# REW for Car Sound System



## neville02 (Jan 25, 2011)

I am a newbie in terms of car audio and using REW... I stumbled upon REW while researching on best possible tool that could aid me in tuning my car audio sound system:

ECLIPSE CD7000 - head unit
Phoenix Gold - Amp
2.1 System: Seas Tweater and Mid Base
Image Dynamic 12"
Full active mode
2 mf Capacitor
OEM Sound Deadening
Pro 3 RCA

I use REW db meter to align drivers which so far has proved to be useful tool using pink noise... alignment is done using 1st cycle with the highest db meter per paired driver e.g. Left side sub to mid base, mid to twit... Right side twit to twit and mid base to mid base. 

My problem lies in determining accuracy of rta readings. I know that REW does not particularly work well for laptop sound cards, and so far my attempts to use rta module of REW in measuring speaker response has proved to be failures almost to the point of giving up on the tool.

I am using a laptop with a realtek built-in sound card and a samsung mic that comes with may samsum 5.1 system used for auto alignment of drivers... whenever i use said mic to calibrate, REW message pop up that db varies from 20 to 20k may not be good to use as a calibration file...

Any suggestions how I can best use REW as a tool for car audio with/out have to spend a fortune of upgrades for my laptap...


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

Hey neville,

First, welcome to the Forum!



neville02 said:


> My problem lies in determining accuracy of rta readings.
> 
> Any suggestions how I can best use REW as a tool for car audio with/out have to spend a fortune of upgrades for my laptap...


 If you generate a calibration file for your Realtek and use a Radio Shack SPL meter with our generic calibration file, you can get reasonably accurate frequency response readings up to about 3 kHz. 

Beyond that, unfortunately there’s no free lunch. If you want precision, 20 Hz – 20 kHz full-range readings, you’ll need a mic with a custom calibration file and a sound card with a mic pre-amp. The mic and soundcard / pre-amp should be obtainable for under $200 at best.

Regards,
Wayne


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