Next-gen audio analyzer checks voice quality

Keysight Technologies, Inc. announced the U8903B performance audio analyzer, the next-generation model of the U8903A. The U8903B is extremely flexible with configurable options such as speech and voice quality measurements, extendable bandwidth and digital audio interfaces, enabling engineers to accurately test wireless communication, component and integrated circuit (IC) audio applications.

The U8903B offers the ITU-T standard perceptual objective listening quality assessment (POLQA) and its predecessor, perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ), supporting measurements in the common audio bandwidth carried by telephone networks, and with POLQA, super-wideband speech signals up to 14000 Hz. With POLQA and PESQ, the U8903B is suited for testing 3G, 4G/LTE and voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone and network equipment as well as high-definition voice test applications.

For component and IC testing, the U8903B comes with a wide-bandwidth option, expanding the upper limit of the measurement bandwidth to 1.5 MHz with 24-bit resolution and one million point FFT. This expanded bandwidth allows the audio analyzer to maintain high accuracy, even when monitoring Class D amplifiers or switching supplies, which often produce signal spikes far outside the bandwidth limit of conventional audio analyzers (100 kHz or less). The U8903B also comes with AES3/ SPDIF and DSI formats to test and validate consumer electronics and digital audio ICs.

The U8903B offers test engineers the option of choosing two, four or eight channels, and enables accurate distortion measurement with an improved low residual THD+N of less than -110 dB, a performance that is available for all eight channels. The test sequence control function automates testing by allowing users to set up the types of measurements and define pass/fail decisions for each test parameter. This new function saves time and removes the need to write complicated code during product development.

“The U8903B is accurate, configurable and feature-rich,” said Ee Huei Sin, vice president, Keysight’s General-Purpose Electronic Measurement Division. “With this audio analyzer, Keysight continues to provide high-performance tools to engineers and technicians.”