This will be a thread for people to share their experiences measuring amplifiers, preamplifiers, and speakers using the REW software package. Good experiences and bad. How did it go? Which REW version did you use? What operating system? I’ll start things off with my latest experience.
I’m currently setting up a dedicated REW testing station next to my electronic workbench for running frequency response plots, RTA plots, and HD profile plots on amps and preamps. @DanP generously gave me his old, used laptop, which still works good, so I have decided to press it back into service as a dedicated, off-line measuring tool.
Current versions of REW no longer work with older 32 bit operating systems, so I initially tried to install an old, legacy version of REW that can still run on Window Vista. But I had to abandon that idea because 32 bit XP or Vista drivers are not available for the two USB sound cards that I happen to have (Steinberg UR22 MK II and Yamaha Scarlett 2i2 2nd Gen).
REW has a Linux installer that includes the latest Java runtime. And the copy of Linux Ubuntu 14 that I have includes drivers that work with my USB soundcards. So, I re-partitioned the hard drive and installed Ubuntu and the REW Linux installer for version 5.31.3. Took a little bit of head scratching here and there to get it going, but I now have it working very well with both of my USB soundcards. I calibrated REW for both sound cards and took some test measurements this morning on a preamplifier. It all seems to be working perfectly.
