The TC-2 Acoustic Test Chamber is the result of hundreds of hours of research and development. Those efforts resulted in what is widely regarded to be the finest acoustic test chamber for end of line testing and standard selection.

        What began as an internal discussion within Phase Group’s acoustic design division grew into a development project spanning 18 months and many design iterations. Internally Designated TC-X, the program was a combined effort between our Design and Automation divisions. The result of stage one of that program is the TC-2 which has become the standard by which all other testing cabinets are measured.

        Throughout the development and refinement cycle, our engineers and technicians demonstrated that the cabinet, baffle and fixtures have a far greater impact on acoustic testing performance and stability than any other aspect of a modern test system in good working order. No question about it, the computer driven test systems are exceedingly good in an electrical loop mode and can deliver unprecedented levels of information, but they all fall victim to the same problem. Acoustic interference and physical locations of the driver and microphone play a significant part in the reliability and repeatability of an on-line acoustic testing setup. Noise from the factory environment, air blowers, pneumatic systems, fans, vibrations in the floor… all have a significant impact on your test stability.

        Another primary design goal of the TC-X program was to develop a system of cabinets that can be effectively reproduced while repeatedly delivering reasonable response characteristics for small drivers and systems. This way, an engineer can review a response curve from a speaker tested in a TC-2 and have at least an idea as to the overall response shape. In addition, the assembly process, along with an extensive set of drawings and assembly fixtures is the baseline for our Automation division to manufacture the TC-2 to very tight tolerances. This results in cabinets with remarkably similar acoustic response characteristics allowing engineers and QA professionals all over the world to enjoy directly correlated results between multiple facilities employing TC-2 chambers. Every TC-2 is manufactured, tested and calibrated in house at Phase Group headquarters and must pass stringent QA and acoustic standards before getting a serial number. All TC-2’s are guaranteed to measure within 0.3dB of the reference unit from 80Hz to 20KHz While the TC-2 is not intended to replace an anechoic chamber or half space, it is intended to enhance the correlation of measurements taken at facilities which do not have anechoic environments to those that do through intuitive engineering based on a repeatable standard chamber.

        The primary function of the TC-2 is to deliver reliable, repeatable results. This goes well beyond the individual cabinet; we build and fine tune each cabinet to have an acoustic response characteristic that is as identical as possible to other cabinets. This is exceedingly helpful for our customers with multiple cabinets in vendors throughout the world as they can now directly correlate measurement data from one facility to another with the confidence that the overall level and the acoustic response characteristic and curve shape are comparable within 1dB or less. Each TC-2 is fully constructed, finished and performance tested in-house at Phase Group headquarters in Shenzhen. Phase guarantees each TC-2 to deliver better than 0.5dB max deviation on the standardized gauge R&R test. To put this in perspective, the typical performance of end of line test cabinets commonly found in speaker manufacturing facilities throughout the world, the R&R study will reveal 3dB to 5dB of deviation on the dynamic testing procedure.