Audio Precision APx500 version 6.0 audio measurement software

Audio Precision has released the latest update to its APx500 audio measurement software, version 6.0. With this release, APx software supports multiple simultaneous input types, enabling the concurrent measurement of up to 16 channels of digital and eight channels of analog audio data. This multi-input capability, paired with a high channel count and wide range of digital I/O, provides APx users with critical cross-domain insight and the opportunity to reduce testing time.

Multi-input is the ability to activate a second input type on any APx modular audio analyser, or APx515 analyser, and make measurements simultaneously on analog and digital signals. With two input types enabled — eg, analog for one or more reference microphones and PDM 16 for an array of MEMS microphones — there will be measurement results for every enabled input channel. In addition, the sensitivity or gain function of digital microphones and other converters can be directly found via a new derived result, Sensitivity, which displays the RMS Level relationship between the analog and digital inputs.

For audio devices that can have both analog and digital outputs active simultaneously, the multi-input feature enables the simultaneous evaluation of those outputs, whether in a design lab or on a manufacturing line. Concurrent measurement of both signal types also has the potential to reduce test times, which is especially important in manufacturing applications. Multi-input is especially useful for devices with digital microphones — eg, smart speakers, mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets and other devices — as it allows for the simultaneous measurement of the device’s microphone in conjunction with an analog measurement microphone as a reference.