Cheap portable sound spectrum analyzer?

[Weekend_Warrior]

Yeah, I could walk by a door to a computer lab and tell if someone left a CRT on easily.

Same here! I've always been able to hear those higher frequencies.

As for the sound spectrum analyzer, I know there is a lot of audio freeware out there. But unfortunately most of them tend to be rtas or VST plug-ins that were designed to work with audio recording software programs like Pro Tools, Sound Forge, Cool Edit, etc

There are probably some standalone apps out there but none immediately come to mind.

[Hobie-wan]

Yeah, I have some really long 1/8 jack cords, but I doubt the mic I have will pick up high frequencies and I would have a hard time trying to watch something on my monitor while wandering around with a a mic anyway.

[fvgazi]

Not sure if this may help, but I found it while browsing through the MAKE project site.
http://makeprojects.com/Project/Audio-S ... zer/1105/1

I'm not sure if you'd want to even start this because the process of making one might be more of a headache than actually dealing with the annoying sound. However, this is probably on my list of projects to complete for 2012. If it works and months down the road you are still need it, I might just send it your way!

[Hobie-wan]

Not sure if this may help, but I found it while browsing through the MAKE project site.
http://makeprojects.com/Project/Audio-S ... zer/1105/1

That looks like a pretty cool project. I don't think low/mid/high will be enough granularity though and no idea what the top range would be. Obviously it would depend on the quality of the mic. Thanks for posting though and I'm interested to see how yours comes out when done anyway.