One of the 2 sound cards- Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit External - Sound card - 24-bit - 96 kHz - 5.1 - USB or the Behringer UCA202 U-Control Audio Interface
any recommendation- which would work and be better.

If any thing is missing or I am on the wrong path please advice.
Thanks


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## glaufman (Nov 25, 2007)

That's pretty much right, except... skip the connection from the soundcard's left out to left in. Instead, first connect the right out to the right in, run the soundcard calibration, then connect per the diagram for scans without the left out to left in connection.


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## htsas11 (Mar 3, 2010)

glaufman said:


> That's pretty much right, except... skip the connection from the soundcard's left out to left in. Instead, first connect the right out to the right in, run the soundcard calibration, then connect per the diagram for scans without the left out to left in connection.


Thanks here is the new diagram, I removed the soundcard's left out to left in and connected the right out to the right in. 










After that I am lost as how do I run the sound card calibration? 

Are there any connection to the RS Meter at this stage?

Also out of the 2 sound cards which one would you recommend. 

Thanks again, as I said earlier I am new to this so bear with me.


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## glaufman (Nov 25, 2007)

No problem being new. We were all there once, and that's what we're here for.
You should try reading the help files, they're pretty good 
Once to make the connections, click Settings, go to the soundcard tab, about halfway down is the soundcard calibration file settings, click the 'measure' button... instructions will guide you through it, unless there's a problem...
I have nothing against either soundcard, I personally use the bottom one.


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## htsas11 (Mar 3, 2010)

Thanks glaufman. Made some progress after reading the excellent write up by mj79 on calibrating the sound card. I was able to calibrate the sound card with the following result:



















*The next step I need help I connected the Antimode, sub, RS Meter and the sound card to the computer as follows:*










My question is:

1. How can I generate the graph for the sub woofer.

2. What sounds should be played 

3. At this stage the sub is only connected to the sound card and not to the receiver

4. How can I know the EQ before and after?

5. Am I on the right path:help:


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

The Antimode is designed to perform its own room analysis and equalization, so just follow its instructions. You can run “before and after” sweeps with REW to see what the Antimode accomplished.

Regards,
Wayne


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## htsas11 (Mar 3, 2010)

I do not know if I did it right or not. I ran the calibration with the Antimode and here are some graphs. It looks like an EKG of my subs as this is for the subs connected. To me the fun part is at least I got a graph, learning. I don't know what they mean though. Would appreciate if some one can explain what it all means.

The first graph is Red when the calibration was running I took one reading.









The second is when I put the Antimode in bypass mode and took another reading Green









The third one is the composite









The last is a waterfall ( Having fun with the graphics)









Thanks if I can understand if I am on the right path:huh:


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

You're on the right path, but you need to re-scale your graphs to 45-105 dB vertical and 15-200 Hz horizontal. The way you have them scaled now it's impossible to discern anything useful from them. Look for the "Graph Limits" icon, upper right of the screen.

Regards,
Wayne


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

htsas11 said:


> I do not know if I did it right or not.


Not right yet, I'm afraid. Those are basically plots showing a bit of mains hum pickup at 60/120/180Hz, they are typical of what you might see from an unconnected soundcard input. Bit more work to do on getting the soundcard setup right. Work on getting a good soundcard calibration response first, that flushes out most of the issues.


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## htsas11 (Mar 3, 2010)

Thanks I will work on it and repost later.


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## DACS4 (Feb 19, 2009)

HTSAS11,

The pics in this thread are very helpful. Thanks for posting them. I just got my soundcard (same one as you). 

So is it right to say that with this soundcard I will only need 2 RCA interconnects ? One from soundcard to recevier. One from Soundcard to Rad Shack meter?

Dave


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## glaufman (Nov 25, 2007)

Assuming you already have a third for receiver to sub...


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## DACS4 (Feb 19, 2009)

glaufman said:


> Assuming you already have a third for receiver to sub...


Yes...sub wire is good to go.:T


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