Practical Test & Measurement: Testing Smart Devices

Voice applications are currently fostering the largest growth in the audio industry. This article addresses the challenges and solutions for testing the wider class of “smart” – connected, voice-activated, and sensor-equipped – devices, proposing solutions to implement basic acoustic tests and real-world tests of greater complexity. This article was originally published in audioXpress, April 2019.

Voice Coil April 2019 featured another great Focus article by Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific) discussing trends in Microspeakers. With more than 1.6 billion mobile phones built annually, each with a microspeaker for the speakerphone and another for the receiver, this side of the speaker industry attracts the giants. Get the full scoop on one of the hottest market segments.

This Test Bench focuses on the 14NA100-8, a new high power handling 14” pro sound woofer from B&C Speakers. This is the highest power handling in the brand's 14” group with a continuous power handling rating of 1.6 kW (800 W nominal). Applications range from two- and three-way PA speakers and compact two-way monitor designs for high SPL in limited spaces. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2019.

This month I characterized the 10” L26ROY subwoofer from SEAS’ new Extreme line. The SEAS L26 series from SEAS was popularized by several of Siegfried Linkwitz designs (sold by Madisound as kits), including his "pièce de résistance," the LX521.4, which utilized four L26RO4Y subwoofers (the four-layer version). These 10” woofers were built in Taiwan for SEAS, but that production has now been brought home to Norway and reintroduced as the Extreme subwoofer line. The new L26ROY has a well-appointed feature set. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2019.

Music streaming is now the mainstream music distribution method. European high-resolution music streaming company Qobuz expanded to the US in 2019 to challenge Tidal for the audiophile streaming market. Qobuz claims the largest hi-res catalog in the world, the most complete metadata, and the best editorial content. In this review for audioXpress, Luke McCready puts those claims to the test and offers input on Qobuz as a streaming service.

In this article for audioXpress, Jyri Huopaniemi and Kai Havukainen from Nokia Technologies, the licensing arm of Nokia, explain how to enable higher quality audio capture for smartphones and introduces us to some of the most exciting audio recording features ever available for mobile devices. How would you like to be able to completely isolate sound sources or zoom in on specific sounds and cancel the rest in location recordings, directly on a smartphone?

Voice Coil April 2019 is now available. In this edition, Mike Klasco discusses Microspeakers and the trends in one of the hottest loudspeaker market segments. This is followed by an up-to-date Directory on Microspeaker vendors. James Croft reviews a patent for an intriguing low-frequency enclosure system incorporating an isobaric or compound woofer enclosure. And for this month's Test Bench, Vance Dickason characterizes the SEAS L26ROY and the B&C Speakers 14NA100-8 pro sound woofer.

audioXpress April 2019 features a closer look at two hot application areas in audio, with an expanded Market Update about hearables and true wireless stereo, and an update on voice capture solutions. Also in this edition, Steve Temme (Listen, Inc.) addresses the challenges for testing the wider class of connected speakers, experts from Nokia Technologies explain how audio processing in smartphones can enable completely new features, and Luke McCready reviews the Qobuz hi-res music streaming service, now available in the US. Get your audioXpress now!