Works great as an SPL meter for tuning home theater systems  
By: Sekhar - Dec 18, 2008
Version: 1.3
I used this as an SPL for tuning my home theater system. I also purcased a professional SPL meter ($49 with tax) and here is the comparision
1. For speakers tuning the utility was off by just 2db
2. For subwoofer tuning the utility was off by 25db - I am guessing this is because the recommendation for tuning is a Slow sampling and C weighting SPL and it is not clear what this utility setting is
So in summary for $0.99 it is a great buy.

Thanks for a great App!  
By: Davshapiro - Dec 17, 2008
Version: 1.3
First off, if your not putting in plugs over 105 db, your playing with hearing damage over 30 min! For me, the ability to have a meter with me at all times is great. If your trying to use it in a pro studio enviorment, spend the cash for a pro meter. A note to the developer; I would like to have the ability to toggle from A to C weighted. Also, a chart and explanation on hearing damage levels with related times would be helpful for those who haven't screwed up their hearing yet. Thanks for the app!

Good for ballparking SPL's  
By: fodera6 - Dec 11, 2008
Version: 1.3
Great little app. I have found a myriad uses for it so far. To the reviewer complaining about the 105dB ceiling, it's a hardware limitation, not a software one. Still, I'd have plugs in before I got to 105 anyway. They make it clear this is not a substitute for a calibrated meter and again most of that is due to the cheap mic in the iPhone. That said, I use this a lot more since it's always with me and I can use it much more discreetly outside of the SR and studio environs. Since it would be possible to hook up a much more accurate mic, might we expect some calibration capabilities in the future?

One of my favourites out of fifty five apps and kept on my main page!!!  
By: flamingsteel.com - 11-Oct-2008
Version: 1.0
This is one of my favorite apps out of fifty or more since it goes beyond amusment. It works very well and does what it says. I am always pulling it out to check the sound levels. It is amazing how noisy the city is where we live. I have yet to try it out in the country somewhere. I was quite surprised to compare the daytime to nightime sound levels. Plus it is fun to watch how gunshots and sirens make it spike!! : ) This app stays on my main page with my other often used practical apps. I have even used it to check the sound levels in our wood shop with different tools running. Along with sound levels in my metal studio at times.

"Decibel" Sound Meter.  
By: Capital O - 22-Aug-2009
Version: 1.11
This sound level meter has a pointer running over a linear scale reading 0 to 110 dB. This makes it easy to read levels It has 3 digital displays showing peak, average, and max dB, the latter being resettable by tapping it. The display rotates on invering the iPhone. There is no recording function. The setting screen has sensitivity and calibration adjustment controls. There is a toggle switch for headset calibration on/off. The remaining screen shows some sound levels in different environments. The display pointer shows average levels, the "A" weighting for human interpretation of a changing range of sound levels. A little on sound measurement: the iPhone 3G mike can read from 40 to 105dB. About the quietest sound in a bedroom in the dead of night is round 40dB. To read less, you need a sound laboratory. Levels of zero exist only on the moon. The sound of quiet breathing and nothing else is round 10-15dB. This is round the lowest sound that ears with perfect hearing can detect. Normal household noise with TV on is 65-70dB. Traffic noise on a busy road is 80-85 dB, a jeliner taking off reaches 120dB, and 150dB levels will burst your eardrums and have blood running out of your ears. Constant exposure to levels of 90dB will give you a hearing aid in middle age and 110 and up will guarantee serious hearing loss. One reviewer complained that he could not measure car stereo levels over 105 dB. To you, I say: While you still have your hearing, amuse yourself by reading the hearing aid catalogues. So how does Decibel stack up? Basically, very well indeed! It tends to read about 5 dB high, and on my iPhone 3g with OS3, I found that turning the headset calibration on made it very close to a commercial unit through the whole range, without adjusting the calibration. A quiet bedroom at 2am gave a reading of 40-50dB (normal levels), traffic gave round 80dB and anything over 90dB needs earplugs. This is a pretty good meter, and well worth getting. Well done!

