Any CARA Users?

[David Meek]

Hi all. Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. Anyway, on to the fun. . . .

Has anyone used the new PC program CARA (Computer Aided Room Acoustics)? I received it for Christmas from my wife and am hoping to get some feedback on usage tips, etc. TIA.




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[JonMarsh]

I've seen it and read about it, but haven't had the inclination to get it yet, just haven't had the time (to many other projects). It's capable of a *great* deal of detail, and would be ideal for doing an in depth study of a specific acoustic space, with an eye towards analysis and optimzation. It's not just a quick analysis package like RPG Acoustics Room Optimizer, which I have.

It should be quite interesting to get into- let us know what you think, and your experiences.

Best regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[David Meek]

Jon, I certainly will...

Might as well get started, huh?

The version I received is 2.1+ which was just released in the last week or two. There is no hardcopy documentation as such, just the disc. So I spent last night printing out the documentation - and there is a lot of it! I hope to finish printing and binding tonight, and to start reading tomorrow. It's a good thing it's my Friday off, 'cuz my boss might not appreciate me studying an HT manual at the office!

Just from my initial foray into the website, it looks like it's going to be a nice package to play with.




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[George Bellefontaine]

David,
I will be looking forward to your future posts on this subject.
Regards,
George




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[Lex]

Sounds like fun David, nice to see you posting again. I remember that #18 too. David was the 18th member at HTG! Kewl, ey?

Lex

[David Meek]

Hi gang. I've been at work way too much the past few days, so I haven't gone as far as I'd hoped with this program, or even replied to Susan's excellent post.... Mo' later.




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[AndrewM]

Well after seeing this post, and then doing some research on it (a couple posts at audio asylum, review in stereophile, some reviews at audiogon) I decided to pull the trigger and pick up this package (and hey for $50, it's not a big risk).

One of my bigger deciding factors with this package was the ability to model for my very complex shaped room. My living room kind of flows into the dining room, which has 2 different ceiling heights (20ft vs 9ft), the whole bottom floor is kind of T shaped, there's also stairs in there, a couple of big windows, odd furniture, etc. It also allows me to enter in my own speaker parameters (since my whole front soundstage and LFE is all DIY), make custom furniture, etc. Every surface in the room has a number of options, things from wood paneling, to regular ol sheetrock (with options of how much insulation is behind it), room treatments (bass traps, or absorbtion panels), etc.

Did I mention all the simulations you can do with the program? You can run simulations about optimum speaker placement, now this is kind of cool. When you setup your current speaker placement, you can also "draw" a simple box around the speakers to tell the software where your limitations are for moving them. So if your sub can only go in one spot you can do that, or if you can move it along a wider range you can model that as well. You can run a 3d simulation which is animated to show you .9sec (configurable) reverb of your room. And you can move around this simulation, look at it from the top and you can see the waves and when they hit the listeners head, then bounce off the rear wall, travel back to the TV, bounce back to the listener...rinse and repeat. I modeled my current room (with no treatments), and I got about 4 bounces before that wave blended away. I treated the room with some absorbtion in the back, some bass traps, heavy curtains over a window, treat the front wall (even though it's behind the TV and racks and would be barely seen) and that hits the back wall and is almost gone by the time it gets back to the TV....simply amazing to see it happen. It gives you a good visualization of how sound moves through the room.

These are just a few of the things you can do with the software, there's just a ton more that I just can't even get into....but to be put simply even if it's say 50% accurate in what it shows with my room (even though everything I've seen written about it says it's a lot more accurate than that), and how I can change some things, it will lead to some very dramatic changes in the SQ of the room.

Andrew

[David Meek]

Andrew,

Good synopsis. I haven't completed typing up my review yet (damn, I got word ), but will try to in the next few days. Simply put, this package has led me to completely redo my room layout - in effect, rotating the layout 90 degrees! The ability to build the speakers was very nice as my Boston Acoustics VR-35s, et al had to be done from scratch.

- David -




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[David Meek]

Status: Well, it's ALMOST finished. h: I apologize for not getting this review out in a more timely manner, but work and life (yes, I have a small one - LIFE THAT IS!) intruded.

- David -

[Andrew Pratt]

Looking forward to your review this is something I'm seriously considering for planning my HT room...one quick question regrading CARA...can it model planner speakers like my maggies?

[David Meek]

Andrew, there are four types of speaker that can be modelled:

(Standard) Loudspeaker
Dipole Radiator (large flat membrane)
Subwoofer (active/passive)
Add-On Tweeter

I think the dipole radiator is the one for your Maggies. Here's the high-level description from the documention:

‘Standard Loudspeakers’ comprise conventional design principles like bass reflex or closed box using passive crossover networks with 2 ... 5 ways. As a special case also a 1 way speaker may be defined.

‘Dipole Radiators’ with large flat membranes are usually driven by electro- or magnetostatic systems. They may have a crossover network with a 3 way maximum.

‘Subwoofers’ may be active (adjustable lower and upper cutoff frequencies) or passive.

‘Add-On Tweeters’ are 1 way systems which may be added to any loudspeaker configuration. The lower cutoff frequency may be adjustable.

Yep, sounds like it'll accomodate your. . . do you have the 3.6's like Burke? Those are sweet!

I'm REALLY trying to flange this up and get it posted by this weekend. Again, sorry for the long turnaround time.

- David -

[Andrew Pratt]

David/Andrew how's CARA? I got a copy last week but haven't spent much time with it yet....what's the best way to get started?

[David Meek]

Andrew,

First off, read the instructions fully! I like hardcopy, so I printed out the damn things -what a pain! It'll help though, as creating doors and windows especially, were not intuitive at all - at least for me.




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[Andrew Pratt]

I planned on doing that...CARA isn't at all plug and play is it 8O Also looks like I'll have to design my speakers as well.

[Jay Mitchosky]

What I need to do is develop a room from scratch. Will CARA provide me optimal room dimensions based on constraints that I provide? In other words, a set of dimensions that minimize modal interactions given minimum space needed, maximum space available, and/or specific dimension constraints (ex. ceiling must be x feet high). RPG Acoustics' software will do this but I want to keep my options open.

--Jay




--Jay

My Home Theater Setup and Pronto CCF...

[David Meek]

Hi Jay, welcome to The Guide.

Quite honestly, I don't remember. I'll check tonight and let you know, okay?
:banghead:




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[David Meek]

Jay, my sincerest apologies for not getting this done sooner! ops:

I don't think CARA will do just what you want. You'd need to build the various room models and look at the results. You could minimize some of the variables you'd have to work with by going with one of the "golden room ratios" and modelling from there. . . .

FWIW, with the latest patch release (v2.20),. which is free, there are more options and capabilities available to you than in v2.1.




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