AcSoft - Electroacoustic Testing

Electroacoustic Testing

Electroacoustic transducers find their way into all corners of our lives, including telephones, loudspeakers, hearing aids, car stereos, Walkmans, military headsets, microphones, and the list goes on.

In these days of high volume production and quality control, a test system is needed to provide the answers quickly and accurately.

This is where SoundCheck comes in. Developed by Steve Temme, erstwhile 2012 application engineer at B&K Denmark, and an ex-colleague, this software offers powerful measurement algorithms, and high throughput speed.

By listening to his customers (hence the name of the company Listen), Steve is rapidly becoming the de-facto standard in transducer testing. Already installed in several key customers in the UK, SoundCheck is now released in version 9.0, offering many new measurement features.

SoundCheck is not just for production however. Powerful algorithms, such as LogTSR, allow fast measurements of frequency response, impedance, polar diagrams, cumulative decay spectra, wavelets, etc. in fact a complete toolbox for the loudspeaker, microphone or headset developer.

One sweep, many measurements

SoundCheck uses a standard PC as a platform, and the acquisition hardware can be a simple sound card, although we specify the system on a Digital Audio Labs CardDeluxe professional PCI card.

Connecting up is easy, thanks to the new AmpConnect interface. This unit provides powering for microphones, USB-controlled gain, a power amplifier, and digital I/O, for complete calibrated interfacing of the DUT.

The signal generator can be configured to provide any kind of test sweep, and some clever algorithms ensure that no spurious out-of-band components are generated.

From one sweep, many measurements are possible, such as frequency response, distortion, impedance, polarity, phase, rub & buzz, loose particles each with customised pass/fail indication.

Step by Step

Flexible test sequences can be built up, with operator instructions, and external interfaces to other devices, such as alarms, lights, and process control relays.

Above all, the system is fast – a typical test of all the parameters above will take only a few seconds, and background noise is rejected by using an DFT technique.

A new release is SoundCheckONE which is a simplified system, covering most measurement requirements in a lower-cost package, for loudspeaker and microphone production testing.

Its simplified user interface allows quick setup of tests, for frequency response, polarity, sensitivity, THD, Rub n Buzz, Loose particles, and impedance, all from one sweep.

Setting up tolerances from a golden reference is a breeze, and the system looks set to replace many competitive system in production.

The package includes the AmpConnect, and including microphone comes in at less than £6,000 + VAT!