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I am trying to develop a hearing test that outputs different tones at different frequencies through the headphones. As soon as the user hears the sound, the corresponding decibel level should be recorded.

I know that there are already online digital hearing tests. But I wonder how they determine the dB level, without a microphone.

Currently, I am still failing to find a way to calculate the decibel level.

Here are my questions:

  1. is there a way I can derive the dB based on the volume of the headphones?
  2. while researching I often came across the term “calibrating headphones”. What does calibrating headphones mean in the context of measuring dB?
Daniel
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  • [What topics can I ask about here?](https://stackoverflow.com/help/on-topic) and [ask] – Rob Jul 07 '22 at 09:49
  • "I know that there are already online digital hearing tests. But I wonder how they determine the dB level". You have to consider the likely method: they don't determine it, they fake it. – MSalters Jul 07 '22 at 09:53
  • @Rob: Audio calibration isn't off-topic per se. My company does this kind of thing, and it's definitely part software. If you believe it's off-topic, you should be more specific why. – MSalters Jul 07 '22 at 09:54
  • @MSalters Question lacks focus, not specific, asks for recommendations and opinion. You also state in your answer that this is a hardware problem. SO is about software programming, not hardware. – Rob Jul 07 '22 at 10:00
  • @MSalters By "focus" it's meant that he is asking multiple questions. This question has many problems. – Rob Jul 07 '22 at 10:15
  • @Rob: You're probably not familiar with the domain. The numbered sub-question 2 asks what "calibration" means, while sub-question 1 asks how to perform a calibration. IMO, that satisfies "sufficient focus". Of course, SO works with votes, so we'll see what others think. – MSalters Jul 07 '22 at 10:25

1 Answers1

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This really is a hardware problem. You say "find a way to calculate the decibel level". That tells me that you fail to understand the problem domain. It's not a calculation problem.

As a simple example why it's not, some headphones have an analog gain control. The exact same headphone, using the exact same volume setting in software, will produce different decibel levels.

Hence, the answer to question 1 is a hard NO.

"Calibrating headphones" is a fairly ordinary calibration activity, but your question 2 suggests that you're not familiar with calibration in general. In this context, it means that you determine using known hardware (a specific microphone, connected to known audio hardware) how loud an unknown headphone for each of its settings.

This is unlikely to help you - instead of using known headphones, you now need a known microphone.

MSalters
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  • Thanks! You're right I had difficulties to understand the problem domain. Nevertheless now its clear for me that I can't just get the decibels level from headphones without measuring it with a microphone. – Daniel Jul 08 '22 at 11:41