Testing Audio Equipment

[-Noodles-]

This is my first foray into this forum, so apologies if this has been covered (I tried to search but my terminologies maybe wrong).

I've built a schematic of a piece of hardware using TINA (designsoft inc) and I'm looking to start testing it.

what i am thinking is to test;
frequency response
phase
thd

Anything I'm missing that's important?
In / out gain perhaps?

The piece in question is a hardware Ambisonic decoder (Gerzon's Wireless World design).

Any suggestions or help would be great,
A

[Ethan Winer]

Phase shift in audio gear is not much of a problem unless it's different for the left and right channels. The main metrics that matter are frequency response, distortion (THD and IMD), and of course noise. You'll also need to test at low and high signal levels.

--Ethan

[-Noodles-]

Thanks Ethan, I think that's exactly what I was looking for!

[Matt Syson]

Hi
There is also crosstalk, EMI rejection, PSU noise, gain of course.
Matt S

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by Matt Syson

There is also crosstalk, EMI rejection, PSU noise, gain of course.

Indeed, though to my way of thinking all of those (except gain) are subsets of noise.

--Ethan

[-Noodles-]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

Indeed, though to my way of thinking all of those (except gain) are subsets of noise.

--Ethan

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[JohnRoberts]

Originally Posted by -Noodles-

This is my first foray into this forum, so apologies if this has been covered (I tried to search but my terminologies maybe wrong).

I've built a schematic of a piece of hardware using TINA (designsoft inc) and I'm looking to start testing it.

what i am thinking is to test;
frequency response
phase
thd

Anything I'm missing that's important?
In / out gain perhaps?

The piece in question is a hardware Ambisonic decoder (Gerzon's Wireless World design).

Any suggestions or help would be great,
A

#1 frequency response
#2 Signal to noise or dynamic range
#3 linearity (aka distortion)
#4 Phase response.
#5 Listen to it, and tell Ethan how it sounds..
Have fun..

JR

[-Noodles-]

Thanks for the suggestions John!