Neat app works well  
By: MikeD1751 - Jan 11, 2009
Version: 1.4
Would like to see the additional features,,,Neat Application, here are some features I would like to see.
Add a stop start button
Show the average low and high for a sample period.
Be able to compare different sample periods via a chart, graph something
Save x amount of sample data
Example:
I was wanting to check the Griffin Air Curve for the iPhone to see if it really produced an 10db increase in volume.
This would have been much easier if I could record the same 10sec sample of music using the Curve and then with just the iPhone, if I could have save the data from both and had them displayed on some kind of side by side chart.
Thanks…Keep up the great work.

Clever, seems to work perfectly, no crashes.  
By: Johnny Go - 17-Nov-2009
Version: 1.11
Clever idea and well presented, worth buying.
One problem - in my opinion, the developers should have considered the transients coming off an operator touch on the iPhone. In other words, when you tap the button to reset the "max level", in fact, the act of touching the screen creates a huge spike on the microphone, and, that transient level (say 90 or whatever) is then shown as the max value!
The solution of course is trivial, after "reset max" is touched, the application should simply wait for a 100 milliseconds before resuming metering.
(All audio metering equipment that you can buy includes this type of feature.)
And a small point -- is it just me or is there something wrong with the two large buttons on the "i" page? The borders look weird. If the standard buttons don't matt properly in to black, build custom buttons.
Enjoy your success, developers!

Fun App  
By: andyfu - Oct 9, 2008
Version: 1.1
I cannot attest to the accuracy of this App. I have not compared it to a professional sound meter; however, I have enjoyed using it. The recent update (v1.1) apparently corrected a problem at the low end which prevented readings lower than about 47 dB. Now I am recording levels as low as 40. On the upper end the iPhone overloads at between 100 (average) and 105 (peak) dB. Still, at that level you should already be wearing ear protection! Speaking of ear protection, through this app I have just found that my relatively quiet car (a Prius) is noisy enough on a highway that many countries would limits driving in it occupationally to eight hours per day!

Likely accurate -- maybe microphone limit peak readings?  
By: LelandJ - Sep 23, 2008
Version: 1.0
I'm trusting the other reviewers who say that it matches up well with their bona fide decibel meters.
If you're a musician, though, it may not be of much use if your ensemble is already loud. At our normal volume, we had it cruising above 95 dB and couldn't get a peak lower than its 105 dB limit. However, it was interesting, letting us see how often we were in the hazardous range.
As a recreational app, it's good clean fun. It responds quickly and gives readings on par with common figures I've seen. If you really need dependable readings at loud volumes, you'll need to use a device built for it. Either this app or the iPhone's microphone is capping the upper limit.

"Decibel" Sound Meter.  
By: Capital O - 22-Aug-2009
Version: 1.11
This sound level meter has a pointer running over a linear scale reading 0 to 110 dB. This makes it easy to read levels It has 3 digital displays showing peak, average, and max dB, the latter being resettable by tapping it. The display rotates on invering the iPhone. There is no recording function. The setting screen has sensitivity and calibration adjustment controls. There is a toggle switch for headset calibration on/off. The remaining screen shows some sound levels in different environments. The display pointer shows average levels, the "A" weighting for human interpretation of a changing range of sound levels. A little on sound measurement: the iPhone 3G mike can read from 40 to 105dB. About the quietest sound in a bedroom in the dead of night is round 40dB. To read less, you need a sound laboratory. Levels of zero exist only on the moon. The sound of quiet breathing and nothing else is round 10-15dB. This is round the lowest sound that ears with perfect hearing can detect. Normal household noise with TV on is 65-70dB. Traffic noise on a busy road is 80-85 dB, a jeliner taking off reaches 120dB, and 150dB levels will burst your eardrums and have blood running out of your ears. Constant exposure to levels of 90dB will give you a hearing aid in middle age and 110 and up will guarantee serious hearing loss. One reviewer complained that he could not measure car stereo levels over 105 dB. To you, I say: While you still have your hearing, amuse yourself by reading the hearing aid catalogues. So how does Decibel stack up? Basically, very well indeed! It tends to read about 5 dB high, and on my iPhone 3g with OS3, I found that turning the headset calibration on made it very close to a commercial unit through the whole range, without adjusting the calibration. A quiet bedroom at 2am gave a reading of 40-50dB (normal levels), traffic gave round 80dB and anything over 90dB needs earplugs. This is a pretty good meter, and well worth getting. Well done!

