Definition

Noun: A unit of subjective loudness. One sone is defined as the perceived loudness of a 1000-hertz pure tone presented at a level of 40 decibels above the listener's hearing threshold.

Usage

The word sone is a technical term used primarily in acoustics, psychoacoustics, and audio engineering to quantify the perceived intensity or volume of a sound as experienced by a human listener. It is a unit on a perceptual scale, unlike the decibel (dB), which is a unit of physical sound pressure level.

Examples

• The typical rustle of leaves measures approximately 1 sone.
• A sound perceived to be twice as loud as a 1-sone reference would be measured as 2 sones.
• The concert's peak volume was estimated at over 100 sones, which is dangerously high.
• The scale in sones is linear with respect to perceived loudness, so 4 sones sounds about four times louder than 1 sone.

Advanced Usage

• Sone Scale: The sone scale is a psychophysical scale established through experiments where listeners compare the loudness of different sounds. It is designed so that a doubling of the sone value corresponds to a doubling of the perceived loudness.
• Relationship to Phons: The sone is related to another perceptual unit, the phon. By definition, a 1-kHz tone at 40 phons has a loudness of 1 sone. For every 10-phon increase above 40 phons, the loudness in sones approximately doubles.

Variants and Related Words

• Loudness (n): The subjective perception of the intensity of a sound. The sone is a unit for measuring loudness.
• Phon (n): A unit of . A sound has a loudness level of phons if it is perceived by the average listener to be as loud as a 1-kHz pure tone at decibels Sound Pressure Level (dB SPL).
• Decibel (dB) (n): A logarithmic unit used to measure the physical , not the perceived loudness.

Synonyms

• (Conceptual) Perceived loudness unit, subjective loudness unit.

Notes

There are no common idioms, phrasal verbs, or colloquial uses associated with the word sone, as it is a specialized scientific and technical term.

Noun

1. a unit of perceived loudness equal to the loudness of a 1000-hertz tone at 40 dB above threshold