How to measure, Question

[Briank]

I fix the bose amps and I give them a good test with a signal generator and know just by experence of doing 100's of them when they are working correctly.

My question is what equipment would I need to check and confirm the proper EQ, gain and distortion % of the amps.

 

[ftuhy]

Brian,

A spectrum analyzer would allow you to look at harmonics to determine THD. While expensive as new equipment, sometimes you can find used ones at a good price. There's all sorts of tracking oscillators and detectors that can measure gain vs frequency, which then also gives you the equalizer performance. They are also expensive, but also possible to find used. GenRad and HP, for example, in the past sold lots of this type test gear to telephone company labs and manufacturers developing equipment for them.

It might be hard to get the specs from Bose or Acura, but measuring a few good units would give you a baseline.


Frank
'96 NSX-T, red/tan

 

[warrenw]

HP 334A audio distortion analyzer. Old but top quality.
HP turned their instrument division into
Agilent Technologies ~8 year ago.

The old units can be found used and seldom fail. Great quality. tone generator c/w feed back to analyzer for reference.
today they are sold as 8903B or 8903E

you will need to build an impedance matching cct as these units are 50 ohm or 600 ohm impedance.

http://www.teknetelectronics.com/Search.asp?p_ID=152&pDo=DETAIL

http://www.eqrentals.com/sale/details/HTE0345.html

http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5968-1390E.pdf

 

[drew]

you might be able to do this with a PC, probably close enough for this purpose.

http://www.topshareware.com/DspSee-download-37470.htm

There is a free version running around too that is actually pretty darn cool.

Drew