# YPAO Mic Cal Files?



## AusDisciple (Mar 18, 2014)

Hi all,

I am currently looking into the accuracy of the YPAO mic that came with my RX-V1800 with the general consensus being more or less what I suspected and that is that the mic is most likely not that flat and the amp contains the compensation data in its DSP.

Does anyone know if there are accurate cal files for these mics available assuming the mics are consistent enough? That poses another question: How consistent are these mics?

I am a recording engineer and am currently designing some studio recording microphones. I have a Behringer ECM8K which I have not yet had calibrated that I've been using for fine tuning my designs. While it is certainly good enough for this purpose when combined with listening tests (my mics are not being designed for perfectly flat response but rather a tailored response for specific studio recording purposes), I will ultimately be publishing the response curves of my mics. Obviously, at that time, I will need to use a properly calibrated mic and will likely get my ECM professionally calibrated.
The ECM I have is one of the original ones and I've heard numerous reports that those were somewhat more accurate and consistent than the latest ones that tend to vary considerably in response. Whether or not this is true, I am uncertain.

Anyway, my curiosity about the Yammy mic is because if they are consistent (Yamaha tend to be quite good at consistency), then if I could get an accurate cal file for it, I could compare it to my ECM8K and see how closely the Yammy with cal file compared to the Behri. Hence my questions above.

Any info about this would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers guys.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I can tell you that the ECM8000 is quite decent even uncalibrated. It would yield better results than the YAPO mic. Your correct that the receiver has the calibration file built in to it for that mic and as far as I know there is no published numbers on those mics so building a calibration file for it would be difficult.


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## AusDisciple (Mar 18, 2014)

Thanks Tony. What you've mentioned about the lack of published specs for the Yammy is what I was suspecting. I wonder how difficult it would be to extract that info from their tech department? A couple of decades ago, I used to do warranty repairs for Yamaha PA gear and they were quite good to deal with back then. That was a long time ago in relative terms though. Much has changed since then.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Im fairly certain that Yamaha wants to keep that info to themselves as Im sure that people have tried asking. This is not the first time this question has come up to use the mic's that come with YAPO, Audyssey and other room correction systems and as far as I am aware no one has found the info.


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## AusDisciple (Mar 18, 2014)

No doubt that's true Tony.
A random thought.... Perhaps I could run the Yammy setup procedure with the mic connected (obviously!) and run a spectrum analysis on the outputs (analyzer running connected directly to one speaker output via a pad). Perhaps that would reveal the DSP mic compensation.
Hmmm.. :scratchhead:

Edit - Unless, of course, the compensation is on the mic input..... which it probably is.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

I seriously doubt that they have individual calibration of each mic. My guess would be that the correction for the average response is part of the algorithms that do the adjustment and you probably cannot extract them.


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## AusDisciple (Mar 18, 2014)

lcaillo said:


> I seriously doubt that they have individual calibration of each mic.


Yeah. I seriously doubt that too. Wouldn't make sense economically or logistically.


lcaillo said:


> My guess would be that the correction for the average response is part of the algorithms that do the adjustment and you probably cannot extract them.


Seems most likely the case.

This was all more of a curiosity really. If the data was available and the mic's were known to be consistent, I would've done some comparisons with my ECM8000 to see how accurate that is. Either way, neither mic (the Yammy or the Behri) are expensive by any stretch of the imagination so they could well be on a par for consistency. Obviously the ECM is the only one I know is in a given ballpark for accuracy uncalibrated.

No doubt my best bet is to get my ECM calibrated. I'm actually originally from Victoria so all my professional audio contacts are there. I don't really know if there's anyone in Adelaide I could get to accurately calibrate my ECM. Perhaps that would be the better question to ask.


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## HifiZine (Feb 7, 2013)

Hi, you might be better off to just get a new mic from Cross-spectrum Lab. I know it seems like a lot at first when all you want is to cal a mic you already have but then I searched and found prices from (IIRC) the National something-or-other Calibration Lab. Anyway I'd be interested to know if you find anything useful in AU.

If you have access to a calibrated mic it is certainly possible to generate a "DIY" cal file for an unknown mic. But it's really quite tedious, there's probably a more automated way. Which is I suppose exactly what Herb at CSL does.


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