Soundbar Testing

Issues with optimising the response of the sound bar and balancing all the speaker elements is a challenging task. By using a measurement microphone array the frequency response, left-right balance and harmonic distortion can be characterised. 

Another issue common to sound bars are buzzes and rattles caused by structural excitation of the soundbar at high sound pressure levels. Locating the source of these distortions can be difficult. An acoustic array, such as the HBK Acoustic Camera, can be used to visually pinpoint the exact location of the offending component, helping designers to troubleshoot design issues faster.

The perceived audio experience is best performed in a representative home environment and measured using an HBK HATS (Head and Torso Simulator), which accurately reproduces the human hearing experience. The sound can also be recorded for playback in a jury test to allow objective evaluation of the quality and comparison to other speaker systems, for example, to rank a system against competitors.