What are sones and how loud is a sone?
The sone was proposed as a unit of perceived loudness by Stanley Smith Stevens in 1936. In acoustics,
loudness is the subjective perception of sound intensity. The ventilation industry uses sones as away of
measuring how loud a fan is in range hoods. As a unit of reference 6 sones is the level that we typically speak
at when seated around a conference table. Keep in mind that noise is a subjective thing which varies
depending upon a person's tolerance to such.
The following table compares decibels to sones.
dBA
sones
40 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90
1 2 3 4 6 8 11 16 22 32
Another point of reference that may be helpful is comparing sones to the decibel level of dishwashers. Many
entry level dishwashers operate at close to 60 decibels. Units that are rated as some of the quietest are going
to be in the mid to upper 40 decibel level.
Keep in mind that an additional 10 decibels is twice as loud.