Product Review Testing

Defining Products Acoustically

One of the largest IT, CE and other consumer products user complaints, besides the product not working, is the noise the product makes. In many instances, the end user does not know exactly how to describe the sound so the default term used is "noisy". How can these specific noises be measured and analyzed. Many places that perform reviews of product acoustics use only the most simple measurement methods, with very low quality equipment, and many times these methods are severely wrong and provide useless information. Another problem is these reviewers identify and describe the entire sound with only a single, non-referenced, dBA or dB number that has absolutely no correlation with human perception (See Technical Briefs Pub 2).

At ASQ Laboratory, we perform product review testing and analysis the way people hear by using aurally accurate, Type 1 state-of-the-art technology and analysis methods. With our measurement techniques and analysis methods, we are able to place psychoacoustic metrics (number factors) to the product sounds, providing the end user applicable results and understandable metrics for how they will perceive the sounds. There are no quantifications of sounds using immeasurable descriptors such as "broken refrigerator" or even the standard generic term "quiet".

In addition, as an independent 3rd party laboratory, we provide testing and analysis of multiple products for competitive analysis. Our descriptions and conclusions are easy to read, make sense and above all, translate to the user perception of the sound quality for that product. We analyze sounds using psychoacoustical analysis methods and present the findings without using non-standard and non-measurable terms. Quiet is relative but loudness is measured.