On the back of my work testing Velodyne Beta Firmware, Uncle Eric recently invited me to review a new audio analyser product from a Swedish company called XTZ.
The XTZ Audio Analyser is a clever device that enables audio enthusiast to measure the acoustics of their listening room simply by connecting USB based hardware that will interface to most computers running Windows XP. As this review progresses it will become clear that the clever part of this product is not so much the hardware but the accompanying software. The hardware consists of a USB sound card module attached to a microphone on a flexible stalk. A heavy base is included that allows the USB sound module to operate remotely from the computer via its integrated extra long USB cable. In addition to recording sound, the USB module has an audio output that is connected to one of your amplifiers inputs. This connection allows the computer software to generate audio tones that are simultaneously transmitted and received by the USB sound module for analysis.
The XTZ analyser operating specification calls for a computer to be connected that has a minimum of 512 MB memory and a CPU speed of 1 GHz or more. Now my old laptop has 256 MB of memory and a 300 MHz processor and although a little slow in calculating graphs, it did actually work, so we can assume from this that the product is going to work with just about any XP OS computer that has at least 256 MB of memory.
Once you have unpacked the hardware it will soon be apparent that the software application is missing! XTZ have decided for better or worse to only provide software on cdrom when customers request it after purchase. Subject to being online, the latest version of the application can be downloaded after registering your details and product serial number located on the side of the box. The serial number on the packaging begins with XTZ but the registration software fails if this is included! Just enter the eleven digit number that follows and the registration should be successful. Once you have downloaded the software, installation takes just a few seconds and does not even require a re-boot.
The hardware can be connected directly to your computers USB port or preferably via the heavy base cable junction supplied; this has the advantage of allowing you to easily record measurements in other more remote room locations.
As with most technology these days, the heart of this product is the software and once you have started the program it soon becomes apparent that this product is not a toy, it is a fully fledged audio analyser with the following capabilities: RTA (Real Time Analyser), Room Frequency response with Room Analysis, Room Node locator and last but not least a powerful Spectrogram of the environments reverberation times. If this sounds too complicated it's not so hang in there, the XTZ Analyser is as simple or complicated as you wish to make it. Even newbie's to the audio arena will be able to master this product after an hour or so of using it!
So let's get started. When the program is started for the first time, it will be in novice mode and have limited functionality, I recommend that the first thing you do is go to the setup menu and switch on advanced mode even if you are a novice! This will give you access to all the options that include for example saving a scan for comparison with another.
Since I know my room characteristics quite well from manually plotting them over the years, I was naturally very interested to see how my room looked with the XTZ.
Here is the result, this graph shows two scans taken with my Lexicon MC12 EQ switched on and both my Velodyne DD15's powered on. The green curve is a data saved for comparison and the blue curve is the last scan.
Now here is another scan taken with my subs turned off as well as the Lexicon EQ turned off. The green curve is the baseline with everything on and the blue line with subs and EQ off.
The next scan is with my two subs active and the MC12 EQ off once again using the original baseline as a reference.
This scan capture is with the MC12 EQ on and the subs turned off.
The next two scans shows the subtle differences between classical and action setting for the active Velodyne DD15's.
Velodyne DD15's set to Classical mode
Velodyne DD15's set to Active mode
The graphs clearly show how my room is reacting to the changes and will enable me to further tweak my sub and equaliser settings to try and achieve more ideal listening parameters.
Experienced audio enthusiasts will know that the best way to understand the characteristics of their listening room is to take at least three measurements in and around the listening area and then use the average of the measurement for equalisation. The XTZ Analyser caters for this by allowing three consecutive scans with a pause between to allow microphone re-positioning. This is in fact the default mode which IMHO should be secondary to the single scan mode. One annoying ‘feature' is that the scan mode is not ‘sticky' meaning that if you wish to make a lot of single scans; you will need to remember to cancel the three scan setting each time. I have provided some feedback to the manufacturer on this point and hopefully the next software release will address this.
In addition to the Room frequency Analyser the XTZ incorporates a RTA (real time analyser) normally found in expensive high end audio analysis equipment. Real time analysers are perfect for checking the frequency response of your listening environment taking into account the time energy domain and generating a real time display!
Here is an RTA of my room with and without my active subs
I mentioned the time energy domain earlier so a brief explanation is warranted before we move on to the next feature. The frequency response of your room is only one aspect of what actually changes the original sound produced by your equipment. Most rooms produce echoes of one sort or another, these echoes may actually be impossible to detect with your ear alone if you have a nice listening environment. The effect of the echoes or resonances is to distort what you hear in the same way as video becomes impaired by ghosting when your analogue TV receiver receives the same signal from more than one location by building reflections. To measure this phenomenon in the audio domain you need a spectrum analyser. A spectrum analyser produces a spectrogram showing frequency versus time.
Here is a graph showing the frequency / energy response of my room at or around 40 milliseconds after the event. The actual time can be varied in real time after the scan by moving the yellow time line to the right or left, all room curves are initially generated at time zero, very cool!
On the right side of the graph, the red curve shows the actual frequency response at the selected time domain which in this case is 40ms. The left coloured chart shows a sort of 2D water fall picture. The areas in red show frequency's that are accompanied by a lot of energy, these are areas that normally need the most attention.
In addition to producing room frequency responses and spectrograph's, the clever software will automatically find your room frequency nodes and attempt to produce correction parameters for you to feed to an equaliser! On the right side of the chart screen there are three boxes, Measured, Modes EQ and Result. By selecting only Measured in Room Analyser mode, you will only see your actual scan data, by ticking the other two boxes you will see the recommended correction to put into your equaliser along with the projected result! If this were not enough, you can play what if with the parameters.
Although this review has made reference throughout to my configuration with dual subs and MC12 Equaliser, the XTZ Analyser is a tool for everyone interested in getting the best out their audio environment. For example, even if you do not own an equaliser, you can significantly change your rooms response by simply moving your subwoofer / speakers or relocating your listening position! You would be amazed for example, how your room response changes with your entrance door open versus closed. This tool also takes the guesswork out of the best distance to locate your speakers from the rear wall.
The only anomaly I found with the XTZ Analyser during this review was an occasional rogue scan. This is a scan that does not bare any relation to your room and is easily recognised. If you experience this phenomenon it is easily remedied by simply repeating the scan. Since the software version I am testing is V 1.0, I suspect in due course a new release will be made available addressing this minor issue.
By now I'm sure that most readers will agree that this is must have piece of kit but is probably priced way out of their reach, not so! The XTZ Analyser sells for just 220 Euros which is about £175. When you consider you can spend around £75 on a simple sound meter, this kit is IMHO incredible value for money.
Victor Kiam proclaimed that he liked the Remington shaver his wife gave him as a present so much that he decided to buy the company.
Now I cannot and would not presume to go that far with the XTZ analyser, however I can share with you that I have decided to keep the evaluation kit loaned to me! The thought of going back to pencil and paper and plotting my room characteristics manually as I have in the past is not one that I relish.
My digital sound meter now looks decidedly dull and antiquated by comparison.
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Originally Posted by Per
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