Testing Loudspeakers with Wavelets 5265

Marshall Buck
Psychotechnology, Inc., Los Angeles, CA, USA
and
Audio Precision, Inc., Beaverton, OR, USA
Presented at
the 109th Convention
2000 September 22-25
Los Angeles, California, USA
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AN AUDIO ENGINEERING SOCIETY PREPRINT

Marshall Buck, Ph.D.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Psychotechnology, Inc.
Audio Precision, Inc.

Testing Loudspeakers with Wavelets


Abstract

A shaped sine burst wavelet is very effective for revealing audible loudspeaker
distortion. The same stimulus can be used to measure both frequency response
and distortion, and lends itself to gated operation. A wavelet can be designed
with a flat top spectrum one-half octave wide using an IFFT and windowing. A
lower crest factor wavelet with attractive qualities can be constructed with
multiple synchronous sine waves, and used in a measurement system
particularly suitable for quality control testing. The synchronous wavelet has a flat
spectrum over one-quarter to one-half octave, and is zero outside that region,
leaving a wide dynamic range for distortion components to be detected.
Comparisons with standard swept sine measurements are presented.

Introduction

The standard stimulus for measuring frequency response is a slow sine wave
sweep. This stimulus is also traditional for measuring harmonic distortion. A short
impulse, or click, can also be used to measure frequency response with fast
Fourier transform (FFT) analysis. The spectrum of the impulse is related to its
duration and rise and fall times, and can be very wide in practice. This is the
quickest method for measuring frequency response, or more precisely, the
impulse response and thus the transfer function of a linear, time invariant system.
However, it requires a very quiet environment, due to the high crest factor, and
thus low energy, of the stimulus. The click impulse is not useful for measuring
harmonic distortion. A noise burst, especially a pseudo-random maximum length
sequence, has a low crest factor and can also be very fast in a frequency
response measuring system. The MLS stimulus method is also unable to
measure conventional distortion. It is mainly useful for response measurement of
linear, time-invariant systems.
A tone burst falls between a click and a slow sweep in the range of test stimuli,
and it was decided to explore its possibilities for measuring both frequency
response and distortion.

Background and History

Tone burst stimuli have a long and valued history in the testing of loudspeakers.
(Bunton & Small, Linkwitz, Keele) They are useful for time-gated measurements
in a non-anechoic environment. They are excellent for exploring the dynamic
range of a speaker non-destructively. They are audibly very revealing of
overload, resonance and buzzing problems because they stimulate the device
under test and quickly go away, unmasking the ear so it can detect noises and
distortions quite easily. Similar advantages are found in listening to room
acoustic phenomena.

The International Electrotechnical Commission standard IEC 60268-5 defines an
Impulsive Signal suitable for measurement as A short-duration pulse having a
constant spectral power per unit bandwidth over at least the bandwidth of interest
in the measurement.

Bunton & Small (1982 June JAES) found that in order to render Cumulative
Spectral Decay plots in a manner that allowed for ease of visual analysis, it was
necessary to apodize (literally cut off the feet) of a gated tone burst. By sending
the burst through a low pass filter, the start and stop transients are smoothed,
and the spectrum of the pulse is made narrower.

Schoukens , et al (Broadband Versus Stepped Sine FRF Measurements, IEEE,
April 2000) showed that in general, measurement time is significantly less when
using broadband stimuli, although there is a strong dependence on signal to
noise ratio.

The spectrum of an apodized tone burst is related to the number of full cycles in
the burst.

The following graphics are from CoolEdit Pro, and show the appearance and
spectrum of a five cycle shaped pulse.



The next three spectral graphs are from Sound Forge, and show the increasingly
narrow spectrum of a seven eight, and nine cycle pulse.



Note that as the spectrum becomes narrower, the level at the second harmonic
of the lowest fundamental frequency gets lower, thus allowing for a better

.

floor for the measurement of distortion.


A 12 cycle burst is about one sixth octave wide.

D.B Keele, Jr. (Time-Frequency Display of Electro-Acoustic Data Using Cycle-
Octave Wavelet Transform, 1995) showed that sixty-one such stimuli spaced on
1/6 octave centers could be used to measure both the frequency response and
spectral decay of a loudspeaker over ten octaves. An advantage of such a
wavelet scheme is that the desired logarithmic frequency scale is achieved with a
sparse number of stimuli.

