Propeller Head Plaza

Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

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RE: Sound level meters, what are they good for?

Posted by Dave_K on May 26, 2020 at 13:31:25:
If you're not sure whether or not you have a problem, I would do as rivervalley817 suggested and use your ears.

If you already know you have a problem, then you can use a SPL meter with C-weighting to measure (roughly) the sound transmission class (STC) of your current walls. I would use a proper, calibrated SPL meter and not a phone app.

Set up a speaker in the "source" room facing the wall and just a foot or two away from the wall. Measure the background noise in the "destination" room for reference.

Play pink noise very loud, and measure the volume level next to the wall in front of the speaker. Then measure on the other side of the wall. Subtracting the two will tell you how much attenuation you're currently getting. If you can't measure anything above the background noise in the destination room, then you probably need to turn up the source, but be careful you don't damage the speaker.

You can then compare your attenuation measurement against the STC rating of various acoustic wall products. Note that it's not quite an apples vs. apples comparison, because the ASTM standard way to measure STC involves measuring at different frequencies and fitting to a curve that is not flat with frequency. But it should at least give you a rough idea of how much improvement to expect with acoustical wall products.