APx515 B Series Audio Analyzer

APx515 B Series Two-Channel Audio Analyzer

Ideal for production test and entry-level R&D applications

The B Series APx515 is a performance audio analyzer optimized for production test. It is a best-in-class instrument, offering a powerful combination of speed, performance, automation, reliability and ease-of-use.

The B Series APx515 can make all key audio measurements in less than three seconds. Despite its low cost, APx515 still has excellent performance, with a typical THD+N of –106 dB, 1.2M point FFTs and up to 216k digital I/O, as well as the one-click automation and ease-of-use of all APx B Series audio analyzers. Like all AP instruments, APx515 comes with an ISO:17025 Accredited Calibration and three-year warranty, so its results are trusted everywhere.

The B Series APx515 operates either as a stand-alone test unit with its own user interface, or it can be controlled by a master .NET or LabVIEW application. In either case, an operator can control the APx515 with a keyboard, foot switch or barcode scanner, or the system can be totally automated. Switchers and external devices such as pass/fail lights are also supported.

NOTE: B Series APx analyzers are only compatible with APx500 software version 5 and later. If your audio test requirements include the ability to run an earlier version of APx500 software, please contact your sales partner for further information.

Features

Transfer Function
 APx500 software release 5.0 adds the ability to measure the transfer function of electronic audio and electroacoustic devices. The transfer function measurement provides the complex frequency response function for a device, including the magnitude and phase (or real and imaginary components), using any broadband signal. This feature, a powerful addition to APx software’s Sequence Mode, allows any APx analyzer to be used as a multichannel dynamic signal analyzer or as a so called dual-channel FFT analyzer. With transfer function and any broadband signal, including speech, music, or noise, APx users can now assess the complex frequency response, coherence, and impulse response of their device or system. AP’s transfer function provides gapless and overlapped analysis of multiple acquisitions. It also includes a ground-breaking signal-based triggering that eliminates the need for a pilot tone in open-loop test applications, making it ideal for test of “smart” audio devices.

Open-Loop Chirp
 With release v4.6, APx500 software now enables open-loop measurements using the logarithmically-swept sine, or chirp, test signal. This signal provides multiple, high-resolution results in a brief period of time and now APx users can employ the chirp in test scenarios where the signal may originate, or terminate, as a file on the device under test (DUT) or on a server connected to the DUT. This new capability is especially helpful to those developing smart devices (e.g., smart speakers, smartphones). Use of the open-loop chirp capability with B Series APx515 analyzers requires at least one software option or bundle that contain a supported chirp measurement (e.g., APX-SW-ACR, APX-SPK-RD).

Code-Free Automation and a Complete API
 APx500 Measurement Software is the most advanced audio measurement interface available. Complex procedures that include user prompts, limits, and calls to external applications can be created directly in the GUI, saving time and money while ensuring painless updates over time, as no development is required.
 Create custom interfaces and application-to-application automation using the comprehensive APx API. Extensive documentation and examples are provided for Visual Basic.NET, C#, MATLAB, LabVIEW, and Python. Projects and automation can be shared with other APx units anywhere in the world.

Common Software Platform
 From a practical perspective, APx audio analyzers use a common software platform, making tests and results easier to share. All settings for a test are saved in a single project file, making it easy to replicate test setups between R&D and production facilities anywhere in the world. Project files are compatible with both B Series and Legacy APx instruments and each project is self-contained, so there’s never any worry about dependencies or broken links. Users can even embed waveform files and images within a project file.
 For sharing measurement results with customers, contract manufacturers or management, APx automatically generates rich graphic reports, with highlighted pass / fail limits and options to export as PDF, HTML, Excel, CSV, RTF or MATLAB files.

Digital Protocol Analysis
 Modern consumer devices such as televisions, Blu-ray players, and receivers typically use a digital interface such as S/PDIF, Toslink, HDMI to transmit audio signals. In addition to the digital audio data, these interfaces also carry auxiliary information about the audio signal, metadata. The APx Metadata monitors decode and display metadata values as they are received from the device under test.

B Series APx515 Standard Measurements (Advanced measurements available for the APx515 are listed in the Options tab or the APx515 B Series data sheet.)
 • Crosstalk
 • DC Level
 • DC Level Sweep
 • DUT Delay
 • Frequency Measurement
 • Frequency Response
 • Interchannel Phase
 • Level & Gain
 • Level Ratio
 • Measurement Recorder
 • Noise
 • Pass / Fail
 • Q-peak Noise
 • SINAD
 • Signal Acquisition
 • Signal-to-Noise Ratio
 • Stepped Frequency Sweep
 • Stepped Level Sweep
 • TEDS Data
 • THD+N
 • Transfer Function

Options

AES/SPDIF (B Series APx515 standard)
 Provides AES3, AES/EBU balanced digital I/O on XLR; unbalanced SPDIF digital I/O on BNC; and TOSLINK optical digital I/O.

ASIO (B Series APx515 option)
 Direct connection to ASIO-enabled devices. Supports up to 16 channels of ASIO at one time (with v4.0 software or later; two channels only when using earlier APx software versions). Requires either APX-SW-ASIO or one of the optional B Series APx515 software bundles (APX-SWB-2 or APX-SWB-6).

Specification

SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
Residual THD+N (20 kHz BW)
 –102 dB + 1.4 µV
 Typical <–106 dB (1 kHz, 2.0 V)