My experimentation started with five cycle bursts, cosine windowed, with a one-
third octave spectral width. With 33 such stimuli, the full ten octave audio band
could be covered. Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) on the resulting responses
could be done with high resolution, such that the objective of 1/20 octave
frequency resolution could be achieved. Due to the rounded nature of the
spectral peak, it was necessary to apply a correction factor for frequencies away
from the center of the 1/3 octave. This correction was about 2.2 dB. Experiments
verified that this method was effective in measuring frequency response. An eight
cycle pulse was created to provide a lower floor for distortion measurements,
although it required 44 stimuli, since they were now octave wide.



Shaped Pulse Vs. Slow Sweep Measurements

In order to explore the differences between the shaped sine pulse (wavelet)
stimulus vs. the traditional slow sine sweep test, several measurements were
performed.

Electronic Equalizer

A BSS VariCurve equalizer was set to exhibit a 15 dB dip 1/10 octave wide
at 200 Hz, and a 15 dB peak 1/10 octave wide at 630 Hz.

This measurement comparison uses an equalizer (BSS VariCurve). The major
difference is that the pulse method underestimates the depth of the narrow dip by
about 3 dB.

EQUALI ZER RESPONSE - RED - PULSE, YELLOW - SWEEP. PEAK DI P BW = 1/10 OCTAVE, AMP=15 DB
Col or Li ne Style Thick Data Axis
Red Soli d 1 Fft.Ch.1 Ampl !Normali ze Left
Red Soli d 1 Anlr.Ampl !Normalize Left
-14
+18
-12
-10
-8
-6
-4
-2
+0
+2
+4
+6
+8
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+12
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d
B
V
80 3k 90 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1k 2k
Hz

Next the equalizer was set for 1/3 octave wide peak and dip of 15 dB amplitude.
The following graph shows that the largest difference for a 1/3 octave dip is 1.4
dB and the frequency of the dip as measured by the pulse method is higher by
2.6%, which is less than 1/20 of an octave.

EQUALI ZER MEASURED BY PULSE (RED) SWEEP (YELLOW)
Col or Li ne Style Thick Data Axis
Red Soli d 1 Fft.Ch.1 Ampl !Normali ze Left
Red Soli d 1 Anlr.Ampl !Normalize Left
-14
+20
-12
-10
-8
-6
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-2
+0
+2
+4
+6
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+10
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d
B
V
80 3k 90 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1k 2k
Hz





Acoustic Tests

The acoustic tests of the shaped pulse method versus the slow sweep required
an anechoic test environment. This is because the slow sweep method is not
designed to gate out reflections, and delayed, reflected energy might be treated
differently by the two techniques.

It was decided to construct a plane wave tube, and use a compression driver as
the transducer under test. The use of a plane wave tube (PWT) is standard
practice for the testing of compression drivers, as the damped tube provides an
acoustic impedance load for the driver that is similar to a large horn of the same
throat diameter. When properly terminated, it is anechoic.

Accordingly, a one inch inside diameter plastic tube three feet long was attached
to a 1.25 inch thick 4 by 4 inch plastic plate that served as both the mounting
surface for the driver and also a holder for the microphone, which was inserted
through a hole perpendicular to the wall of the tube. The diaphragm of the
microphone was tangent to the tube inner wall.
The driver was a JBL Model 2426J with a one inch diameter throat (exit hole).
The microphone was a Bruel & Kjaer Model 4133 inch freefield mic and 2619
preamplifier, powered by a Bruel & Kjaer Model 2801 power supply.
The absorbing wedge in the PWT was constructed with a number of varying
lengths of long-haired wool.
Tests of the adequacy of the PWT were conducted using MLSSA measurements.
The reference response is taken from the first 6 msec of energy, before the
reflections from the open end of the three foot tube have a chance to interfere
with the direct sound. The comparison is from an FFT of the full 200 msec of
response. The error above 500 Hz is less than 1 dB, above 1200 Hz less than
0.1 dB, while the error at lower frequencies is 3 dB at points. We will concentrate
on the data above 500 Hz, as that is the anechoic region with less than 1 dB
error of this PWT.


The error function is shown below:







Frequency Response Comparison Between Pulsed And Sweep Methods

The following graph compares the fundamental response measured using the
compensated shaped pulse technique and the standard slow sweep technique.
Two drive levels were used for each method. The colors didnt clipboard over
correctly, but at the low frequencies, the higher amplitude drive response is
lower, while at the higher frequencies they are extremely close, within a small
fraction of a decibel.
In the frequency region above 500 Hz, where the PWT is anechoic, they are
sufficiently close to indicate that the pulse technique works well.


