Decibel X:dB Sound Level Meter

Years ago I lost my high tones from being in the music business, competitive shooting and hunting without ear protection, whch at the time was something not known to me. My daughter and wife finally got exasperated with my asking “Huh, what did you say?” So they had me go to an audiologist who determined I did have significant hearing loss of the high tones, literally crashing off the chart. Having compensated for 19 years, it was time for hearing aids. For $6,000, great improvement shown. I’m due for new aids, another $6K. So, for the past 10 years I have spoken with some 50-60 young folks who blast music in their vehicles. I put the DecibleX app on my iPhone and demonstrate that they are ranging from the 90s to over 120 decibels. They were unaware of the damage they were causing to themselves and in some instances their children. Everyone has been nice and thankful that I’ve brought this to their attention and saved them their hearing and some $$$. Let’s pass it on!!!

The free version is likely the best app of its kind, and highly recommended. The only strike against it is that the premium version is subscription based, and a fairly expensive one at $4.99 per month. I suspect that for most casual users, this is far too expensive…I certainly wouldn’t pay that. I can understand subscriptions for something like a newspaper or periodical magazine, where content is changing, but not for something that provides an essentially fixed functionality. This kind of app is particularly suitable to one time purchase of premium functionality. SUGGESTION TO DEVELOPERS Create a reasonably priced onetime purchase option If you keep a subscription, reduce the cost considerably. You may be surprised how many more paid users you’d have, if you do this.

I’ve used a couple sound meter apps over the last few years along with a commercial quality sound level meter. I would put this up there with the best of what I’ve used. This review is for the purchased, “pro” version of the software. That I can pay $4.99 and use the processing capabilities of my iPhone in leu of spending $150+ on a professional, stand-alone meter blows my mind. The level of detail shown in the various portions of the screen offer a broad range of information to the user. You get both numerical and graph output as well as dial analog output of minimum and maximum readings, duration, etc. One quibble is that when I pause the meter and reset it, it asks if I really want to, which is okay, but immediately restarts the sound reading, even if I don’t want it to. Also, I’d like for a reset to take the meter back to “0”. It restarts at the prior average. I would like to see these twin issues corrected, and I’d then give the app 5 stars.