If you're mainly looking to buy one of these for home or general hobby use (like checking how loud a tool is, or seeing if your neighbours are too loud), here's the best tip- Make sure it has an "A-weighting" function. That's the mode you want 99% of the time, as it filters the sound to match how the human ear actually perceives loudness. The other setting, "C-weighting," is much flatter and mostly used for super technical stuff like studio calibration or industrial noise. Sticking to A-weighting (dBA) will give you the most useful number! You can also try this tool for free. https://noisemeter.co/

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