Advances in Measurement Microphones for Automotive Testing

This article offers a timely update about the evolution of measurement microphones and the reasons for common choices for automotive measurement applications. The article also expands on current discussions about standard approaches for automotive in-cabin acoustic measurements, including the recent AES TC-AA proposed measurement techniques for automotive audio. A great overview of how measurement microphones can meet new requirements, given the emergence of new technologies, new infotainment options, improved calls, active noise cancellation, and rising consumer expectations.

Announced in 2023 and already demonstrated at some of the recent CanJam events, Centrance is now closer to shipping its latest AMPmini, an 8-Watt compact headphone amplifier with a variable tube preamp that allows choosing the amount of tube tone to taste. This unique design perfectly complements the company's DACmini 2 balanced desktop DAC/amp, both featuring a compact aluminum chassis that is designed to stack with the Apple Mac mini or the new Mac Studio, to create a complete premium sound solution for the modern desktop.

After the success of the SKR0400, now implemented in a breadth of consumer products, Soundskrit announced its next-generation product: the SKR0600 MEMS microphone. With an improved 67.5dBA SNR, the new directional microphones provide pro-audio quality in smaller footprint. In its standard configuration, the SKR0600 microphone exhibits a dipole polar pattern from 20Hz to 20kHz, and can be converted into any cardioid-based polar pattern with the simple addition of an acoustic mesh.

sensiBel, the Norwegian company developing optical MEMS microphones, continues to expand its team of electronics, optics and acoustics technology experts, as well as growing its business and leadership team. Following the announcement earlier in 2022 that the company is ramping up its production, sensiBel confirmed that Kieran Harney has now joined the sensiBel team to lead the company's business development in the Americas.

This 33-page application note provides an overview of the key electroacoustic measurements used to characterize the performance of loudspeaker drive units and loudspeaker systems, focusing on the most important objective measurements and referring to industry standards for guidance. Download the Audio Precision application note now!

In this reference article, published by audioXpress in 2008, Joe D’Appolito shares his experiments with loudspeaker evaluation. In the two parts of this article, D’Appolito tries to answer the question: “Of all the measurements available to the designer, which ones are the best predictors of listener preference?" In over 30 years of designing loudspeakers, I have found the following measurements taken as a group provide the strongest predictor of loudspeaker preference available to us today,” he states.

The specification of a loudspeaker’s sensitivity is probably one of the most common, yet perhaps one of the most misunderstood. In the past, and still today, it is common to see the magnitude response of a loudspeaker system reduced to a single number as a sensitivity rating. Article originally published by Voice Coil, April 2010.

Audio Precision released an application utility that facilitates the testing of small loudspeakers per requirements established by the Republic of Korea’s Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA). APx users are now able to verify the performance of micro and slim speakers conformance to TTA’s specifications.