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ARTICLES IN THE BOOK

  1. Acoustics
  2. AKG Acoustics
  3. Audio feedback
  4. Audio level compression
  5. Audio quality measurement
  6. Audio-Technica
  7. Balanced audio connector
  8. Beyerdynamic
  9. Blumlein Pair
  10. Capacitor
  11. Carbon microphone
  12. Clipping
  13. Contact microphone
  14. Crosstalk measurement
  15. DB
  16. Decibel
  17. Directional microphone
  18. Dynamic range
  19. Earthworks
  20. Electret microphone
  21. Electrical impedance
  22. Electro-Voice
  23. Equal-loudness contour
  24. Frequency response
  25. Georg Neumann
  26. Harmonic distortion
  27. Headroom
  28. ITU-R 468 noise weighting
  29. Jecklin Disk
  30. Laser microphone
  31. Lavalier microphone
  32. Loudspeaker
  33. M-Audio
  34. Microphone
  35. Microphone array
  36. Microphone practice
  37. Microphone stand
  38. Microphonics
  39. Nevaton
  40. Noise
  41. Noise health effects
  42. Nominal impedance
  43. NOS stereo technique
  44. ORTF stereo technique
  45. Parabolic microphone
  46. Peak signal-to-noise ratio
  47. Phantom power
  48. Pop filter
  49. Positive feedback
  50. Rode
  51. Ribbon microphone
  52. Schoeps
  53. Sennheiser
  54. Shock mount
  55. Shure
  56. Shure SM58
  57. Signal-to-noise ratio
  58. Soundfield microphone
  59. Sound level meter
  60. Sound pressure
  61. Sound pressure level
  62. Total harmonic distortion
  63. U 47
  64. Wireless microphone
  65. XLR connector

 

 



MICROPHONES
This article is from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_quality_measurement

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License 

Audio quality measurement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Audio quality measurement seeks to quantify the various forms of corruption present in an audio system or device. The results of such measurement are used to maintain standards in broadcasting, to compile specifications, and to compare pieces of equipment.

The need for measurement

Measurement allows limits to be set and maintained for equipment and signal paths, and different pieces of equipment to be compared. While the issue of measurement is controversial, to the extent that Hi-Fi magazines these days tend to shun measurement in favour of listening tests, it is important to realise that audio quality measurement has in the past got a bad name by failing to produce results that correlated well with listening tests. This was because certain basic measurements were used, such as THD measurement, and A-weighted noise measurement, without any proper consideration of whether these related to subjective effects. The proper approach to measurement, which is largely adopted by broadcasters and other audio professionals, is to first devise measurements that can quantify the various forms of corruption in terms of subjective annoyance to a human listener, ideally the most critical listener based on tests using many suitably rested subjects. Once this is done, measurement has the advantage of not being dependent on a particular listener, or his state of hearing on a given day. It also has the advantage of being able to quantify corruption levels that would not be audible to even the most sensitive ear, which is important because a typical audio path from source to listener can involve many items of equipment, and just listening to each is not a guarantee that they will still sound acceptable when cascaded so that all their deficiencies add up.

Automated sequence testing

Sequence testing uses a specific sequence of test signals, for frequency response, noise, distortion etc, generated and measured automatically to carry out a complete quality check on a piece of equipment or signal path. A single 32-second sequence was standardised by the EBU in 1985, incorporating 13 tones (40 Hz–15 kHz at −12 dB) for frequency response measurement, two tones for distortion (1024 Hz/60 Hz at +9 dB) plus crosstalk and compander tests. This sequence, which began with a 110-baud FSK signal for synchronising purposes, also became CCITT standard 0.33 in 1985.

Lindos Electronics expanded the concept, retaining the FSK concept, and inventing segmented sequence testing, which separated each test into a 'segment' starting with an identifying character transmitted as 110-baud FSK so that these could be regarded as 'building blocks' for a complete test suited to a particular situation. Regardless of the mix chosen, the FSK provides both identification and synchronisation for each segment, so that sequence tests sent over networks and even satellite links are automatically responded to by measuring equipment. Thus TUND represents a sequence made up of four segments which test the alignment level, frequency response, noise and distortion in less than a minute, with many other tests, such as Wow and flutter, Headroom, and Crosstalk also available in segments.

The Lindos sequence test system is now a 'de-facto' standard in broadcasting and many other areas of audio testing, with over 25 different segments recognised by Lindos test sets, and the EBU standard is no longer used.

Multitone testing

Another approach to automated testing uses a special multitone signal to assess all parameters simultaneously, by analysing the spectrum of the output from the device under test. It relies on the fact that with appropriate choice of frequencies, distortion components and noise can be made to appear between the tones, and measured using digital comb filtering. Even noise and wow and flutter can be extracted from the spectrum in principle.

In practice, though the use of a single brief test is attractive, and might even be used between programmes, this method presents several problems. Digital distortions produce a fine spectrum which can swamp the measurement of true noise in the absence of signal. The composite signal also has a high peak to mean ratio, with peak levels occurring whenever all the tones hit maximum simultaneously. Although the Probability density function can be controlled to some extent, it is not possible to separate out distortion at high level, from low level distortion. Quite high amounts of the former can be considered acceptable, but low level distortion is more critical.

Fast sequence tests are possible, and there have been attempts to make these appear like jingles for incorporation into broadcast programmes!

Measurements needed

  • Frequency response
  • Audio noise measurement
  • Headroom
  • Distortion measurement
  • Crosstalk measurement
  • Flutter measurement
  • Rumble measurement
  • Jitter (on digital systems)
  • Impulse response (speakers) (Waterfall plots, MLSSA) (colouration)
  • Latency (satellite links and codecs) (sound for live video)

See also

  • Audio noise measurement
  • Distortion measurement
  • ITU-R 468 noise weighting
  • Flutter measurement
  • Rumble measurement
  • Loudspeaker measurement
  • Alignment level
  • Programme levels
  • Headroom
  • Weighting filter
  • Equal-loudness contour
  • Fletcher-Munson curves
  • Sound level meter
  • Noise
  • Lindos Electronics
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_quality_measurement"