where to buy DB/SPL meters

hey does anyone know where i could buy DB/SPL meters at?  any websites or store i could view i tried to search but i found nothing, looking to spend 150 shipped any advice

radio shack has a couple; but I think they only go up to 120 or 130 dB

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Life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop and look around once in a while; you could miss it.

You won't find one capable of what you want it to do for 150.  The best and most cpable ones are made by Audiocontrol but they are in the thousands.  I haven't heard anything good about the radio shack ones.  I think partsexpress might carry a couple but I can't remember.

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Good Luck!
-Thad

Rat Shack SPL meters are terrible if you need accuracy.  They are useful, though, if all you want to do is set relative loudness levels between speakers or something like that.  If you're trying to meter a comp car forget it.  I agree with the above, you're not going to find a good, accurate meter for $150 unless you find a used one on eBay.  Good meters start around $500... Parts Express does have a cheap one for $50.  No idea if it's any more useful than rat shack crap.

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What about that audio control Epicenter/DB meter thing?

https://www.splmeter.com/ I have never used one, but might be useful for comparing one system from another.

Jazzy

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veovius wrote:

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What about that audio control Epicenter/DB meter thing?

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I don't know about anything like that, but the Audio Control SA-3055 is a very fine meter.  It runs around $1500.

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:|  That's pricey....The one I'm thinking of has a 150dB meter in it, and goes in dash.  The model number name is oddly, something-150 :)

DYohn] wrote:

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Rat Shack SPL meters are terrible if you need accuracy.  They are useful, though, if all you want to do is set relative loudness levels between speakers or something like that.  If you're trying to meter a comp car forget it.  I agree with the above, you're not going to find a good, accurate meter for $150 unless you find a used one on eBay.  Good meters start around $500... Parts Express does have a cheap one for $50.  No idea if it's any more useful than rat shack crap.

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Dude... (and please don't take anything I am about to say as a personal attack - it isn't) Not that I am a HUGE fan of the rat shack stuff either, but WOW!!! Quite a blanket statement there... Stereophile uses this very same meter for nearly all of their tests. I believe the words they use (almost invariably) to describe it are: "Radio Shack sells quite a good one for around $30." I have one in my test gear as well, and it has always served well. Every time I have tried to debunk or calibrate it, it has turned out to be a STELLAR performer - especially for thirty bucks!

Here is a search I did at the site for mention of the item... 19 mentions of a thirty dollar SPL meter from a highly respected mag like Stereophile is good enough for me. They use it for testing 100K speaker systems. I don't have THAT much in mine, but still... Shows a LOT of faith in a thiry buck tool.

While it WON'T be very good for measuring maximum SPL in a car system - it only goes to 136dB - a nice budget piece of pretty darned accurate test gear, and I'll still recommend it.

Just my $.02

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Sorry man, I've just never found the Radio Shack SPL meters to be accurate.  Good for comparison tests or for basic system setup, but not for measurements where the numbers need to have meaning.  Maybe Ive just always gotten bad ones, or maybe my expectations are too high!  :)

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I've used the radio shack version. It was a digital model for about $50. They also had an analog one, but I couldn't imagine using that for a short test tone, as it wouldn't record the highest spl

I'll admit that I used it then promptly retunred it. It was great watching the numbers jump around in unison with my head lights dimming. I suppose if you are not into IASCA or competing there would be no problem using it.

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i bougth one of the rat shack ones and it works great for tuiing at low volumes but if your looking to buy a 150 plus you can get a termlab senors with the all the wires and software for about 600 bucks and its termlab so you know its good

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Hurry get me a steel hanger, elec tape, zip ties, a monkey and a snorgle. trust me i've ran wires with less

hoaxs] wrote:

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i bougth one of the rat shack ones and it works great for tuiing at low volumes but if your looking to buy a 150 plus you can get a termlab senors with the all the wires and software for about 600 bucks and its termlab so you know its good

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For my high level testing, I use a Behringer ECM-8000 with an M-Audio USB-Pre, connected to my laptop through USB2 connections. I then run all of the information through TrueRTA - the big one - Level4 (Thanks for the suggestion/recommendation of that software, by the way, DYohn... (I think it was you...) I L-O-V-E it!). This is way more than most people want to go through, but it works REALLY well, is fast - the more computer you have, obviously the faster your response can be - and is WAY more than accurate enough for most people on this board.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

one of my buddys had the epicenter .with the DB meter in it . it worked well but that was 4 years ago/. i would see if you could get one on ebay.

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1974 ford pinto 4 15" punch Z power punch bd 1001 pioneer DEH-6700

I use TrueRTA all the time.  Also with an ECM8000, but I use the Shark preamp.  And I don't know if the original rec was me Mr. Draper, but I do recall recomending you go for level 4.  Cheers!

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its called the epic-150

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1974 ford pinto 4 15" punch Z power punch bd 1001 pioneer DEH-6700

i got a digital from radio shake and it went up to 126DB's an di got 3 compvr kicker 15's and man wit that lil jon what you gon do song i blow it out off top . im not sure if i set it right but it said 126 and thats the highest it reads. and it hit it easy

we use the Term-lab....We also compete though and need meter that read over 150db.     I know audiocontrol makes a 150 and 160db in dash meter.   They are a little inaccurate compared to a comp meter...about 3 to 4 db, but will get the idea of things

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2009 0-1000 Trunk WR 154.0DB 2009 1001+ Trunk WR
2007 USACI World Champion
2007 World Record
2006 USACI Finals 2nd Place

This might sound silly but the TrueRta, M-audio, Ecm8000 package sounds really cheap in comparison to the likes of an audio control system. How do they compare?

Can you use this system to do SPL checks and if so what level can it go up to?

It looks like a worthwhile investment at that price.

TrueRTA : $100 £60ish
M-Audio : £120
ECM8000 : £45

£205 : Roughly 360-400 $

I saw the review in Car Sound and Performance on the splmeter.com dBm-2. I went to their website and saw Manville Smith's comments so I figured I would try one out. For $149 it wasn't much of a gamble if it could really read 150 dB. Turns out the unit is pretty consistant and matches up within .6dB of every Term-lab I have been on. I have had it about 9 months now and love it. As far as the radio Shack units go there are lots of  websites out there that tell you which components to change out to make the units more accurate. Just go to Google and enter "spl meter".

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Been there, done that, just can't remember it.