Apple watch Noise app coming this fall

Polkitup2
Polkitup2 Posts: 1,619
edited June 2019 in The Clubhouse
I know there are many SPL apps available currently for phones, but this one will be released as part of the Apple watch OS update this fall. Looks pretty handy in that it will monitor your environment and alert you when sound levels exceed an unsafe level over a period of time.

I imagine some of you Polksters will have to turn off the notifications when listening to tunes. :)

It will be interesting to see how accurate this is compared to my Radio Shack SPL meter.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/14/apple-watch-noise-check-protects-your-hearing.html

Comments

  • Willow
    Willow Posts: 10,862
    Gone are the days of using your two ears and common sense I guess.
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,710
    Polkitup2 wrote: »
    I know there are many SPL apps available currently for phones, but this one will be released as part of the Apple watch OS update this fall. Looks pretty handy in that it will monitor your environment and alert you when sound levels exceed an unsafe level over a period of time.

    I imagine some of you Polksters will have to turn off the notifications when listening to tunes. :)

    It will be interesting to see how accurate this is compared to my Radio Shack SPL meter.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/14/apple-watch-noise-check-protects-your-hearing.html

    That's not going to work too well for all those Millennials with their ear buds shoved in tight, which just happens to be Apple's target audience.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."


    President of Club Polk

  • delkal
    delkal Posts: 764
    Free phone SPL meters are useful when you are setting up a home theater. Using the white noise test tone I was able to quickly get to get the fronts and center to sound what I thought was the same by ear. But when I checked it with the SPL meter and I was about 3 dbs away for the center. And this repeated for a number of measurements from slightly different positions so it was real. I think your ear can get fooled depending on the position of the speakers. The two stereo sides were surprisingly close by ear but the center was positioned higher and I was off. Rears are even more difficult. It is easy to focus on a sound if it is in one direction but to compare it with sounds coming from a different direction (and usually smaller bookshelf speakers) is extremely difficult for me.

    I am sure some people can get much closer than I can. If you can Congrats! But a quick verification with an SPL meter is still a good reality check.

    One caveat. While phone SPL meters can be useful to compare identical white noise tones I would never depend on them for an absolute measurement. It might say 70 dbs but who knows what it really is. It could be much higher or lower. The microphone on every phone is different and would need to be calibrated. And even if you do calibrate it you never know if the cheap phone microphone has a linear response or how sensitive it is to frequency changes.
  • Polkitup2
    Polkitup2 Posts: 1,619
    F1nut wrote: »
    Polkitup2 wrote: »
    I know there are many SPL apps available currently for phones, but this one will be released as part of the Apple watch OS update this fall. Looks pretty handy in that it will monitor your environment and alert you when sound levels exceed an unsafe level over a period of time.

    I imagine some of you Polksters will have to turn off the notifications when listening to tunes. :)

    It will be interesting to see how accurate this is compared to my Radio Shack SPL meter.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/14/apple-watch-noise-check-protects-your-hearing.html

    That's not going to work too well for all those Millennials with their ear buds shoved in tight, which just happens to be Apple's target audience.

    No doubt regarding the millennials and ear buds - lol But, for the Apple watch Apple is going after older people as much if not more so than millennials with apps such as detecting heart afib, fall detection, fitness apps and the noise app.

    Apple knows the millennials as a lot aren't exactly rolling in the dough and know they need the more affluent baby boomers to succeed.

    The wife and I are in the baby boomer generation and love our Apple watches.