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In order to take a scientific measurement with a microphone, its precise sensitivity must be known (in volts per pascal). Since this may change over the lifetime of the device, it is necessary to regularly calibrate measurement microphones. This service is offered by some microphone manufacturers and by independent testing laboratories. Microphone calibration by certified laboratories should ultimately be traceable to primary standards a (National) Measurement Institute that is a signatory to International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation. These could include the National Physical Laboratory in the UK, PTB in Germany, NIST in the USA and the National Measurement Institute, Australia, where the reciprocity calibration (see below) is the internationally recognised means of realising the primary standard. Laboratory standard microphones calibrated using this method are used in-turn to calibrate other microphones using comparison calibration techniques (‘secondary calibration’), referencing the output of the ‘test’ microphone against that of the reference laboratory standard microphone.
A microphone’s sensitivity varies with frequency (as well as with other factors such as environmental conditions) and is therefore normally recorded as several sensitivity values, each for a specific frequency band (see frequency spectrum). A microphone’s sensitivity can also depend on the nature of the sound field it is exposed to. For this reason, microphones are often calibrated in more than one sound field, for example a pressure field and a free field. Depending on their application, measurement microphones must be tested periodically (every year or several months, typically), and after any potentially damaging event, such as being dropped or exposed to sound levels beyond the device’s operational range.