The following comparison shows that the swept vs pulse measurements are
nearly identical at the same peak voltage, and that the effect of lowering the
voltage gives similar results for both, especially in the anechoic region above 500
Hz.


PULSE (RED 8.8 VOLTS GRN .88 V) VS. SWEEP (MGNTA 8.8 Y .88 V) RESPONSE PWT. NORM @ 1KHZ
Col or Li ne Style Thick Data Axis
Red Soli d 1 Fft.Ch.1 Ampl !Normali ze Left
Red Soli d 1 Fft.Ch.1 Ampl !Normali ze Left
Red Soli d 1 Fft.Ch.1 Ampl !Normali ze Left
Red Soli d 1 Fft.Ch.1 Ampl !Normali ze Left
Red Soli d 1 Anlr.Ampl !Normalize Left
Red Soli d 1 Anlr.Ampl !Normalize Left
-24
+4
-22
-20
-18
-16
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-8
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80 3k 90 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1k 2k
Hz



Harmonic Distortion Comparison Between Pulsed And Sweep Methods


The following graph shows the fundamental, second (dashed) and third
harmonics as measured by a slow sweep, at 8.8 volts continuous. Compare with
the next graph.
















The graph above is a measure of the fundamental, second (dashed) and third
order harmonic distortion plus difference distortion components using the shaped
pulse technique. The scalloped appearance of the distortion data suggests that
the difference distortion components add distortion in a non-uniform manner, as
a function of frequency. Nonetheless, the overall shape and level of the pulse
distortion data is very similar to that from the slow sweep, although somewhat
lower in amplitude. This result is adequate for a Proof-of-Concept validation.

The following graphs compare the fourth (dashed) and fifth harmonic with sweep
vs. pulse measurements







The graph above shows the fourth (dashed) and fifth order distortion with the
pulsed stimulus.
As with the second and third harmonic measurement comparisons, the pulse
data is scalloped in appearance and somewhat lower in level than the swept
data. A careful look at the numbers at 500 Hz show that the fourth order
harmonic plus difference distortion is lower by eight dB and the fifth order
distortion is lower by seven dB when measured by the pulse method, and using
the tops of the scallops as the data points to join. As before, the general shape of
the distortion curves is similar when measured by the pulse and the sweep
methods. There does not seem to be a systematic increase in scallop depth with
increasing harmonic number, although there is a tendency in that direction.
Certainly this tendency is not as strong as to require multiplying the
compensation factor by the harmonic number. In fact, no compensation was
applied to the distortion data.


Precompensation Of The Pulse

Next, we explore a modification of the shaped pulse: apply the frequency
response compensation to the pulse, rather than to the FFT of the response. This
may be most easily researched by performing an inverse FFT on an ideally
shaped spectral clump. This ideal shape would have a flat top and a steep, deep
skirt at the upper band edge. This might reduce computation time during the
measurement, as the correct pulse shape could be simply read out from a look-
up table, and the flat energy within the band would pre-compensate the
fundamental.




Designer Wavelet Increases Measurement Speed

A designer wavelet that stimulates over octave instead of octave requires
only half as many stimuli to be delivered to cover the entire audio band; twenty
two will cover 20 to 30kHz. Compared to a conventional approach that requires
220 stimuli to measure this band with 1/20 octave resolution, the new wavelet is
ten times as efficient. The new wavelet requires no equalization.

Details of Designer Wavelet

I next experimented with designer wavelets, and I found one that satisfies a one
half octave criterion.
I started with a frequency spectrum, edited in MLSSA, that had the desired
characteristics, i.e. a flat top along the fundamental frequencies, and a fast and
deep 90 dB rolloff so that second order distortion could be measured
accurately. I then performed an IFFT on this 4096 point spectrum to generate an
impulse response.
Some further manipulation of the resulting impulse was applied, specifically
truncation and windowing.
Following are the results for the one-half octave wavelet.

Designer Wavelets

The following graph shows the spectrum desired. It is centered at 1000 Hertz,
and the flat top extends octave from 840 Hz to 1180 Hz. The second harmonic
of 840 Hz is 1680 Hz, and the skirt is down 92 dB at this point, dropping further to
95 dB.


