APPLICATIONS

Headphone Standards

Headphone measurement to the IEC-60268-7 standard

Headphone standards such as IEC 60268-7 and EN-50332 cover many aspects of headphone measurement. There are 2 main requirements for measuring headphone to standards:

1) Flexibility, since testing needs are often complex

2) Future compatibility, since future test requirements are unpredictable as standards constantly evolve

SoundCheck offers total test flexibility in many different ways. First, the hardware configuration is infinitely flexible, with the ability to handle any number of channels and connection methods. This means that TWS, Bluetooth, Lightning, USB and conventional wired headphones can all be measured to the same standards.

Second, SoundCheck software is the most flexible headphone test system on the market, thanks to its sequence editor. This simple point and click test development framework supports a wide range of stimulus signals ranging from simple sine waves to speech and music. Many analysis and post-processing options are available, including the ability to use custom equations. Features such as looping and sequence logic make it simple to repeat a measurement multiple times and make the next step depending on the outcome. This is particularly useful for standards where it is necessary to iterate a measurement multiple times, taking different action based on whether it passes or fails a certain step. Flexible output and display options make it easy to display measurements exactly how you want, either on screen or exported to reports or databases.

Since SoundCheck is modular, both on the hardware side and the software side, it’s easy to add features that were not needed at the original time of purchase if test requirements change to meet new standards.

Furthermore, SoundCheck is not just a headphone test system. It is also widely used for other electroacoustic products such as telephones, smart devices, wearables, hearing aids and more. This means that as modern-day headphones expand in scope to include voice activation, hearing assistance, communications use and more, they can be tested to communications, hearing aid and voice recognition standards as well as the more conventional headphone standards.

Perhaps most importantly, Listen offers pre-written test sequences to meet several headphone test standards including IEC-60268-7 and EN-50332. Using these pre-written sequences not only saves considerable time and expertise developing your own sequence, getting you up and running with standard measurements right away, but also offers assurance that you are measuring correctly to the standard. Some standard headphone test sequences can be downloaded from Listen’s website at no cost, and others require a small fee and are managed through Listen’s software licensing.

Headphone Standards Test Sequences for SoundCheck

Measuring Headphones to the IEC-60268-7 Headphone Standard

IEC-60268-7: Sound System Equipment – Part 7: Headphones and Earphones is an international standard intended to characterize the performance of headphones and earphones. The standard itself is a lengthy document, 9 Sections and 3 Annexes covering 46 printed pages. These SoundCheck sequences focus on the electro-acoustic tests which are detailed in Section 8 “Characteristics to be specified and their method of measurement”.

Five separate sequences are provided, each designed to measure specific characteristics. This approach provides the user with the flexibility to measure all or some of the characteristics of their headphone.

Cost: Free

More about the IEC-60268-7 Standard test sequence

Measuring Maximum SPL of Portable Music Players and Headphones to the EN-50332 Headphone Standard

These two sequences follow the test standard detailed in EN50332-2 for measuring the maximum levels of portable music players and earphones/headphones. This section of the standard covers the individual testing of the devices rather than the combined testing that is detailed in part 1. Note that the physical setup and connections will be different between the two sequences. Please read the hardware and calibration sections of this instruction carefully

Cost: Paid (contact sales@listeninc.com for pricing)

More about the EN-50332 Standard test sequence