Customer Reviews

Mini Digital Sound Level Meter

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This meter is so easy to use! We bought it for our 8-year-old to use for a school science project and it's a great little measuring device. The simple buttons, the relatively large screen, and the max-reading feature are all great. It really helps give perspective on what might be damaging our hearing in our everyday lives. I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a device since I didn't need OSHA-level performance. The price point was appropriate for this unit.

This does what it is advertised to do. It performs a little better than I had expected.
I bought it to monitor sound levels at a night club and as a way to judge applause levels at Karaoke Contests.

However... the power button should have been recessed. If you carry this in a bag, or in your pocket, it will be turning on and off all of the time and this will seriously effect battery life, as the automatic backlight will also turn on in these situations. The 9v battery uses the old fashioned pig-tail contact, so constantly removing the battery is impractical and will eventually ruin the pig-tail connector. It is a minor inconvenience (I'll have to purchase a hard case for my application.)
The wind screen is also a slip on piece that slides on and off far too easily. There is no lip or retainer and it slides off easily. Although it is not necessary for the unit... it does help protect the microphone diaphram.

Still, at $30, it seems to be rather accurate and will be extremely useful for me as a DJ to monitor my sound level at gigs. The tripod mount is a great feature also, I place my unit on a mini-camera tripod and occasionally activate the unit to make sure I'm not deafening my crowd.

PRO's: Good value, pretty solid design,

CONS: bad power button - should have been recessed; resolve yourself to the fact that you will lose the slip on windscreen. Fortunately, it isn't required to use the unit.

The cons are minor irritations, otherwise, I'm happy with the unit.

This sound level meter is of good quality and accuracy for its very low price. I use it for taking incidental reading in the car, at home and out-and-about, just to get a feel for how loud the environment is. For this, it does a fine job, but I can't recommend it for anything more pressing because it has no slow/fast setting, has no high/low capture or reading lock, and suffers from a rather generous +/- 20% claimed accuracy (taken from the documentation included with the product). This is not to disparage the meter; it does not claim to have any of these features, but just to note to any readers that they will definitely want something more feature-rich if they want these capabilities.

My firm bought two of these to test the wall construction of a new medical clinic we designed; we wanted to verify that the wall construction was meeting its designed STC rating. When both meters are placed side by side pointing at the same noise source they generally read 15-30 dB different with no discernable consistency in relation to one another. While I understand these units are not the most accurate, and our testing method was not performed in a laboratory, you would think two units side by side would have a similar reading or be reading a consistent difference.

I had my friend test this sound meter up against his far more expensive one. It is surprisingly accurate for the price I paid for it. I recommend the item to anyone that needs an occasional "sound check" or has need to monitor on a limited time basis - I say this because one of the features I like is that it will shut itself off after a few minutes.

Insert the battery. Press the large button. That's it, the device is working. Readout is large and easily readable. Press the button again when you are done. The secondary min/max button does not get in the way. That's what I call user friendly interface.
It consistently shows the same noise level at the same spots, starting from 33+ dB - not bad for a cheap handheld tool. You have to hold it in your hand while taking samples, because it does not have a flat part to stand on - I think it's intentional, the noise picked up from the surface would get in the way.

This is a neat little sound meter that gives pretty good readings, thereby helping to establish relatively accurate noise levels. I use it when our recent neighbors get overly rambunctious in their partying. The difference in response one gets when registering a complaint with the local law such as: "Officer, the peak noise levels from this party go over 95 db A-Weighed, at 200 feet, in a bedroom with no windows towards the noise ..." and the more generic: "Officer the neighbors are driving me nuts with their music." is substantial. Good product for some general applications.

This little unit is simple to use and does what it says. It is reasonably built and looks nice. The only issue, which is a small one, is that the foam cover over the sensor slips off easily and could be lost.

For the money, you cant go wrong. If you just want to see what the ambient noise is in an area, it works great.
For specific application, I would recommend a more sensitive and precise device (which of course will cost more.)

Bought this because our band was on tour and a couple of the venues stated we had to remain at or below a certain SPL. This provided us with the perfect tool for me to level our sound system as well as show the owner we were within his request. Didnt matter because he loved the music once we got going and asked us to turn it up! HA! But this is a perfect, cheap tool to have in your band toolbox. It's good to know how loud you are being as well.