Consultant Equity Sound Investments, Indiana, United States
Interest in the topic of production vehicle audio system variance has been growing since the publication of the papers "Loudspeaker Production Variance" (AES 125th Convention 2008), "Audio System Variance in Production Vehicles" (AES 48th International Conference Automotive Audio, 2012) and the workshop "Diagnostics for Production Vehicle Audio Systems" (AES 147th Convention, 2019). In this paper, the author continues the discussion with a review of current vehicle audio system development and documentation practices and presents a proposal for system level specifications based on a reference system. A procedure is introduced to address validation methods and diagnostic procedures by analysis of complex system data metrics. A process for calibrating production vehicle audio systems to match a reference system is discussed.
