Audio testing equipment

Ok, What would a fellow need to setup an audio testing rig suitable for normal DIY work? something easily made or found for cheap(don't want the price to cut into my DIY budget too much!)

I figure i'd need a pink/white noise generator, which i have, to feed into frankenstein creations and I need some kind of frequency spectrum analyzer/monitor to see changes in my output right? are there any programs that would allow me to do this via laptop computer?

any other/better ideas are certainly welcome!

thanks! :guinness:

For the audio part of DIY?

A decent audio card, and "AudioTester":

http://www.sumuller.de/audiotester/maine.htm

And then possibly an analouge AC mV-meter..

Jakob E.

exactly what i was looking for, thanks again Gyraf!

A passive VU meter in a box with a termination switch and a couple of preset levels like ...
0dB, +4dB and +14 or +24dB or whatever suits you way of working.
my site has some details
I think two of these is a must.
Use one at the input and one at the output ... or use two for stereo.

Mark B's circuit tracer is a cool thing and very cheap to make.
http://www.recording.org/users/kev/signaltracing.htm

An old powered computer speaker can be a handy thing.
Make a Festoon to go with it and you will have a handy monitor unit.

A Festoon is simply a multi Y cable with every connector you can think of ... ALL paralleled together ... males and females ... anything.

thanks Kev, that's a great idea!

If you're building, you're really going to want an oscilloscope too. A real one, not just a sound card. The great news is that decent analog scopes can be found used for under $50 these days - something with dual traces and 10-20MHz is fine.

yes, an oscilloscope is a thing you can't live without.

Get that first.

I was thinking of specificly audio-related testtools, and in that case AudioTester is a must.

:grin:

Jakob E.

I have an Oscope already, I mainly want something to do frequency analysis without the price of a real frequency analyzer... :green:

I have a laptop with decent sound system that runs 98se. i think the program you suggested will be perfect to compliment what i already have. thanks all!

Hey Jakob,

That software is PC based!! Arrrrgghh
Do you know where I can get that in MAC OSX?

I had mentioned in another post that it would be nice if someone could explain how to measure things such as the Noise Floor of a unit. Can one of you guys go over a procedure you might be using? And the tools used of course.

I still need to build tohose VU meters Kev!! You're right I could really find something as simple as this very usefull.

-Chuck

Audio Tester is the best test equipment I've invested in solong!
Right now I run it in a 2,8GHz / Intel P4 together with a M-Audio Audiophile 2496. Since it uses one of the channels as a reference when you're doing sweeps it doesn't matter if the soundcard isn't flat!
( I had to run it with the optional ASIO driver to make it work with the M-Audio)
There's a new card on the market called Juli@, balanced in/out's and 192kHz is available for the analogue in/outs also!

A good pad is useful too between the tested unit and the soundcard so you can see what's happens when you drive the unit under test harder!

[quote author="ChuckD"]Hey Jakob,

That software is PC based!! Arrrrgghh
Do you know where I can get that in MAC OSX?

I had mentioned in another post that it would be nice if someone could explain how to measure things such as the Noise Floor of a unit. Can one of you guys go over a procedure you might be using? And the tools used of course.

I still need to build tohose VU meters Kev!! You're right I could really find something as simple as this very usefull.

-Chuck[/quote]

hey chuck,

have you checked out mac the scope?

http://www.channld.com/mts.html

steff

Nice!

Thats What I need
seems expensive for the add-ons but a spectruim Analyzer that goes low enough is often not cheap

Thanks Steff

-ChuckD

Maybe there's something wrong in my settings on my Mac. But every time I try to run Mac the Scope it fives me some fatal error that causes my screen to go dim, and tell me that I have to reboot. Can't even get out of that screen to restart. Just have to hit the reboot button on the Mac.

Daniel

You can do frequency response tests, spectrum analysis, etc. with a reasonably-priced, used wave analyzer. It's just not as quick or convenient as a dedicated spectrum analyzer. It is, however, much more accurate than the RTAs used by PA system techs and car audio enthusiasts.

I use a Hewlett-Packard 3581A... paid about $100 for it in excellent working condition.