A Visit to Audio Precision to See the New APx516 Analyzer

As the official November 15 launch date approached for the new Audio Precision APx516 analyzer, I was invited for a personal presentation and demonstration of the new analyzer at Audio Precision’s headquarters in Beaverton, OR, with Dan Knighten, the General Manager of Audio Precision.
 
Since Audio Precision (AP) is only about 30 minutes from my office, I didn’t hesitate to take Dan up on the offer. I’ve had an ongoing relationship with AP that extends back more than 30 years and have on two occasions done consulting work for the company.

Founded in 1986, AP is not only one of the oldest test equipment companies in the business, but one of the few hardware analyzer companies left in the test and measurement industry. When I arrived at AP, Dan graciously gave me a tour of AP’s facility. The first thing that caught my eye when I walked into AP’s reception area was this amazing collection of vintage and current AP analyzers and some of the other notable high-performance hardware analyzers from the last 35+ years such as Tektronix and Rohde & Schwarz (Photo 1). On the AP side is System One and System Two, Portable One, and the first and current APx analyzers. It’s interesting to note that the first APx analyzer that dates to 2006 will function perfectly on the latest version of APx software, which is seriously impressive backward compatibility.
  One of the things that I found extremely interesting during my tour of AP was the temperature-controlled room (Photo 2) filled with a network of AP analyzers, all remotely accessible to AP’s software engineering team. The next stop was in the production area. Photo 3 depicts racks of AP analyzers in various stages of completion waiting for final assembly, final quality control and certification checks, and packaging.
  Speaking of certification, AP is perhaps the only analyzer company to offer accredited ISO 17025 calibration certification as shown in Photo 4. I’ve visited AP several times over the years, and this current incarnation of the company is certainly impressive.
  The purpose of this visit was to get a look at the new APx516 analyzer, shown in Photo 5. This is a new relatively economical analyzer for AP and is essentially a dual domain version of the acoustic APx517 without the onboard audio amplifier and microphone inputs. By economical, at a base price of $6000, it means that the APx516 is ideal for use with remote engineering staff, making it practical for companies to have high-precision test and measurement work being done in multiple locations.
 
Because of the variety of digital formats in today’s market, having a high-performance analyzer that can talk to all formats is an important tool. There are also several different digital modules that are available for the APx516, which includes Bluetooth, PDM 16 (16 channels of PDM acquisition), PDM (for testing devices with PDM output such as MEMS microphones), Digital Serial I/O, HDMI, and AES/SPDIF.

On the analog side, the APx516 has two analog signal generators and two analog signal analyzer channels.

For a small loudspeaker company, being able to measure electronics in subwoofers and powered speakers as well as making acoustic measurements (easily added via a GRAS 12BA microphone power supply interface) at this price level is definitely attractive. For more information about the new APx516 analyzer, read the audioXpress article and conversation with Dan Knighten. VC 
www.ap.com

This article was originally published in Voice Coil, January 2024