ses1984
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2014
- Posts
- 62
- Likes
- 31
I've been trying to A/B two pairs of headphones and someone suggested that I get a sound level meter, since that can help you get a better comparison. They're only $15-$20 on amazon so I figured why not?
I got one, now I'm not sure what to do with it. I removed the windscreen, and poked it through a piece of foam, and pressed the foam against the ear cup. Now what? I played pink noise, adjusted the volume until I got to 80dB, and went from there. But this is just where the confusion begins.
I can't just use any pink noise file, shouldn't I look at the levels of the file?
What about when comparing to one of my recordings? The meter I got only samples every 0.5 seconds, so if I use it to analyze a song, I think there's a chance I could miss the peaks. In that case, would I look at one of my songs, find the peaks, and cut that into a "noise file" and use that as the input? Then when I adjust the volume to 85dB I know that the peaks of that song go up to 85dB and no higher.
Then I suppose I need to Replay-Gain my whole collection (is replay gain still a thing? I used it about 10 years ago in foobar. Is there something else now?) Then pick a few songs at random, cut a "noise file" of the peaks with replay gain applied, and then adjust levels until sound pressure meter reads 85dB -- this should be my max safe volume?
I got one, now I'm not sure what to do with it. I removed the windscreen, and poked it through a piece of foam, and pressed the foam against the ear cup. Now what? I played pink noise, adjusted the volume until I got to 80dB, and went from there. But this is just where the confusion begins.
I can't just use any pink noise file, shouldn't I look at the levels of the file?
What about when comparing to one of my recordings? The meter I got only samples every 0.5 seconds, so if I use it to analyze a song, I think there's a chance I could miss the peaks. In that case, would I look at one of my songs, find the peaks, and cut that into a "noise file" and use that as the input? Then when I adjust the volume to 85dB I know that the peaks of that song go up to 85dB and no higher.
Then I suppose I need to Replay-Gain my whole collection (is replay gain still a thing? I used it about 10 years ago in foobar. Is there something else now?) Then pick a few songs at random, cut a "noise file" of the peaks with replay gain applied, and then adjust levels until sound pressure meter reads 85dB -- this should be my max safe volume?