how accurate is the epic-160 spl meter

[slconde 10+ year member]

i currently have one in my glove dept. so i open it when i want to see wut im "hittin". i no that its not 100%, but it atleast gives me an idea how much of a raise or decrease in spl when i move things aroud, upgrade on new amp, new box or wut not. with that in mind, i highest i ever hit was 152db and that was when i upgrading my amp, but before the highest was 149db. @ some sound comp i went to, i hit 151.1 (this was my old amp) on an audio control meter at the kick panel. so i wonder what im really hitting. any comments?

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[hoss 5,000+ posts]

its about as accurate as someone shooting a slingshot for the first time...

 

[DBDRAGGUY 10+ year member]

i currently have one in my glove dept. so i open it when i want to see wut im "hittin". i no that its not 100%, but it atleast gives me an idea how much of a raise or decrease in spl when i move things aroud, upgrade on new amp, new box or wut not. with that in mind, i highest i ever hit was 152db and that was when i upgrading my amp, but before the highest was 149db. @ some sound comp i went to, i hit 151.1 (this was my old amp) on an audio control meter at the kick panel. so i wonder what im really hitting. any comments?

Scores will raise as your voltage drops, so if you are using an external power source they are right on par with the audiocontrol rta that was used for comps before any of the termlabs.

 

[hoss 5,000+ posts]

Scores will raise as your voltage drops, so if you are using an external power source they are right on par with the audiocontrol rta that was used for comps before any of the termlabs.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wow.gif.23d729408e9177caa2a0ed6a2ba6588e.gif:wow://content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wow.gif.23d729408e9177caa2a0ed6a2ba6588e.gif

 

[TIeclipseMOJO 10+ year member]

weve tested with both an epic and a tl in the car at the same time. the epic seems to be consistant but it was deffinitly off but i want to say around 2db high? it was always off by the same amount, even in different cars. we were testing around 146-149 db on the TL

 

[slconde 10+ year member]

so wut would u say im prolly hitting, around 148-150 or something. i think that the epic is just very inaccurate when at low volume. cuz when i have my radio off, its still getting like a 90+ reading and 110+ with just highs, but seems more accurate at higher volumes.

 

[DBDRAGGUY 10+ year member]

so wut would u say im prolly hitting, around 148-150 or something. i think that the epic is just very inaccurate when at low volume. cuz when i have my radio off, its still getting like a 90+ reading and 110+ with just highs, but seems more accurate at higher volumes.

its hard to speculate until you get on a termlab. I got about a 5db difference from the epic 160 to the termlab. I did all my testing at the dash with tones. It would be nice to say the epic reads 2 db high or 5 db high. But like I said before if it is wired into the system you are testing I noticed the scores seemed to spike as the battery voltage got lower between 10-11 volts. but once changed to an external battery it stayed more consistent.theres just too many variable with it. The current termlab is the only reckognized measurement for consistency.

 

[HawaiianBassHed 10+ year member]

gonna do some testing tomorrow with mine against my TL for shets and giggles. will also measure in the port for high level accuracy testing //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

Not.

nG

 

[hoss 5,000+ posts]

whew. for a minute there i was afraid this thread wouldnt be brought back from 10 months ago...

 

[4EVRLRNING]

Ok.... So out of the car stereo shops I have asked, nobody does spl testing. I asked Car Toys, Quality Auto Sound and some hole in the wall shops. Nobody does it and they dont know of anywhere to get it done. SO I am going to pic one of these up, hook it up to an outside power source as recomended just to see ROUGHLY where I am at. I don't know if I'm at 140db or 150db. I have had a 145db stereo but that was many years ago and I can no longer tell what 145db compares to. I figure if it is off by 2, 3 db that will at least tell me roughly where I am at. If nothing else it will confirm who out of my friends and I is the loudest so... I figure for $200 it should be worth it.

Yeah, I brought this thread back.... DEAL!

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

I hit 155 on my epic-160 the other day. 2 powerbass xl's on a powerbass asa1000.1 in an obcon bandbass. With two kinetik 1800's in the trunk with the box. No backseat in a 98 Contour. 57 hz burp.

First thing in the morning when it's about 27 degrees the best I can do is a 142ish. As the heater gets cranking so do the numbers. The epic is very heat sensitive. So if you want high numbers for a picture crank the heat up.