# Beh. 502, BFD 1100P



## perritterd (Mar 11, 2010)

Ok, I've got my 502, BFD 1100P, 2-XLR cables, my PS400 ( according to Beh., my unit does not have phantom power), and my ECM8000 mic-should I use +12v. or +48v. for the PS for the mic? I am getting a SPL from Rat Shack soon-is there a preferred unit: digital or analog (I am trying to keep this relatively cheap and am only dealing with the SW)? I downloaded the sinewave mp3's and have burnt a wav disc of the mps's. I played the disc over my BD player and my "cheap" SW played the sounds down to 28 hz which I could hear. This is where I am getting confused. 

1. How do I interface the 502 unit w/the 1100P, or do I even need to interface the 2 units? 
2. Does the 502 outs (bal/unbal. or cd/tape output) need to go to the sound card or the 1100P? I have the CD wav files burnt to a disc, and am trying to determine what I need to do w/ this disc and where it comes into play...!
3. When should I hook up the 1100P and how does it work w/any of the above equipment? 

As you can tell, I am having a real problem trying to correctly set up my 502, 1100P and my sound card correctly. Hope someone can give me a little direction-I have seen the diagrams and still not sure about what is going on and the correct steps to take!

Sorry for the utter lack of knowledge, but I certainly hope someone can give me some help.
Thanks for any help in advance.

Bob.


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

Okay, looks like we have some serious confusion happening here. Are you planning to use the REW program to determine your frequency response, or sine waves? 

The latter is typically used with an SPL meter and plotted on something like graph paper or an Excel graph. If that’s the route you’re choosing, then you did not need the 502, the PP or the ECM mic – only an SPL meter.

If you’re going to use REW, you don’t need any sine wave tone discs.

If you’re only going to measure your subwoofer with REW, you did not need the 502, PP or ECM mic. You only needed the SPL meter.

Regards,
Wayne


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## perritterd (Mar 11, 2010)

Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:


> Okay, looks like we have some serious confusion happening here. Are you planning to use the REW program to determine your frequency response, or sine waves?
> 
> The latter is typically used with an SPL meter and plotted on something like graph paper or an Excel graph. If that’s the route you’re choosing, then you did not need the 502, the PP or the ECM mic – only an SPL meter.
> 
> ...


Well, I guess you are right about being confused! My intentions were to use the REW program to make a baseline measurement and then do any adj. that were necessary using the BFD. I have no intentions of plotting anything on graph paper... I believed I needed the mic to do the measurements and am not quite sure about why I needed the 502! I read that I needed the sinewave wav files for producing the sound waves for the REW to measure. Obviously, I have no idea what I am doing...what or where do you suggest I go from here? For what do I need this 502 or 1100P for if the REW program does everything w/just a SPL meter? My main intention is to take away all the "Boominess" to my SW and make it sound correct. I thought that the BFD was to adjust out the signal to better balance your SW for a better sound after doing your REW measurements...

Thanks for your assistance Wayne...I'll read more tomorrow and with your help, figure out why I needed this equipment in the first place. 

Bob.


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## Ricci (May 23, 2007)

You use the 502 to provide 48v phantom power to the mic. If you wish to do fullrange measurements or to have greater accuracy it is a good idea to use the ECM8000 mic. A cheap SPL meter can do them , but with a generic cal file it's less accurate so it's not completely wasted effort. Is it a calibrated ECM8000? You would use your SPL meter to set your REW SPL calibration when using the ECM8000 and 502. You'd use these items to measure the in room response and then use REW to tell you what your EQ settings for the BFD will be. The BFD stays hooked into your reciever on the SW preout before the sub amp and gets the eq settings input into it to correct the response. Then you can measure again with REW to see the effect of the EQ settings.


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

perritterd said:


> ...what or where do you suggest I go from here?


Probably would be a good idea to work your way through some of these help threads, if you haven't already.

Regards,
Wayne


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## perritterd (Mar 11, 2010)

Ricci said:


> You use the 502 to provide 48v phantom power to the mic. If you wish to do fullrange measurements or to have greater accuracy it is a good idea to use the ECM8000 mic. A cheap SPL meter can do them , but with a generic cal file it's less accurate so it's not completely wasted effort. Is it a calibrated ECM8000? You would use your SPL meter to set your REW SPL calibration when using the ECM8000 and 502. You'd use these items to measure the in room response and then use REW to tell you what your EQ settings for the BFD will be. The BFD stays hooked into your reciever on the SW preout before the sub amp and gets the eq settings input into it to correct the response. Then you can measure again with REW to see the effect of the EQ settings.


