Last week on a fan test line, my B&K 2250 with 1/3‑octave logging and a binaural headset caught a 240 Hz blade-pass leak, but post-processing felt slow. Anyone switched to the NTi XL2 or similar for on-site FFT/gated captures and quick sound quality decisions — does it nail transients and tonal prominence well enough, or should I keep lugging a 96 kHz USB front end?
XL2 handles ‘240 Hz’ tonal; enable pre-trigger, but keep ‘96 kHz’ for transients.
@averyclark74’s pre-trigger tip is key — on the XL2 I arm level-triggered audio with about 200 ms pre-roll and run FFT + 1/12‑oct to make a quick “keep or fix” call on a 240 Hz tone. For real transient hunts I toss a tiny 2‑ch USB front end (MOTU M2 + tablet) so I can gate tightly and run tach coherence; it’s lighter than the full rig. If you need on-meter tonality numbers, consider something that reports PR/ΔLta on-site; otherwise the XL2 (XL2 Sound Level Meter & Acoustic Analyzer | NTi Audio) is a solid triage tool — are you after metrics or just a quick listen/FFT?