Audio System Quality Verification:

Post date: Sep 12, 2011 2:20:29 PM

Over the past few years I have been studying how the effects of mass produced loudspeaker production variation influences system performance and confirming that loudspeaker variation is particularly nefarious in automotive OEM audio systems. This is particularly ironic after so much effort is invested to develop a highly scrutinized reference audio system with every detail painstakingly engineered and negotiated to the last 12th-octave 1/2 dB EQ for a final production EQ file. This not just ironic but even facetious since general loudspeaker production variation drives production audio system tolerance variation to resolutions approaching full-octave bands or more with +/- 2 to 3dB variation. This is clearly deviation that automotive OEMs would not begin to tolerate on any other vehicle attribute. Yet casual canvassing of industry "experts" confirms there is at least some knowledge of the variation, but with tacet acceptance that the only corrective action would be more expensive transducers or sorting. Not any more.

To that end, I have developed a method appropriate for automotive OEM audio to analyze and document system performance of a prototype reference system, provide go-no go gates, or preferably to correct a production system variance so that it performs within very close replication of the reference system.

LOUDSPEAKER RECTIFICATION METHOD - Patent Application No. US20110211705

To download the patent application and AES paper 7530 "Loudspeaker Production Variation" co-authored with Laurie Fincham go to my "White Papers & Patents" page:

https://sites.google.com/site/equitysndinv/Home/white-papers-patents