Distortion measurements of sound pressure level generated by a pistonphone

A supplementary interlaboratory comparison on pistonphone calibration was performed between 2018 and 2020 under the auspices of the Inter-American Metrology System. Seven national metrology institutes took part in this comparison. One pistonphone was circulated among the participants for measurement of the generated sound pressure level, frequency, total distortion + noise and total harmonic distortion. This paper presents the results of distortion measurements and analyzes them. From the stability check, notable variances with respect to reported measurement uncertainty were observed. From reported results, a large difference between the estimated uncertainties by the participants was noted. Convergence between results was found when measurements were performed using one-inch microphone while some divergence between results was found when measurements were performed using half-inch microphone. In addition, these results (using one-inch and half-inch microphones), even when obtained by the same institute, sometimes were different. Reasons for these findings are discussed and suggestions for future comparisons are presented.