Keep an eye on the specs
This morning, I received an announcement about a discussion called “Lies, Damned Lies, and Specifications” that will take place tomorrow night in the Detroit area (details below) hosted by the Audio Engineering Society. The announcement states “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.”
Although the presentation will focus on audio specs, you can misinterpret any spec, even a basic one. For example, a DMM (digital multimeter) manufacturer might specify basic DC accuracy as 1%, but what does that mean? Does it mean 1% of reading or 1% of full scale? I usually interpret it to mean 1% of full scale, just to be conservative. Thus, you can’t always take specs at face value.
How else can you misinterpret unclear specifications? Have you ever misinterpreted a spec and regretted it? Tell us your story.
- Presentation specifications
TOPIC: Lies, Damned Lies & Specifications
SPEAKER: Jonathan Novick, Director of Sales for the Americas at Audio Precision, Inc.
TIME: Tuesday, December 8 — 7:00PM
LOCATION: Alpine, 27101 Hills Tech Ct, Farmington Hills, MI 48331
DINNER: Ruby Tuesday on 12 Mile Rd near Haggerty - 5:30pm
Tim Kypta commented:
I once failed to consider that the specification for a pressure transducer included a best fit line correction. I rejected the transducer which the client returned to the manufacturer. The manufacturer correctly insisted the device met the specification. An embarrassing lesson in good specmanship.
Graeme commented:
It sounds like an interesting discussion - I wish I could have been there. It is also interesting in that it is in a field (audio equipment) where there is at least SOME Federal regulation of how certain specs can be stated. (Remember the bad old days of stereo systems advertising 5 kW per channel instantaneous peak power - and the AC input to the power supply had a 3 Amp fuse!?)