Thanks for helping me out here, Ricci. Since I already have bought the 502, ECM8000, and the 1100P, I guess I am going to go the "Full Sweep" and see where it takes me (and no, it's not calibrated-I planned on using the cal. files in the download area here in this forum). I have been reading the help files that are online and that Wayne suggested, and have decided to try and do the whole sweep! Is the only purpose for the 502 here is to provide phantom power to the mic? Do I need to use the USB/MIDI cable that is talked about in the REW threads? I'm waiting on my XLR cables to arrive tomorrow and hopefully I can try to mess with this this weekend. And, if I already have run Audyssey, there is no need to do anything else with it, is there? Should I leave it on or turn it off if I am trying to follow the recommended combo in the REW forum for the 502, 8000, and the 1100P? This is taking a great deal longer to grasp than I thought at first, but I will catch on-slowly maybe, but I will get it!

Thanks for your help.
Bob


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## glaufman (Nov 25, 2007)

The trick is to grasp it one step at a time :T
The 502 both provides the phantom power and acts as a pre-amp for the mic. The MIDI cable should only be for downloading EQ settings to the BFD, you don't need it, as you can enter the settings from the front panel, in fact, some people claim they can enter it faster through the front panel than by downloading through the MIDI cable. You can use REW to see the differences Audyssey is making, and even to fine tune Audyssey. You may decide what Audyssey did is all you need, or you may decide you want to adjust things further. So run scans of both bass only and full range with it on and off and compare...
I think this is as much about the journey as it is the destination :T


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## perritterd (Mar 11, 2010)

glaufman said:


> The trick is to grasp it one step at a time :T
> The 502 both provides the phantom power and acts as a pre-amp for the mic. The MIDI cable should only be for downloading EQ settings to the BFD, you don't need it, as you can enter the settings from the front panel, in fact, some people claim they can enter it faster through the front panel than by downloading through the MIDI cable. You can use REW to see the differences Audyssey is making, and even to fine tune Audyssey. You may decide what Audyssey did is all you need, or you may decide you want to adjust things further. So run scans of both bass only and full range with it on and off and compare...
> I think this is as much about the journey as it is the destination :T


glaufaman, thanks for the help. Being a novice at this, should I hook up the MIDI cables or not? I have no understanding about the manual setup for the BFD...it appears that the auto setup seems to be a pretty good process. I plan on running everything full range and seeing how it works out. I appreciate your help as everyone else only wanted to ask questions instead of suggesting possible solutions to my queries. I ask again, should I purchase the MIDI cables being such a newbie at this or not? I am finding it very intimidating trying to determine what the manual settings should be...

Should I just follow the setup guide for the 502 and not bother trying to understand the reasoning for it? I want to know how the 502 works and what to expect from it....

Bob


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## glaufman (Nov 25, 2007)

Hi Bob-
Whether you buy/return the MIDI cabels is up to you. Personally I have no experience with the BFD, but Wayne is very knowledgable on it, and you can get more info by reading our guide here:
http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/bfdguide/

As for the 502, Behringer makes it as a mixing board, to combine various inputs into one output, we just use it for the phantom power and the pre-amp for the mic. Basically, the mic has a little circuitry in it for impedance matching and balancing that needs a power supply (phantom power). The signal the mic provides is very low level, so it needs to be amplified before being input to a soundcard (with the exception of a few soundcards) hence the preamp. Not much else you need to know about it, other than to follow the guide for setting it up. If you want to know what each control does specifically, feel free to ask away!


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## perritterd (Mar 11, 2010)

glaufman said:


> Hi Bob-
> Whether you buy/return the MIDI cabels is up to you. Personally I have no experience with the BFD, but Wayne is very knowledgable on it, and you can get more info by reading our guide here:
> http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/bfdguide/
> 
> As for the 502, Behringer makes it as a mixing board, to combine various inputs into one output, we just use it for the phantom power and the pre-amp for the mic. Basically, the mic has a little circuitry in it for impedance matching and balancing that needs a power supply (phantom power). The signal the mic provides is very low level, so it needs to be amplified before being input to a soundcard (with the exception of a few soundcards) hence the preamp. Not much else you need to know about it, other than to follow the guide for setting it up. If you want to know what each control does specifically, feel free to ask away!


Thanks glaufman...appreciate the help. So, I guess the 502 doesn't do a whole lot of anything except as phantom power. As you can tell, I am trying to learn as I go with this...I'll follow the setup suggested in the guides-not quite sure where I am gong to end up, but I'll see:huh:. 

I'll try and be back in touch the next few days as soon as I get my cables in and can start figuring out what I need to do here,

Thank you for all your help.
Bob.


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## glaufman (Nov 25, 2007)

We'll be here!


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