Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First, understand that this is a basic, low-cost, minimum-feature meter. It does not have memory or graphing or do any complex measurements. It has basically two features -- current sound level, and peak sound level. And, it does one or the other, not both at the same time. If you can live with those limitations, this meter works well. It reads the sound level twice per second, so it may not get a totally accurate reading on a gun-shot or a drum beat. But, for average sound levels produced by a band, a stereo, or machinery, it works great. One user complained that it seems "completely uncalibrated" out of the box. The instructions state that it comes calibrated from the factory. The 40db she mentioned in a nearly quiet room is about right. 40db is a really quiet room. A spoken voice at 90db? If spoken right into the microphone, that is pretty believable. And, readings do move all over the place even though the human ear doesn't notice noise levels changing. That is true with any decent spl meter. The human ear isn't nearly as sensitive as an spl meter. If you are measuring a sound that you think is constant, but you see the meter jumping between 82 and 88 db, you need not be alarmed -- the human ear usually cannot distinguish jumps of less than 10db or so. If you aren't familiar with the physics of sound, you should know that sound pressure, which is what this device measures, and volume, which is what your ear and brain perceive as an interpretation of sound pressure against the ear drum, are not the same thing. For example, if I walk into a room with a sound pressure level of 95db, I will hear loud noise, and I will feel the sound physically pounding me. If a totally deaf person walks into the room with me, they will hear nothing at all, but they will still feel pressure of the sound. I do wish that it had the ability to show peak and current levels at the same time, but I could have had that feature if I had been willing to pay for it. The backlight is really nice in a dark room, the size is handy, and the tri-pod mount is a nice feature. Overall, this is a winner.