The acquisition and evaluation of acoustic emissions (AE) in tribology have proven to be a meaningful tool for condition monitoring and offer possibilities to deepen the understanding of tribological processes. The authors used this technology with the aim of expanding existing test methodologies towards increased visualization capability of tribological processes and investigated the correlation between tribological processes and acoustic emissions on a Ring-on-Disc and a close-to-component journal bearing test setting. The results of this study include the description of friction as well as wear processes and prove the usability of several AE evaluation parameters whereby a close correlation between AE and tribological processes can be shown. Consequently, it was possible to expand the visualization and evaluation capabilities of the test settings offering additional insights by making use of AE.