How Reliable Are Decibel Reader Apps?

Hi

When I was watching TV last night I noticed I could hear my tinnitus over the TV which I not had for months now and even the other TV I watched that night didn't bother me. So I was confused so I downloaded a decibel meter app to use and it was reading my TV was around 60-65 dB so I then turned it down and it still read the same so I then downloaded another dB reader app and that also read the same but was switching between 50-68 dB so I turned my TV down further and still the same on both. I don't know if that's loud , then when I went to bed I waited till it was quiet and very silent in the house and did another reading and it read the same , so I was confused and did not understand how it could read the same in a quiet room and both were the same.

How reliable are they?

Also I am still confused why my tinnitus went louder as it's not caused by noise and I have never had an issue with The TV , my tinnitus went back to normal when I went in my room and luckily I was able to go to sleep normally. But I am confused why my tinnitus became louder.

 

Anyone

 

Hi Sarah,

I don't think sound meter apps are reliable, they do a bad job capturing environmental sound properly, as the phone microphone is not good enough for this, and in the case of Android devices, every device has a different mic so they are not properly calibrated to have reliable readings.

 

I believe, that the apps are not worse than phonometer. But, - loudness is a very difficult thing to measure...

 

Hi Sarah, unfortunately most of them are not reliable.
If you re curious to know the noise levels of your environment you could buy a true dBmeter, some cost less than 20$

 

Thank you All , iv been thinking of buy a proper dB meter I think I will invest in one.

I knew it must have been wrong that in complete silence it was still reading 50-60db.

Thank you all. Still confused why it became louder but I guess sometimes you just never know.

But thank you very much

 

I use Soundmeter by faberacoustical. It's a paid app but when I was looking for one to download it was on par with dedicated equipment.

Best,
Zug

 

Thanks Zug illI look into it.

 

Seems pointless. The quality of the app is not the problem, it is the quality of your device which is probably not sensitive enough.

 

You're wrong: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4659422/

 

Soundmeter is pretty accurate, it appears that the quality of the app is indeed a big factor.

https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2014/04/09/sound-apps/

 

I don't trust my cheap phone to do readings.
I just got this one myself:

Link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/GM1351-Dig...essure-Tester-30-130dBA-Decibel-/263615162729

This one works pretty well for me.

 

I also just bought a soundmeter (from Tacklife). It helped me realize that some sounds that worried me are actually less loud than what I thought.

And same as you, I don't trust the readings with my phone app.

 

<Pedant mode> dB meters, sound level meters etc usually measure Sound Presssure Level (dB SPL) which is a physical measure. Some measure in dBA/B/C which is a relative measure of loudness as perceived by the human ear. A "proper" calibrated (and accurate) meter costs loads

 

People rarely have telephone calls with diesel engines or bats, so most cellphone microphones are probably most sensitive in the human speech range. That might affect the performance in environments which are heavy on the frequencies ranges, where the phone microphone isn't so sensitive. However, smartphones have nowadays lots of features like video cameras so the microphones probably evolve aswell.

There's also lots of phone manufacturers who make various models. And they all can use the same operating system, like android. Then it would be a tough job for the dB-meter programmers to calibrate them with every device on the market. I guess, if one wishes to know if dB-meter on smartphone is reliable or not, it could be good thing to calibrate it against a reliable dB-meter in various environments. Sometimes they can be be even lend from some local public administration office.