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Anyone excited for the noise meter on WatchOS6?

TotalMacMove

TotalMacMove

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 18, 2013
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Kind of a neat feature that I never guessed would be on the watch.. I am an occupational health professional for oil & gas and constantly use sophisticated noise dosimeters when evaluating sites. I am excited to compare how the watch performs against a $1200 piece of equipment. Haha, anyone else?
 
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Me. I think anything like this is always a welcome addition. From the quick glimpses on the internet it’s surprisingly accurate too.
 
I am sure some will have a use for it. Me, No not sure I would ever have a need. When something is loud I move away or put on hearing protection.
 
MisterSavage said:
I'm not excited for it but I'm interested in using it. I'm one of those weirdos that wears earplugs during concerts and I've always wondered what the decibel level is when my clothes are vibrating from the sound!
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There’s nothing weird about that. Save your hearing because once it’s gone, it doesn’t come back. Nothing cool about hearing loss for the sake of a concert. The general rule of thumb is if it’s causing pain, it’s causing loss.
 
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Not that exciting for me. Seldom around anything that reaches dangerous decibels.

The loudest thing I am around is my commercial Toro mower and I wear Bose noise canceling headphones while riding. Led Zeppelin and Emerson Lake and Palmer are my choice while mowing my 2.5 acres.
 
TotalMacMove said:
It will be rather interesting to see the accuracy of it. I plan to test it vigorously in different environments with a 3M Edge 5 dosimeter!
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There's a recent tweet testing it with a professional equipment and it comes out very close. Sorry, didn't save the tweet but it's there.
Looking forward to the feature. The only not-so-good point about it is it needs Series 4. Would love to have it on my Series 3.
 
Itinj24 said:
I’m looking forward to it. Just wish this was around years ago before my ears got beat up
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Same here, too much "young and stupid" rifle/pistol shooting without hearing protection, coupled with being below decks on a ship while the deckies were using chipping hammers, etc.. Now, I wish I hadn't been so invincible back then.. *sigh* Too late for me, but it might be interesting to play with.
 
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While it's not as accurate as those sound meters used in silencer tests and isn't a game changing feature for me, it'd be interesting to see how loud some of the places I spend time in are.

I look at it like the rest health tracking features on Apple Watch. Are they absolutely necessary? Not really. But it's very interesting to be able to quantify that information. Who knows, maybe someone smarter than I am can think of something useful to do with that information.
 
oeagleo said:
Same here, too much "young and stupid" rifle/pistol shooting without hearing protection, coupled with being below decks on a ship while the deckies were using chipping hammers, etc.. Now, I wish I hadn't been so invincible back then.. *sigh* Too late for me, but it might be interesting to play with.
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Navy?
 
There is one movie theater I go to occasionally that seemed overly loud to me... I actually downloaded an iPhone app to monitor it. It found they are usually just below the threshold, although sometimes over. I stopped going there, but I would love to have that functionality available automatically all the time. I think people underestimate how easy it is to damage your hearing -- for example most lawn mowers will over time.
 
For iOS, one of the better noise level measuring apps I found was NIOSH Sound Level Meter.
It's free and about as accurate as they can be using a built in mic in an iPhone or iPad.
 
kingtj said:
For iOS, one of the better noise level measuring apps I found was NIOSH Sound Level Meter.
It's free and about as accurate as they can be using a built in mic in an iPhone or iPad.
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Its pretty accurate. However, I did a serious of tests with that app on a construction site and was disappointed in the readings. For a normal day to day, it works very good though.
 
TotalMacMove said:
Its pretty accurate. However, I did a serious of tests with that app on a construction site and was disappointed in the readings. For a normal day to day, it works very good though.
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Disappointed by the accuracy on a construction site or disappointed to discover that being on a construction site is damaging your hearing? :D
 
magicMac said:
Disappointed by the accuracy on a construction site or disappointed to discover that being on a construction site is damaging your hearing? :D
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The accuracy, I am the guy that goes to construction sites and measures air, noise, etc.. to prevent people from damaging their hearing. I’m always geared up to prevent any damage
 
TotalMacMove said:
The accuracy, I am the guy that goes to construction sites and measures air, noise, etc.. to prevent people from damaging their hearing. I’m always geared up to prevent any damage
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I'm actually really interested to see how the watch measurements compare to the ones you take.
 
I work in a fairly noisy environment testing Xerox Production Printers. I've already filed one noise complaint for our lab due to an unshielded compressor that is super load, though still falls within Xerox's tolerances. It'll be interesting to be able to test the noise level whenever I feel like it.
 
I think it’s a great addition.

I’ve suffered hearing loss as well as tinnitus in my left ear without knowing the cause. My only suspicion is that I’ve been renovating my house and have run quite a few power tools.

Perhaps an alert of this nature could’ve saved me significant medical bills as well as my hearing.
 
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