| Products > Test Equipment |
| Looking for an audio analyzer |
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| DaJMasta:
I know there are a bunch of audio types around here and while I think I know what I want and what sort of specs to be looking for, I don't have any immediate experience using audio analyzers so I'd like some input to help me figure things out. I'm a musician with a bit of a fascination with audio gear, and it's been a fairly longstanding goal of mine to do some measurements to characterize the sound of different instruments, techniques, spaces, etc.. I'm also interested in being able to characterize the performance of my gear - frequency response, THD+N, etc - both as a reference for further experiments and so I can see the effect of different configurations or modifications. To those ends, I want an analyzer that has: A high resolution FFT analysis mode that can update at least several times a second (minimum) and which all data can be saved A built in audio signal generator for characterizing equipment or spaces Software to compute distortion, snr, mark fft peaks, visualize the input in real time (or near to it), etc. Two input and two output channels Some degree of portability - I don't care if it's heavy and takes a bit to set up, but it can't be half a dozen bits of gear that require a dolly to move around Digital audio signal measurement does not concern me, I'm working entirely with analog signals I don't get the impression that a DSA will give me the signal generation and software options I want. I don't think the HP8903 is an option either because best I can tell, it doesn't offer FFT capability. While something like a very nice sound card and some software could potentially do the job, I don't know what software that would be and I do want it to be just one piece of software - I want the input and output to be run through the same stuff so it can handle the math in the output as I don't want to be programming my own stuff for the standard measurements. I also know a lot of test equipment related software can be quite pricey. I've seen the QA401 suggested a few times and it looks promising, but I don't know if the software is on the level of other brands - ease of use is important and built in features are important, but I also know nothing about the update or capture rate for the visualizations or data. If the QA401 is on the inexpensive side, of what I've seen, the Rohde & Schwarz UPL and the Audio Precision ATS-2 are in the same price ballpark (at least buying used) and have both excellent performance figures and the reputation of their respective brands behind the quality and usability of their software (all I really have to go on without personal experience). On the very high end of prices I'd consider, there's the R&S UPV and the Stanford Research SR1. Having the complete system integrated without a computer has its benefits in terms of usability and portability, but I get the impression that a computer interface will make it easier to store data and will increase visualization performance (for example, the UPL uses a pre-USB era computer, so while it's performance is adequate, it's probably not fast and it's probably a bit of a pain to get the data out and on to a modern computer). So does anyone have experience with the software on any of these devices? Know of something else I should consider? I'm not in a rush to buy, I'm comfortable taking at least a few months to decide and watch for deals, but I'd appreciate some input. |
| Assafl:
Have you looked at Audiomatica? http://www.audiomatica.com or Linearx? http://www.audiomatica.com The back of the Loudspeaker Design Cookbook has lots of ads for stuff like this... |
| Loboscope:
As I did some time ago in an other thread concerning a similar question I will recommend again "hpw-works" [http://hpw-works.com/]. This is a very powerful software for exactly all the measurements you want to do. It also generates the clean test-signals you must have to achieve reliable results and it is able to work with two channels (and also with two independent interfaces). It is a really professional solution and so it is not really cheap but worth its price. You need to have a good audio-interface to gain the maximum profit from hpw-works like RME or similar high-quality interfaces. But if you will make recordings and other audio-stuff at a high level, you will have such an interface anyway. |
| amirm:
For sure no DSA or Scope provides sufficient dynamic range for audio analysis. Since you are into music production, if you have a capture card/ADC, you can start with that and free software from Rightmark: http://audio.rightmark.org/index_new.shtml. PC is quite powerful so you can show you real-time FFT depending on length and sample rate. If you have a few thousand dollars, then dSound from Prism Sound is a good option. They are small and pretty portable to carry and the software interface is very good. Step up from that is Audio Precision and there we are talking $15K to $25K with better analog front-end and specs. Rhode and Schwartz is also up there with an embedded display and high prices to go with it. |
| eeFearless:
What would people think about something like the PicoScope 4262. I've never used it. But, it might be appealing as a more general piece of test equipment for audio circuit use (instead of just directly plugging in mics)? 16bit scope. AWG. I've heard the PicoScope software permits very long FFT record lengths for finer freq resolution. Thoughts? |
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