• Which spec tells you how a product sounds?
• Is 10% THD way too much or just barely noticeable?
• Why do some bad products have good specs and vice versa?
• Why don’t we measure audio products with music as a stimulus?
• Why are datasheets for finished audio products so short?

Specs are important. Every product has them. Lots of time and money are spent measuring them. People will base purchase decisions on them. And yet many people will dismiss them outright.

In the ‘60s and ‘70s over-zealous marketing led to such inflated specs that the Federal Trade Commission had to step in and create a federal regulation regarding their use. Thirty five years later, confusion reigns again and this time the FTC is not stepping in. Consumer fraud still exists but that’s not the whole problem. People frequently misinterpret specs. They’ll make broad assumptions about the performance characteristics of a device based on a single point measurement. Without an accurate understanding of various audio specs it is easy assume that standard measurements don’t reflect real world listening. This is especially true of common distortion measurements.
This interactive presentation will take a closer look at the world of specs including the “art” of specsmanship. Live listening tests will be conducted during the presentation so that attendees can compare real world performance to measured specifications for a variety of circuit problems.

Jonathan Novick is a Director of Sales at Audio Precision, Inc. He is a past chairman of the LA Section of the AES and has served on the executive committee there for the past six years. Jonathan is an active member of the Consumer Electronics Association standards committee on audio and was co-chair of the Live Sound Seminars for the 129th and 125th AES conventions. In his spare time, he likes to dabble in live sound and professional DJ work. Jonathan holds a BSEE degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and spent much of his professional career involved in the design and simulation of RF and microwave circuitry.