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Amir Buys a New Audio Precision Analyzer (APx555)!!!

restorer-john

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Virtins Multi Instrument is the best I have found.

It looks to be a very comprehensive software suite at a low price.

My issue is the front end. I know Jan Diddens scaler for other software or the dedicated probe (max +/-24v) helps, but I'm used to at least 100V RMS on my AudioLab unit. I'm always on the end of high powered amplifiers and it seems only a few standalone units (AP/R&S/Panasonic/SR-1 etc) will do that.

I'm getting a QA-401 very soon (what happened to yours- did you sell it?), but it's main advantage is price and differential inputs (for BTL amps etc), but one would still need a x10 divider for it too. I'm also concerned about the rising noise floor at HF from the AK ADC. You found that to be an issue?

Even Visual Analzyer with <2V sources is a nice program, but I'm sure there's a bug in the THD+N computations as they are often below THD alone with no weighting.

In the meantime, I just use my old-skool gear Leader LDM-171 for up to 100VRMS THD+N measurements- it's indestructible.
 

DonH56

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In the meantime, I just use my old-skool gear Leader LDM-171 for up to 100VRMS THD+N measurements- it's indestructible.

Place I worked had one of those, and another a Nakamichi analyzer. At school I used the old HP units (339?) AP was not around until later, past my time "in the biz", so I have not really used one.
 

March Audio

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It looks to be a very comprehensive software suite at a low price.

My issue is the front end. I know Jan Diddens scaler for other software or the dedicated probe (max +/-24v) helps, but I'm used to at least 100V RMS on my AudioLab unit. I'm always on the end of high powered amplifiers and it seems only a few standalone units (AP/R&S/Panasonic/SR-1 etc) will do that.

I'm getting a QA-401 very soon (what happened to yours- did you sell it?), but it's main advantage is price and differential inputs (for BTL amps etc), but one would still need a x10 divider for it too. I'm also concerned about the rising noise floor at HF from the AK ADC. You found that to be an issue?

Even Visual Analzyer with <2V sources is a nice program, but I'm sure there's a bug in the THD+N computations as they are often below THD alone with no weighting.

In the meantime, I just use my old-skool gear Leader LDM-171 for up to 100VRMS THD+N measurements- it's indestructible.


Yes I sold the QA401. At signal levels below about -20 dBFS the noise floor was good, maybe -150dbFS with 32k FFT, but as you approach 0dBFS it would rise to around -125 dbFS. It really depends what you are doing whether this is an issue for you, but I want to look closely at the low level spuria going on. My motu will manage this. The distortion would be obscured with the 401.


Capture3.PNG
 

restorer-john

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Good points. What have you got in front of the Motu for scaling?
 

restorer-john

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If it were a Toslink cable, the APx555 can do really neat analysis on it like demodulating it and then performing traditional audio measurements on it !

That is extremely cool.
 

Dana reed

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I'm getting a QA-401 very soon (what happened to yours- did you sell it?), but it's main advantage is price and differential inputs
That's one thing I wonder about with those differential input, where can you get adapter cables to convert XLR to differential BNC? I saw something like this for a Keysight analyzer
http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/5991-0435EN.pdf
Also, how do you connect single ended RCA outputs to the differential BNC? Do you just connect to one, or do you split, connecting to the + and -?
 

March Audio

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That's one thing I wonder about with those differential input, where can you get adapter cables to convert XLR to differential BNC? I saw something like this for a Keysight analyzer
http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/5991-0435EN.pdf
Also, how do you connect single ended RCA outputs to the differential BNC? Do you just connect to one, or do you split, connecting to the + and -?
You can connect to one but that's then single ended input. You will need to make your own cable to perform diff input with as you rightly say + and - to the respective BNC.
 

miero

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This IMHO applies also to DAC testing module:
B Series APx555 High-Performance Audio Analyzer
The arrival of the B Series APx555 audio analyzer brings several enhancements to the analog high-performance sine generator that will have broad appeal to developers of high-performance audio devices such as compressors, limiters, amplifiers, codecs and digital signal processors. This enhanced analog generator (EAG)—standard with B Series APx555 analyzers and available as an upgrade for Legacy APx555 systems—provides several improvements in its low distortion sine generator and high-precision sine analyzer, including improved sine generator frequency stability with an accuracy of <30 ppm. The system can now also generate low-distortion analog sine burst signals from 5 Hz to 100 kHz and allows users to independently invert the signal polarity of balanced channel outputs. Finally, the B Series APx555 has lower system residual distortion, with THD+N improvement above 50 kHz (−2 dB) and THD improvement above 5 kHz (varying from −2 to −5 dB).

At least there is also a new major software update 5.0 for APx500:
- https://www.ap.com/news/apx-version5-0-available/
 
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amirm

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restorer-john

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Seems like they will be charging for software updates from here on. Fine for big companies, bad for little guys like me.

Not happy....

I think they are also trying to address the secondhand market in analyzers too and perhaps derive some income from it?

Do I read it correctly in that there will be an annual charge going forward?
 
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amirm

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Do I read it correctly in that there will be an annual charge going forward?
That's my read. After paying $28,000, you would need to pay to have software upgrades for it. If the software is priced anything like their hardware, that would seriously undermine users like me.
 
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Sal1950

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