Quality Control
At Audiopulse, a quality product and lifetime service plan doest just work without impeccable care to development and reassuring quality control to confirm the promise of a high quality well implemented product. Each driver we build is hand assembled by our expert assembly staff in our San Diego facility using in-house procedures and tools we have refined over the last 15 years. The average experience of each driver assembler is over 5 years and that goes a long way when high quality products are at stake!
95% of our parts, even down to the screws, are custom tooled and designed by us, and manufactured by both foreign and domestic expert manufacturing facilities. Audiopulse engineers are notorious for implementing new concepts to the audio market and they continue to push the envelop to better perfect the art of sound replication.
We go the extra mile and include a nine phase QC process after each driver in hand assembled in our San Diego facility.
1,000,000 watt magnetization charger
This tool was custom built in-house and remains one of the most powerful chargers in the US with a maximum energy transfer of over 1,000,000 watts of power. This magnetizer ensures that even our neodymium drivers are charged to their maximum potential.
Break in
It’s not important to break a driver in as far as a customer is concerned, but because we measure each driver’s parameters, we need to break the spiders in to get an accurate compliance measurement. Our break in procedure is quick and to the point. We run the driver at resonance just long enough so that the compliance, Q and vas measurements are within the uncertainties of the QC process.
Full Impedance test from 1Hz to 1000Hz
Not many drivers get their own impedance plot, but we test every single one of them. The impedance plot shows even small anomalies in the driver you would not otherwise see, especially manufacturing defects of the mechanical nature. Even the smallest imperfection shows up in the impedance plot, but this test ensures that none escape our control tolerances.
2.83 Volt Thiele Small measurements
Yes we TSP every single driver! Each driver comes with its own certified TSP sheet and we hold the TSP’s to a error % that few others can guarantee. The TSP specifications show you exactly how your own driver will react in a given box and allow serious enthusiasts even more precision with their enclosure development, but more importantly they allow us to ensure that every driver is consistent with the next.
Pressure test
Once we verify the small single measurements are within spec, we then load the driver into a box and perform a pressure test to ensure that the gasket, cone and surround don’t leak any air. The test box is pressurized to an amount higher than he driver would see even under extreme conditions.
Mechanical limit test
This next test is an in box high power test that sweeps the drivers from 15Hz to 100Hz. We first test the maximum excursion to make sure the voice coil perfectly in-line, and then we allow the voice coil to heat up and expand so that the test is performed again when the voice coil is at its maximum diameter. Voice coils can expand as much as 40% of their actual width so, therefore we make sure that even under hot conditions, the coils don’t collide with the t-yoke or gapplate.
Phase test
A simple phase test is performed to ensure that each coil is properly labeled and the motor is magnetized to our standard.
Cosmetic inspection
Kind of obvious, but we’ll mention it anyway. We do make sure our drivers look as good as they sound. You’ll probably notice we take pride in our patented designs, but as much as we acknowledge our engineering achievements, aesthetics is equally important when quality is the first objective.
Signature of approval
Most manufactures only measure a small % of drivers and statically assume the rest are OK. We measure each and every single one, and then deliver those measurements to you with a signature of approval complete inside the box. Enjoy!