What is a cost effective way to level match, for comparing different hifi components?

My roommate at prep school had L110… now there was competition….but not for the deserving EMIT tweeter…

@jjss49 Yep…… surprised the snot out of them when i picked the Infinity Qb over the louder JBL -50.

and again with the Onkyo A-5 ( class A up to 5 watts ) vs a Nikko

and again with a Denon 790 over a Technics

and lastly the Grado over a Shure.

So while  Albert was pouring over whatever drivel Julian H was pushing, i was busy…listening..

1978, fun

Yes a decent voltmeter is going to be more accurate than a microphone. While I am a Fluke guy - my Dad programmed me to “ buy Lifetime tools “ , you can get something effective at HomevDepot, etc.

Roger and I had some good back n forth over .25 db.

best to you :-)

jim

of course, Roger really was a genius, creator of lots of legendary high end gear for storied firms including his own Music Reference.

OP strict level matching is essential. Lots of good tools to help with this that IMO should be part of the arsenal. Test tones, SPL meter, DMM, and an RTA with a calibrated microphone ( I use the Studio Six set of tools which run on an IPad )

As you probably already know, the ear brain likes louder and louder is just chasing your tail from a qualitative perspective, unless you can level match. My mentor (RIP) in this critical area and a real stickler for matching to .25 db or better was Roger Modjeski.

and there are measures for speech intelligibility, using a recording of a familiar voice ( instrument, acoustic space, etc ) can be an excellent touchstone- I use a Zoom H-6. There is of course a big and obvious difference between recognizing “ mom” and understanding what she is saying.