Fresh From the Bench: Measurement Microphones from PCB Piezotronics

Stuart Yaniger reviews a complete series of professional-grade measurement microphones from PCB Piezotronics, specifically, the 378A04 free-field microphone, the 378B02 free-field microphone, the 378A21 diffuse-field microphone, and the 130E20 array microphone. This article was originally published in audioXpress, December 2016.

In this article, Vance Dickason explores Audiomatica's CLIO Pocket analyzer. Rather than go into detail regarding all the measurement routines available in CLIO Pocket - audioXpress already published a thorough review in the October 2015 issue - Dickason gives practical examples using measurements for a couple of drivers in the same way he does for his monthly column, Test Bench. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, March 2016.

In audioXpress' November 2015 Sound Control column, Richard Honeycutt, addressed the topic of Smartphone Apps for Sound Measurement. Touching on the challenges and benefits of the smartphone approach as a mobile test and measurement device, as well as reviewing available apps for iOS (Apple), Android, and Microsoft Windows, this an article that needs to be broadly shared while it is still up to date. Read the full article now available online.

In this report for audioXPress, Oliver A. Masciarotte’s provides his personal perspective as he explores the most interesting new products at The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) 2016. In his Show Report from Denver, CO, Masciarotte finds headphones and earbuds, wired and wireless solutions, new digital players, DACs, amplifiers, speakers and much more. This article was originally published in audioXpress, January 2017, and is now available online.

audioXpress January 2017 featured the much-anticipated review of the brand new Kii Three speakers from the company everyone’s watching, Kii Audio. “The Next Step in Loudspeaker Evolution,” as Jan Didden and Paul Wilke titled their review, examines whether the Kii Threes are effectively “the most advanced loudspeaker on the market today,” as is claimed by Kii Audio. Learn what they discovered in this definitive review, now available online here.

For our readers interested in loudness standards, Jon Schorah provides a great article about Loudness Meters and Measurements. If someone has extensive experience both in understanding the norms and cutting-edge implementation of corresponding loudness tools is Jon Schorah, the creative director and co-founder of NUGEN Audio, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of loudness products. Read the full article available online.

In this article audioXpress discusses a new company that certainly deserves attention from our readers. Oliver Masciarotte reviews the affordable but extremely useful MusicScope software, from a relative newcomer to the pro and consumer electronics software space, XiVero, from Germany. Oliver Masciarotte was fascinated by the amount of things he discovered and which he intends to explore further in future articles. This article was originally published in audioXpress, October 2016.

Since its publication in 2010, “Current-Driving of Loudspeakers" by Esa Meriläinen, was received with both enthusiasm and skepticism. Effectively, Meriläinen anticipated the criticism when writing in his book preface: “The subtitle of the book may at first sound too much promising or inflated, which it, however, is not at all; for as will show up especially in chapter 4, the issue is indeed about a fundamental fallacy in sound reproduction technology.” In this article, published originally in Voice Coil, July 2010, Joseph DeMarinis not only reviews the book but also runs tests of the theory.

In this article, Vance Dickason highlights a new transducer technology from Christensen Audio, which was recently introduced and has the potential to replace moving-coil driver types in many applications, both in terms of performance and cost. The new technology represents a radical improvement of the basic and well-known Air Motion Transformer (AMT) technology, as originally developed by Dr. Oskar Heil and ESS Labs in the 1970s. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, January 2016.

In this article, part of audioXpress’ “Acoustics in Focus” August 2016 edition, Oliver Masciarotte explores one of the newest companies in the acoustical treatment domain, already making a splash in the global market. Artnovion, was founded in 2015 by acoustical engineer and visionary entrepreneur, Jorge Castro, just one of the three ventures he founded in Paços de Ferreira, the furniture capital of Portugal. This article was originally published in audioXpress, August 2016.