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[Peter Kowalczyk]

Hey Team,

I'm looking for a continuously-variable sine tone generator for speaker test and QC applications. 

A sine sweep can be very revealing of buzzes, rattles, port noise, driver distortion, etc.  However, the software-based sine tone generators I've met (e.g. smaart) seem to be 'stepped,' both in amplitude and frequency.  That waveform discontinuity, and resulting blast of harmonics, can be very distracting, enough to compromise any real critical listening. Chirp tone playbacks are okay, but you can't 'dwell' on a zone of interest like you can with manual control.

So, I'd like to find a simple hardware device that can generate sine tones at an arbitrary frequency and amplitude, each with a dedicated knob, and a smooth sweeping behavior as the knobs are adjusted.  Kind of like the Meyer Sound SIM hardware sine tone generator. 

Ideally, it would have a line level XLR output, and be compact, and economical.  E.g. not a lab-grade arbitrary function generator with >mHz capabilities...

A bit of googling turned up this Tenma 72-490
https://www.newark.com/tenma/72-490/compact-audio-generator/dp/09P2110 
... which seems to meet my objectives except for XLR out. 

Does anyone have a better recommendation?  Anyone used this device and have real world experience to comment upon?  Thanks!

[[email protected]]

Hey Team,

I'm looking for a continuously-variable sine tone generator for speaker test and QC applications. 

A sine sweep can be very revealing of buzzes, rattles, port noise, driver distortion, etc.  However, the software-based sine tone generators I've met (e.g. smaart) seem to be 'stepped,' both in amplitude and frequency.  That waveform discontinuity, and resulting blast of harmonics, can be very distracting, enough to compromise any real critical listening. Chirp tone playbacks are okay, but you can't 'dwell' on a zone of interest like you can with manual control.

So, I'd like to find a simple hardware device that can generate sine tones at an arbitrary frequency and amplitude, each with a dedicated knob, and a smooth sweeping behavior as the knobs are adjusted.  Kind of like the Meyer Sound SIM hardware sine tone generator. 

Ideally, it would have a line level XLR output, and be compact, and economical.  E.g. not a lab-grade arbitrary function generator with >mHz capabilities...

A bit of googling turned up this Tenma 72-490
https://www.newark.com/tenma/72-490/compact-audio-generator/dp/09P2110 
... which seems to meet my objectives except for XLR out. 

Does anyone have a better recommendation?  Anyone used this device and have real world experience to comment upon?  Thanks!

NTI has an excellent product, it is not cheap but it is good.

https://www.nti-audio.com/en/products/minirator-mr-pro-mr2

[Scott Holtzman]

Hey Team,

I'm looking for a continuously-variable sine tone generator for speaker test and QC applications. 

A sine sweep can be very revealing of buzzes, rattles, port noise, driver distortion, etc.  However, the software-based sine tone generators I've met (e.g. smaart) seem to be 'stepped,' both in amplitude and frequency.  That waveform discontinuity, and resulting blast of harmonics, can be very distracting, enough to compromise any real critical listening. Chirp tone playbacks are okay, but you can't 'dwell' on a zone of interest like you can with manual control.

So, I'd like to find a simple hardware device that can generate sine tones at an arbitrary frequency and amplitude, each with a dedicated knob, and a smooth sweeping behavior as the knobs are adjusted.  Kind of like the Meyer Sound SIM hardware sine tone generator. 

Ideally, it would have a line level XLR output, and be compact, and economical.  E.g. not a lab-grade arbitrary function generator with >mHz capabilities...

A bit of googling turned up this Tenma 72-490
https://www.newark.com/tenma/72-490/compact-audio-generator/dp/09P2110 
... which seems to meet my objectives except for XLR out. 

Does anyone have a better recommendation?  Anyone used this device and have real world experience to comment upon?  Thanks!

If you don't want to spend a lot of money but want super high quality look for a transmission test set.  Popular brands are HP, Halcyon, Hekimian, Ameritec  and TTI all popular brands.  The HP 3551A has a Vernier knob for level and frequency and is built like the proverbial brick shit house.  Halcyon (later made by CXR Telecom) 701A was one of the most popular field instruments with the Bell techs and is equally well built, same features. 


You have to add an XLR but that's not a big deal.  I just lop off a short jumper as this equipment has 5 way binding posts.  You can get an XLR to bananas if you a super anal. 


I have the HP 3551A on my bench and use it for servicing hifi and commercial gear.  It's a great piece of kit.


For $100 on flea bay you should be able to acquire a pristine specimen. 

[John Schalk]

Hey Team,

I'm looking for a continuously-variable sine tone generator for speaker test and QC applications. 

Peter,

I just pulled up the default Generator utility in my AudioTools app and it has a "Fine" setting that might suit your needs.  It also has octave and 1/3 octave settings, which is the one that I typically use.  I realize that you asked specifically for hardware solutions, but I thought I'd mention this option since its inexpensive and very portable.  One nice feature of AudioTools is that you can install the app across all of your portable devices for the price of one license.

[Frank Koenig]

If you don't want to spend a lot of money but want super high quality look for a transmission test set.

For $100 on flea bay you should be able to acquire a pristine specimen.

Agree. Get a used HP analog sine generator and make a nice adapter cable. HP got their start making a sine generator using a unique circuit with an incandescent lamp as the amplitude stabilization element.

An aside: I picked up one of the early (not the first) vacuum tube sine generators in pristine condition. Only the rotting leather handle betrays its age. The tubes are still the original HP branded ones. One nice thing about the old generators is that they have quite a bit of output, and it’s transformer isolated and balanced. You can drive a speaker to audible levels directly from the generator although for serious “sweeping out” you still want to use a power amp.

--Frank

[John Roberts {JR}]

Hey Team,

I'm looking for a continuously-variable sine tone generator for speaker test and QC applications. 

A sine sweep can be very revealing of buzzes, rattles, port noise, driver distortion, etc.  However, the software-based sine tone generators I've met (e.g. smaart) seem to be 'stepped,' both in amplitude and frequency.  That waveform discontinuity, and resulting blast of harmonics, can be very distracting, enough to compromise any real critical listening. Chirp tone playbacks are okay, but you can't 'dwell' on a zone of interest like you can with manual control.

So, I'd like to find a simple hardware device that can generate sine tones at an arbitrary frequency and amplitude, each with a dedicated knob, and a smooth sweeping behavior as the knobs are adjusted.  Kind of like the Meyer Sound SIM hardware sine tone generator. 

Ideally, it would have a line level XLR output, and be compact, and economical.  E.g. not a lab-grade arbitrary function generator with >mHz capabilities...

A bit of googling turned up this Tenma 72-490
https://www.newark.com/tenma/72-490/compact-audio-generator/dp/09P2110 
... which seems to meet my objectives except for XLR out. 

Does anyone have a better recommendation?  Anyone used this device and have real world experience to comment upon?  Thanks!

It is the nature of digitally generated tones to have steps between discrete frequencies. In theory these steps could be made quite small I don't know that coders have been willing to make that effort.

Back in the day I had good success with customers using the sine wave output from the LofTech TS-1 for speaker testing. The analog sine wave was continuously variable.

AFAIK that SKU is no longer in production.

JR   

[Riley Casey]

Sitting here looking at my thirty+ year old analog test bench gear and thinking there must be a lot of Leader, LAG-120As floating around for cheap on Ebay and when I looked there were indeed a few but surprisingly not as cheap as I expected. I may have to list mine.

[ProSoundWeb Community]