The IFFT of this spectrum created the following wavelet:



The total length of this wavelet is 54.2587 milliseconds. The original eight cycle
cosine shaped 1 kHz 1/4 octave wavelet had a total length of eight milliseconds.
We would like to truncate the wavelet as much as possible while still retaining the
desired spectral shape.
We truncate to 20 milliseconds to get the following wavelet:




When we perform a 4096 point FFT on a Cosine windowed version of this
wavelet, we get a spectrum with the following useful features: The amplitude
deviation of all frequencies within the octave near 1 kHz is 0.07 dB. This
means that no equalization of the fundamentals will be required.
See Graph below:



Further, the skirt is down 92 dB at the second harmonic of the lowest
fundamental, 840 Hz. At the second harmonic of all frequencies above 900 Hz, it
is 95 dB down. This allows distortion measurements to 72 dB (0.25%) with 1 dB
accuracy, which is adequate for loudspeaker evaluation.
See Graph below:

.





Measurement Time with the Designer Wavelet

The implications for lessening total measurement time using this wavelet are
substantial. The measurement time for the 905 Hz stimulus is currently 22 msec,
using the octave pulse. The truncation of the wavelet to 20 msec is practical,
and will result in no additional measurement time per stimulus, assuming that the
measurement epoch is simultaneous with the stimulus epoch. Now the stimulus
duration is equal to the measurement duration. Thus the total measurement time
for a 20 Hz to 30 kHz measurement would drop to about 3.2 seconds, as
compared to 6.3 seconds for the octave scheme, because there are half as
many stimuli.

Generating the Designer Wavelet

A Look-up-Table scheme is indicated to generate the designer wavelet, as it is
not an analytic function. Thus, we did no further experiments with the Designer
Wavelet.

The difficulty in generating such a non-analytic wavelet led to the next scheme,
which was to create synchronous sine waves spaced by the lowest frequency
resolution of the analysis. For example, the sines would be spaced every two Hz
when a 32768 point FFT is to be performed on data sampled at 65536 Hz. This
generated a wavelet very similar in appearance to the designer wavelet in the
time domain, but with improved qualities. By making the sine waves synchronous
with the sampling rate, no windowing is required for the FFT, and the spectral
signature is perfectly flat over the 1/2 octave and zero outside that region. This
allows distortion components to be seen that are over 100 dB down. Although
these distortion measures include difference frequency as well as harmonic
distortion, it is probable that they can be very useful for quality control of
loudspeakers.

Improved PWT

Before proceeding with the next round of testing, the anechoic properties of the
PWT were improved by adding additional absorption to the wedge.
The error above 65 Hz is less than 1 dB, between 500 Hz and 8KHz less than
0.1 dB, while the error at lower frequencies is 1.5 dB at points. We will
concentrate on the data above 65 Hz, as that is the anechoic region with less
than 1 dB error of this PWT.


The new error function is shown below:








Above is a graph showing the swept sine response4 and second and third
harmonic distortion over the full audio band, of the JBL 2426J compression driver
on the PWT.




Above is a graph of the synchronous sine wavelet response of the compression
driver on the PWT including second and third order distortion. In this case, the
distortion levels are higher than the swept single tone measures, especially in the
higher frequencies. This is due to the fact that difference tones are also produced
in the analysis band, adding to the levels caused by simple harmonic distortion.
This effect could be a real advantage, because it simulates musical signals much
more closely than do single sine waves.

Conclusion

The use of wavelet stimuli is very promising for use in testing of transducers,
because they can quickly and simultaneously measure both frequency response
and distortion, and they are especially well suited psychoacoustically for
revealing audible problems. The correlation between measurement and
audibility is less elusive than with other, more traditional stimuli.

Appreciation is given to Tom Kite, Joe Rayhawk, and Rich Cabot of Audio
Precision for practical and theoretical discussions, and to Jim Williams and Bill
Rich for AP System Two and System Two Cascade programming.


References

Bunton, John D., and Small, Richard H.; Cumulative Spectra, Tone Bursts, and
Apodization. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 1980. In: Loudspeakers,
Vol. 2, an AES Anthology.

Keele, Donald B., Jr. Time-Frequency Display of Electro-Acoustic Data Using
Cycle-Octave Wavelet Transform. AES Preprint 4136, October 1995.

Schoukens, Johan, Pintelon, Rik M., and Rolain, Yves J.;Broadband Versus
Stepped Sine FRF Measurements. IEEE Transactions on Measurement, April
2000. pp 275-278.

MATLAB Version 5.2. MathWorks, Inc. www.mathworks.com

MLSSA, DRA Laboratories. www.mlssa.com

CoolEdit Pro, David Johnston, www.syntrillium.com

Sound Forge, www.sonicfoundry.com