Specifications

EAW Smaart 6 Operation Manual Getting Started
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5. Select input and output devices from the Input Device and Output Device area’s
Device drop-lists, respectively. The drop-lists displays your soundcard’s inputs/
outputs and those of any connected external I/O devices already added.
6. Select the desired input channels for your measurement and reference signals
from the Meas in and Ref In drop-lists. Typical assignment for a stereo input
device is Meas In = Left, Ref In = Right.
7. Select the channel(s) to use for output signals from the Main and Aux lists.
8. Select the desired input and output resolution values from the Input/Output
Device Bits Per Sample menus. Resolution values can be 16, 18, 20, 24.
9. Connect devices to the outputs/inputs of your soundcard or external preamp,
and Smaart 6 correctly handles the signals.
Many soundcards use internal circuitry to mix several audio streams together to the
master output, or to select and/or mix the signals presented to the sound card inputs.
These options may need to be configured for your card to enable line-level input and
wave output. Launch the Windows mixer application by pressing Alt+V on the keyboard.
The signal generator defaults to a low level to prevent equipment damage, overload to
input levels, and hearing discomfort. This level, in conjunction with the output levels and
mixer settings for your device, determines the sound card output level.
Figure 1-2 Input levels: too low (left), correct (middle), and too high (right)
Overall input levels should be between –12 and –6 dB for most measurements. The input
levels must be adjusted to avoid clipping the sound card’s A/D converters while
maintaining a high signal to noise ratio. When Smaart 6 is running, the input level
meters indicate the soundcard’s A/D converters peak input levels. If the levels are two
high, the clipping indicators light and the input level must be reduced to perform accurate
measurements.
If your computer has both microphone and line level inputs, be sure to avoid sending a line
level signal to a microphone input. We recommend avoiding using the microphone inputs
on most computer sound hardware because their preamp circuitry typically does not ap-
proach the quality of even very modestly priced mixers. Also, a small mixer manages
multiple measurement input signals and offers other advantages, such as phantom power.
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