miniDSP UMIK-1 Omni-Directional USB Measurement Calibrated Microphone

I needed a measurement microphone in order to use Room EQ Wizard software. This worked perfectly connected to my Mac. To set up properly, all one has to do is download a configuration file specific to the serial number of your microphone (all the details come within the packed documents). I was up and running within minutes.The combinaton of this microphne and Room EQ Wizard has massively improved the sound from my hifi set-up.

Seems to do the job well. I'm just starting out in room eq and enjoying it. Great shame that UK suppliers appear to be struggling in getting stock of the cheaper Minidsp products like the Minindsp 2 X 4 HD to use with this mic. There are some available in mainland Europe, import from there and not Minidsp direct to save on import duties.Get this mic whilst still in stock!

This seems to be a sturdy bit of kit and although the write up says it measures from 20Hz to 20kHz on the box it states that it measures from 8Hz to 20kHz. I was very happy about this as my subs' in room response goes down to about 12Hz.I used the mic to do a calibration of my Arcam AVR 850 using the Dirac Live app that is meant to be used with this receiver. Arcam do provide a mic with the 850 but even they admit that the UMIK 1 is superior and recommend it's use. As I received the 850 before the UMIK 1 I did attempt a calibration using the supplied mic and ran into trouble straight away as the test tones used to calibrate the mic were horrendously loud and I was fearful of blowing the speaker's tweeters . With the UMIK 1 there were no such problems. In fact , if anything the frequency sweeps that are used to measure the speakers seemed on the low side and , as a result, my subs didn't come out of standby. Switching off the automatic standby function on the subs cured this and I got a great set of measurements.After the calibration was finished I was astonished at how good all the frequency graphs looked, which I attribute to a combination of the mic's accurate measuring and the power of Dirac. I attach a couple of screen shot of my fronts' and my subs' before and after results for anyone interested in seeing what a novice can achieve with the UMIK 1 and Dirac Live. The blue lines are the frequency measurements before EQ, the orange line is the Target Curve (automatically set but can be modified by the user) and the green is the curve achieved after the magic dust is applied. You can clearly see massive differences with the green often being obscured by the orange as it follows it so closely.I have docked a star for the mic because the supplied USB cable is just too short at 3 meters long and I had to use an extension. If you are doing a home theatre calibration your PC may be some distance from your seating and I consider 5 meters would have been a reasonable length of cable. This mic isn't horrendously expensive but nor is it cheap and a 3 meter cable seems like penny pinching to me.Overall i am very pleased with the mic and would recommend it for the use that I put it to.

Great microphone for use with Room EQ wizard software once the free calibration for microphone is downloaded which is included via MiniDSP website once you enter serial number.Thought my cinema system was perfect after running Audyssey, it's better after using this microphone and REW.

Really east to set up with Room EQ Wizard software - just follow the instructions on the internet and the calibration is done, and it works.One improvement would be to use a standard camera tripod thread size for the stand.

Needed this to help set up my HiFi with the aid of a laptop. Found it to be very accurate and easy to set up.Ideal for the job.

Well built and works very well with the DIRAC setup on my AVR (Arcam) - a lot better than the cheap supplied mike with much better results.

A good option to calibrate your audio room. You can use a PC (With a good soundcard) and foobar2000 or jriver (as player) and use Mathaudio or REW+Convolver (plug-in). In my case I used a hardware named minidsp 2x4, but you can use a behringer ultracurve or any compatible hardware with REW.PD: You can download a specific calibration file from minidsp web with the serial number.