Evaluation of smartphone sound measurement applications—recommended apps

[The Welshman]

One of my intended winter projects to reduce cabin noise by adding insulation. However, rather than thinking, "yep, that seems better", I want some kind of quantitative measurement on the improvement.

That got me into researching for the cheapest but accurate methods of measurement which in turn brought me to this paper:

- Evaluation of smartphone sound measurement applications

It's long time since I've done statistics but the long and short of it seems to be...if you have an iOS device the following apps are pretty accurate without the need of an external mic:

• SPLnFFT
• SoundMeter
• NoiSee

Thought I'd pass that on in any case anyone was interested.

Iwan

[Uwon]

Iwan, that's pretty heavy stuff and I have to thank you for sharing and summarizing into the three bullets. Also very useful for those trackies who attend tracks with noise restrictions.
Johan

[evan9eleven]

Cool stuff! Downloaded the first one.

[RSBob]

My wife, whose living is based on acoustics says most apps aren't any good above 100 dB due to limitations of the microphone. She said what you want is the average readings which most apps can provide plus or minus a certain degree of accuracy. Decibel 10th is free and should give ypu adequate pre/post measurements.

[The Welshman]

Rick,

I think anything above 100db is a problem anyway so the distinction between 'is it a bloomin' big problem' or 'whackin' huge problem' is probably not that important anyway.

I have a 1981 SC with tired (ie non-existent) rear sound-proofing, and I'm interested in finding out the impact of any changes I make.

I have a loud cabin based on the measurements from other posters.

At idle I am at recording 82.3 dB. At 5000 rpm in 3rd, the front seats are at 89.1 db, the rear are 95 db. Most others with non-track cars post db's of 70-80 dB's when in motion. So I have plenty of opportunity for improvement.

For reference a;

- fire alarm is 71 dB
- rock concert 105 db
- orchestra playing William Tell overutre - 82 dB





My dBA measurements are slightly lower and I really those numbers are the ones I should target.

dB v dBA?

I learnt this today. dB is the measurement of total sound but the ear does not treat the entire sound range equally—bass is less draining then high pitch sound.

The 'A' in dB is a filter or curve which mimics the ears and thus gives a better representation of what the ear is actually hearing.