"Decibel" Sound Meter.  
By: Capital O - 22-Aug-2009
Version: 1.11
This sound level meter has a pointer running over a linear scale reading 0 to 110 dB. This makes it easy to read levels It has 3 digital displays showing peak, average, and max dB, the latter being resettable by tapping it. The display rotates on invering the iPhone. There is no recording function. The setting screen has sensitivity and calibration adjustment controls. There is a toggle switch for headset calibration on/off. The remaining screen shows some sound levels in different environments. The display pointer shows average levels, the "A" weighting for human interpretation of a changing range of sound levels. A little on sound measurement: the iPhone 3G mike can read from 40 to 105dB. About the quietest sound in a bedroom in the dead of night is round 40dB. To read less, you need a sound laboratory. Levels of zero exist only on the moon. The sound of quiet breathing and nothing else is round 10-15dB. This is round the lowest sound that ears with perfect hearing can detect. Normal household noise with TV on is 65-70dB. Traffic noise on a busy road is 80-85 dB, a jeliner taking off reaches 120dB, and 150dB levels will burst your eardrums and have blood running out of your ears. Constant exposure to levels of 90dB will give you a hearing aid in middle age and 110 and up will guarantee serious hearing loss. One reviewer complained that he could not measure car stereo levels over 105 dB. To you, I say: While you still have your hearing, amuse yourself by reading the hearing aid catalogues. So how does Decibel stack up? Basically, very well indeed! It tends to read about 5 dB high, and on my iPhone 3g with OS3, I found that turning the headset calibration on made it very close to a commercial unit through the whole range, without adjusting the calibration. A quiet bedroom at 2am gave a reading of 40-50dB (normal levels), traffic gave round 80dB and anything over 90dB needs earplugs. This is a pretty good meter, and well worth getting. Well done!

Great app  
By: LouSCannon - 04-Oct-2009
Version: 1.11
Never had a single problem with this app. It's not totally accurate but only when compared to professional equipment. Works perfectly to give a near accurate reading.

Very nice  
By: LordOfdaFood - 13-Jun-2009
Version: 1.10
Love it

Sounds good!  
By: Neos76 - 03-Jun-2009
Version: 1.10
Not able to know if it's working properly but looks good.

Great app  
By: fifi788 - 02-Jun-2009
Version: 1.10
Was featured on panorama and decided to buy it. Great stuff!

How many of us in the UK....  
By: robhuk20 - 30-May-2009
Version: 1.9
...watched Panorama tonight and spent .59p on this? And discovered how good this app is.

It works  
By: zat101 - 23-May-2009
Version: 1.9
It works. Full stop. The guys who have problems need to learn the basics and sort out their systems.

Works well with iPhone  
By: Polll - 01-May-2009
Version: 1.8
Don't be silly and try this without an iPhone or iPod Touch with a working external mic It works very well and looks impressive, a nice app

Great for AV calibration  
By: Macwarrior - 25-Apr-2009
Version: 1.7
I used this app to calibrate my Tagmclaren AV32r and set speaker levels. The results were stunning. How can anyone complain for this price. I can only conclude they didn't know what it was supposed to do. It's a simple app that does a simple job. Nothing more nothing less. For setting up a home cinema system this is a must have app.

Good app, most of the complaints are illegitimate...  
By: I,F... - Dec 11, 2009
Version: 1.11
The app works well and does what it says.
For those of you who've failed to really read what you purchased...
The iPhone mic peaks at around 105-110 db. This is why the meter has NO WAY of going beyond that ceiling...