Why doesn Jade use a simple microphone instead of a sound level meter for data capture?
The main reason is that sound level meters provide a low-cost way of obtaining a frequency weighted signal. They also handle the range shifting necessary to cover the usual range of levels from 30 to 130 dB (16-bit sound cards can only cope with a 70dB range with a reasonable resolution). Simple microphones provide none of these advantages and cost at least as much as the cheapest meters.
