A measurement method for the linear and nonlinear properties of electro-acoustic transmission systems

Competitive audio consumer products require not only cheap signal processing hardware but also low-cost analog equipment and sound transducers. The nonlinear distortions produced by these electro-acoustic transmission systems cannot be described and analyzed by standard methods based on linear systems theory alone. In order to take the nonlinear properties into account, we present a measurement method for the linear and nonlinear transmission characteristics of almost arbitrary systems and show its application to the analysis of electro-acoustic systems. Examples demonstrate the measurement of the impulse response of a loudspeaker-enclosure-microphone-system with cheap analog equipment in the presence of background noise.