The environment in which people listen to music has various reflections creating offensive distortions and noise in a real-world environment.
**Developer Differences**. Developers often do not have the ability to test their products in the same environment where the user will be using their product. This is an issue if a developer wishes to provide users with a consistent experience with their products , as each of the devices will have different effects on the acoustics of the device and may create very different outcomes with regard to the quality of the acoustics produced by the product.
*Goals/or Objectives**. Developers do not have a clear understanding of what they wish to create with their product. Therefore it can be difficult to determine if their product has been successful. Developers should actively seek to identify their goals before creating an acoustic comparison between a product and the product they are designing , and measure the goals before creating a product to achieve those goals.
ignoring the signal-to-noise ratio: a microphone that works perfectly in silence will pick up every sound from the heating and cooling system, the sound of someone typing on their keyboard, the noise of the TV in your neighbor’s house when you are in an actual home. When determining what level of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that you need to hit, please factor in ambient noise in your target area where you will be using your microphones, not just your test area.
skipping the human ear: while using objective measurements can reveal a lot about performance, there are still limitations. Even though a frequency response measurement may display a flat response on the graph; when played through particular hardware and/or under particular conditions, it may come across as harsh or muddy in perception. You cannot skip listener evaluations — this is where you will determine the real quality of the product(s).
 A practical way to test:
1. identify the use: where will this audio actually be heard? Voice-based products in a kitchen environment will have very different acoustical challenges than an audio communications system in an office with glass walls.
2. establish your acceptance thresholds: before you begin making measurements, define the maximum amount of ambient noise you will allow at your listening position, acceptable sound pressure level (SPL) ranges and desired reverberation time (RT60). These numbers are derived from the application, not just from the measurements.
3. perform objective testing with calibrated equipment: the use of free software such as REW (Room EQ Wizard) can provide you with a simple solution for collecting data on a room and/or speaker; ‘sci-py’, a module of Python, is available for more advanced applications; and professional audio tools such as ‘Smaart’ and ‘SpectraFoo’ are also available to provide you with more precise and controlled measurements.
Before beginning your measuring process, create your acceptance limits. Determine your maximum acceptable noise floor, your SPL range, and the target RT60. All of these limits should be derived from your own use case and not the results of the measuring process.
Perform objective measurements utilizing calibrated measurement devices. Some good free tools are Room EQ Wizard (REW) for room and speaker analysis, and using Python’s scipy signal will help create custom processing. For professionals, audio measuring programs like Smaart or SpectraFoo offer on-site real-time audio analysis.
Conduct subjective testing using actual subjects in their normal environments to discover what the meters were not able to reveal.
Go through the iteration process. Change EQ curves, utilize acoustic treatment, change signal processing code, and then retest until both the measurements and the observers agree.
 ## Why Development Teams Should Care
The audio quality of a product is a product quality concern and not a hardware concern. The code that controls audio processing, how compression takes place, buffering, and timing of playback all contribute to the final sound of the product.
Acoustic testing gives development teams an objective and measurable opportunity to catch audio problems prior to users detecting them. Users will notice.
If you are developing a product that has sound, test it. It’s that simple.
*Acoustic Testing Pro publishes guides, workflows, and tool recommendations for teams serious about audio quality. [Read more →](https://acoustictestingpro.com)*