How to diagnose the need for room treatment?

Al said, "I believe that some of the MORE SOPHISTICATED ( AND EXPENSIVE) equipment that does this sort of thing can help to take arrival time into account, in a meaningful manner,"

I take exception to those statements. The REW (Room EQ Wizard available at the Home Theater Shack) is sophisticated and does time domains. It is for FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE

Bob

Hi KR4, That is true. But first one has to identify the problems. How you correct it and how much you wish to achieve is up to each audiophile.

The problem I see is that, very few know what they are dealing with, as far as in room response is concerned.

Bob

Hi Ghstaudio, I assume you are using the Radio Shack microphone/Spl meter (although you did say a good microphone so its probably not Radio Shack). But If you are buying a microphone and you need a SPL meter, just buy the Radio Shack unit. It is more than adequate and the freq correction is done by the REW set up. Also many/most use this combination, myself included, and help in setup is freely available.

Point it straight ahead. It mut be on a tripod at where your head is.

When you get your Freq response graph, waterfall and RT60, please post them here for interpertation. That will be interesting.
Bob