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Tire Sound Quality is an increasingly important factor for customer satisfaction within the replacement tire market. Manufacturers who compete in this market must be capable of predicting a driver's perception of tire noise as early in the design process as possible in order to reduce development time and cost. Typical methods for tire noise evaluation each have limitations that require improvement. Subjective in-vehicle testing is generally an effective method for predicting driver perception, but it is vehicle specific, time consuming, and requires complete sets of tires for testing. Traditional single tire (component level) test methods measure overall tire noise levels, but do not always provide information relevant to a driver's perception of tire noise in a vehicle. Detailed noise path analysis techniques are cost prohibitive due to the amount of time and effort required to characterize each vehicle and the multitude of vehicles that exist.

Standard sound power test methods have existed for numerous years to allow for appropriate noise labeling of products for validation or for monitoring of changes. More recently, advanced methods such as acoustic holography and beamforming have also been successfully used for measurement of sound power and noise source identification. Sound power is a standard requirement for off-highway and agricultural vehicles, construction and power generation equipment, refrigeration and cooling devices, and many other consumer products. In the automotive industry, the engine and a few accessories (AC compressor, power steering pump) are tested for sound power. While sound power testing methods are well known and tests are conducted in most labs by efficient and often automated test procedures, the root-causing strategy in the case of lack of compliance to a specification is still mostly based on trial-and-error.