The sounding board

dB vs dBA

What is the difference between dB and dBA?

dB stands for decibel and is a unit of sound measurement. This unit measures the loudness of a sound or the strength of a signal, computed as the signal to noise ratio.

Although dB is commonly used when referring to measuring sound, humans do not hear all frequencies equally. For this reason, sound levels in the low frequency end of the spectrum are reduced as the human ear is less sensitive at low audio frequencies than at high audio frequencies.

In order to account for this, different weightings have been created to give a loudness measurement that takes into account how the human ear actually perceives sound. In North America, the most common of these weightings is the "A" weighting. Values that have been corrected using the "A" weighting system are shown using units of dBA. Values not corrected to account for human hearing are written using units of dB.

At dB Noise Reduction our focus is to select the best noise control solution for the application on every project we undertake, while keeping our customers' cost to a minimum. Through our highly engineered noise control products we are able to reduce noise levels to create a quieter and more productive environment.

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