---
name: "jnoisemeter"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "jnoisemeter"
version: "0.4.1-1+b1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/jnoisemeter"
---

# jnoisemeter(1)

Jnoisemeter is a small app which measure audio test signals.

## NAME

**jnoisemeter** - Jnoisemeter is a small app which measure audio test signals.

## SYNOPSIS

**jnoisemeter** \[*options*\]\

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the **jnoisemeter**

This manual page was written for the Debian distribution because the original program does not have a manual page.

**jnoisemeter** is a small app designed to measure audio test signals and in particular noise signals through Jack Audio Connection Kit.\

The simplest use is to measure the S/N ratio of your sound card. If you can calibrate the input levels of your soundcard it can also be used (with some external hardware) to measure noise levels of any type of audio equipment, including preamps and microphones.\

**jnoisemeter** has the following filters:\

 **FLAT**\
   No filtering at all, the signal is passed directly\
   to the detector.

 **20KHZ**\
   This is 4th order Chebyshev lowpass filter having\
   a noise bandwidth of exactly 20 kHz. This means\
   that if the input signal is white noise, the RMS\
   output level is the same as for a 'perfect' 20 kHz\
   lowpass filter. This is the normal filter to use for\
   'unweighted' measurements, as any noise measurement\
   should always use a well-defined bandwidth.\
   Future version may use a higher order filter.

 **IEC A and C**\
   The well-known standard noise weighting filters used\
   to obtain dB(A) and dB(C) measurements.

 **ITU-R468**\
   This is a filter optimised for measuring low-level\
   background noise. It rises 6 dB/oct at low frequencies,\
   has a peak of around +12 dB at 6.3 kHz, and falls off\
   radiply after that. It should be used together with the\
   ITU-R468 detector described below.

 **ITU-R468 (Dolby variant)**\
   This is the same filter as the previous one with around\
   5\.6 dB less gain. See below for why this exists.

**jnoisemeter** also provides a DC blocking filter (first order highpass, 5 Hz). This may be necessary when using the FLAT and 20KHZ filters, the others are DC-blocking anyway.\

**jnoisemeter** has three detectors:\

 **RMS**\
   Root-mean-square (i.e. 'power') meter. The time constant\
   is 125 ms as per IEC standard, or 1 second in slow mode.

 **AVERAGE**\
   This measures the average of the absolute value. The one\
   used in jnoisemeter is actually a VU meter. A 10 times \
   slower version is also provided.

 **ITU-R468**\
   This is a 'pseudo-peak' detector designed specifically\
   to measure noise and S/N ratios. For a peak meter it is\
   quite slow, as it should be for noise measurements, but\
   at the same time it is much more sensitive to short\
   impulsive noise than its speed would suggest.\
   The original rationale for this was the presence of\
   impulsive noise (generated by the electromechanical\
   telephone exchanges of those days) on long analog audio\
   lines. Today long distance audio lines are all digital,\
   but a detector such as this one is also ideal to reveal\
   the typical short noise bursts and 'crackle' originating\
   in computers and other digital equipment.

All three detectors will show 0.0 dB for a 'digital full scale' sine wave (i.e. peaking +/- 1.0).

**The ITU-R468 standard**

This uses both the ITU filter and detector, and is probably the 'best' standardized way to measure noise. It is used by e.g. the manufacturers of quality microphones, in particular the European ones. It produces a result that is on average about 10 dB higher than an A-weighted RMS measurement.

There is a 'variation' of this standard called 'ITU-ARM'. This was devised by Dolby Inc. at the time they were selling noise reduction technology for magnetic tape recorders. The traditional A-weighted measurements would show very little S/N ratio improvement when using Dolby-B. For this reason Dolby wanted to adopt the ITU-R468 method (which shows the difference quite clearly) but without the apparent 10 dB loss in S/N ratio as this was deemed bad for marketing. The solution adopted was to lower the gain of the filter, and use an average detector instead of the pseudo-peak one. Despite the 'ITU-ARM' name this is not an official standard, and not approved by the ITU.

## OPTIONS

  **-h**\
        Display short info

  **-n \<name\>**\
        Name to use as jack client

- **[jackd(1)](/jackd/1.md).**

  ## SEE ALSO

## AUTHOR

jnoisemeter was written by Fons Adriaensen \<fons@kokkinizita.net\>.

This manual page was written by Jaromír Mikeš \<mira.mikes@seznam.cz\> for the Debian project (but may be used by others).