2. tech-talk
  3. 988295001

CARA - Room Acoustic Software

We're very much not into doing sales-pitch type posts, but after reading through several threads in this forum, we realized that questions regarding software for room acoustics were frequent enough that if we tried to answer every thread, we'd *really* feel obnoxious!

So... the lesser of two evils

CARA is a comprehensive room acoustic modelling package designed and developed by German physicist: Dr. Ulrich Thomanek. Dr. Thomanek worked with ELAC GmbH for many years and used computer models to bring their loudspeakers to be the number two in Germany.

He started ELAC Technische Software as a spinoff dedicated to his computer programs associated with loudspeaker modelling and room acoustics. CARA 2.0 is the product.

Rather than get into too many details here, I'll send you to www.cara.de where they have lots of information regarding CARA and a walkthrough. The site is in both English and German.

Early last year, Rhintek became the US representative for ETS and CARA. We have a strong background in software development, but are relatively new to the high-end audio industry. Our website is: www.rhintek.com

Thanks for your time, I'll probably be lurking around here on occasion as it looks like this forum is a good place for me to gain more understanding.

Kristin VanVranken,
Rhintek Incorporated
kristin3e25

Showing 3 responses by pls1

pls1
432 posts
 
Albert, I took a detailed look at the site and I am quite excited by the capabilities of the CARA software. This is by far the most sophisticated modelling software I've seen. I have been quite interested in sophisticated RTA measurement vs "sounds" particularly as per the use of room treatments and DSP. ( I own Sigtech, Dunlavy V's and dCS gear). It is prohibitively expensive to buy all the gear needed for the real time analysis that CARA models. However, you should be able to hire a professional consulting audio engineer for about $100 per hour to do all the sophisticated measurements for you to check the veracity of the model. I've used this approach to check on the accuracy of the Sigtech gear, software modelling speaker of placement and the results of my experiments with room treatments. It takes about four hours to run measurements allowing for tweaking during the session.
I'm going to buy the CARA package but my schedule won't really allow me to commit the time that something this complex really requires for the next few months.
Good luck on your remodel.
pls1
432 posts
 
Will do
pls1
432 posts
 
After some basic modeling of your room and speakers I think it becomes easier to have in room real time measurements made. I used the much simpler RPG software to get some general ideas about speaker placement, room treatments and listening positions. Then I improved on these with in room measurements. You can hire an audio engineer for about $100 per hour anywhere near most large cities to do the measurements for you.
More to discover