dBcheck is an Android app for measuring everyday sound, following noise exposure over time, and comparing personal hearing checks with your own baseline. Press Listen to see the page demo respond to the film behind it.
Source: hero film. Web Audio RMS display demo, separate from the phone measurement path.
Traffic, open offices, cafés, the gym: everyday noise adds up, and ears are terrible at keeping score. dBcheck quietly counts it for you, so “it wasn’t that loud” becomes a number instead of a guess.
44.1 kHz audio sampling, RMS → dB conversion with LAeq energy averaging, 1-second persistence cadence, and weekly exposure analytics computed from your real sessions.
A single level cannot describe exposure on its own. dBcheck combines level and duration to help you follow how an estimated noise dose accumulates over time.
Phone-based dosimeter estimates under NIOSH REL and OSHA PEL: TWA, actual accumulated dose, projected dose and estimated remaining exposure time. A configurable level threshold defaults to 85 dB; extended-exposure, dose and projected-dose alerts remain distinct from the separate 120 dB peak warning.
Nighttime sound can be difficult to place from memory. The sleep monitor shows when notable noise events occurred and how loud they were, without claiming to know what woke you.
Overnight measurement with notable-event detection, equivalent level and LCpeak stats, loud-period summaries and a morning insights view tied to each sleep session.
dBcheck lets you run a personal threshold check and compare results with your own earlier baseline. It is designed for relative tracking, not a clinical hearing test or diagnosis.
A Hughson-Westlake style threshold test, plus a short recovery check at 1/4/8 kHz that measures shifts against your baseline. Personal tracking, not a medical diagnosis.
Select an example to compare its typical range and open a sourced guide when one is published.
A whisper is quiet at close range. Distance and room reflections can change the reading substantially.
Usually well below occupational exposure limits.
A whisper is quiet at close range. Distance and room reflections can change the reading substantially.
Usually well below occupational exposure limits.
Normal conversation varies with vocal effort, distance, background noise and room acoustics.
Ordinary one-to-one conversation is generally not treated as a hearing hazard.
Read sound guideVacuum cleaner readings change with the model, setting, floor, room and microphone position.
Duration matters more for repeated or occupational cleaning than for a short household task.
Read sound guideRoad traffic changes with vehicle mix, speed, distance and surrounding buildings.
Long or repeated exposure near the upper end deserves attention.
Powered mower levels vary with the machine, blade, load, terrain and operator position.
Levels in this range can accumulate occupational noise dose quickly.
Read sound guideConcert levels vary by audience position, loudspeaker layout, venue, programme and averaging period.
At higher average levels, a full occupational reference dose can accumulate rapidly.
Read sound guideCrying levels vary strongly with age, vocal effort, distance, room and whether average or maximum is reported.
A close loud cry and repeated exposure are different contexts; the reading cannot assess health.
Read sound guideSirens are designed to remain audible over other sound and can be intense at close range.
Move away from the source when practical; distance strongly affects the level.
Fireworks create brief impulse peaks, but this reference range is an A-weighted Fast reading from one display; true peaks can be higher.
Impulse sound is not well represented by a simple continuous-exposure estimate.
Typical ranges vary with distance, environment, source and measurement method.
These approximate ranges depend on distance, metric and measurement conditions.
Whisper: 25–30 dBA. Active-source averages compiled from measurements at 1.5–5 metres.
Source: Effects of noise from oil and gas development on raptors and songbirds—A science synthesis to inform National Environmental Policy Act analyses — Logan M. Maxwell et al., U.S. Geological Survey, 2024-10-29; revised 2025-12-22.
Busy traffic: 73–83 dBA. Daytime average levels at four Bangkok roadside traffic zones; source values are rounded to whole decibels.
Source: Monitoring and Assessment of Daily Exposure of Roadside Workers to Traffic Noise Levels in an Asian City: A Case Study of Bangkok Streets — Shing Tet Leong and Preecha Laortanakul, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2003-06.
Siren: 110–129 dBA. Average educational rating for emergency-vehicle sirens; the source does not report distance or averaging time.
Source: Hearing Protectors — National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, 2020-11; revised 2025-04-16.
Fireworks: 100–115 dBA. A-weighted Fast (125 ms) measurement about 100 metres from one nighttime aerial display; not a true impulse-peak range.
Source: Noise and low-frequency sound levels due to aerial fireworks and prediction of the occupational exposure of pyrotechnicians to noise — Tagayasu Tanaka, Ryoichi Inaba and Atsuhito Aoyama, Journal of Occupational Health, 2016-11-20.
0 €
The full meter. Forever.
12,99 €
A single one-time purchase. No subscription, ever.
Final price is charged in your local currency on Google Play.
The web tools are free. dBcheck Pro unlocks advanced measurement and analysis on Android.
A detailed live sound level readout with waveform, LAeq, LCpeak and session statistics. The core of dBcheck, free for everyone.
Configurable level-threshold alerts (85 dB by default), extended-exposure, dose and projected-dose alerts, and a separate 120 dB peak warning on your schedule. Passive monitoring uses user-started 5-minute samples.
A weekly energy-average noise-exposure summary built from your last seven days of sessions.
Shareable PNG session cards, plus optional Health Connect sync for selected dBcheck session data. Included for every user.
Measurement & analysis
On-device YAMNet analyzes live microphone audio. Classifier input is not saved; optional aggregate detection events are stored only when their separate persistence opt-in is enabled.
Audio analysis and app data are on-device and no account is required. Optional Health Connect features can share supported session data when the user explicitly enables them. Optional Pro WAV recording is a separate opt-in feature and is off by default. Raw classifier audio is not uploaded for cloud analysis.
dBcheck for Android is in final tuning before release.
The observatory opens soon on Google Play.
