Measurements

At Ai products are analyzed by measurements that attempt to represent how they will actually be perceived in a real room. Measurements that do not fit this criteria are not performed - i.e. measurements that don't correlate to perception such as THD or axial response. In addition, measurements are given the proper context in which to make them the most informative. We believe that measurements without an adequate explanation of how they relate to perception and how they were obtained are not useful and can even be misleading.

A common example is a loudspeakers sensitivity rating. These sensitivity ratings are normally measured in a space that is unlike how this same loudspeaker is used in a real-world venue. In a real space the sensitivity will is dominated by placement and room characteristics. It is also often misunderstood by a user that the sensitivity gives no indication how loud the system can be played (acceptable sound quality assumed). Sensitivity may be useful to determine the amplifier size, but it is not really a very useful indicator of the loudspeakers performance. Two loudspeakers can be compared for efficiency with the sensitivity numbers, but this does not indicate which loudspeaker will actually play louder. That is a different characteristic.

A better measurement (which Ai does do) is to specify the performance as a function of input voltage, noting where the power compression reaches 3 db (widely believed to be the useful limit of a loudspeaker).

Ai makes a considerable effort to ensure that not only are our measurements accurate and repeatable, but that they are relevant to the system usage in the field and that they are presented in a way which makes them as useful and succinct as possible.

Power compression is defined as the number of db the system is producing below that which it should produce based on its sensitivity at lower levels. If the input power is increased by 6 db then the output power should also increase by 6 db, but this fails to happen. The db difference is called the power compression level.