Audio Engineering: Know It All

Chapter 22. Microphone Technology

22.1. Microphone Sensitivity

In order to determine the electrical input level to a sound system, we need to measure the electrical output generated by the system microphone when it is subjected to a known sound pressure (SP). In making such measurements an L^P of 94 dB (1 Pa) is recommended as this value is well above the normally encountered ambient noise levels.

Everyone seriously interested in the field of professional sound should own or have easy access to a precision sound level meter (SLM). Among other uses, an SLM is required to measure ambient noise, to calibrate sources, and, on occasion, to serve as input for frequency response, reverberation time, signal delay, distortion, and acoustic gain measurements. ...