Reported sound levels almost always refer to pressure, matching human hearing

Evidence

These different means of describing and measuring sound amplitudes can be confusing, and one must be careful to ascertain which one is being used in a given context. In general, a reference to sound level implies that the SPL is being used because the pressure component can be measured easily and corresponds most closely to what we hear. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 211

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Establishes the field’s default convention: ‘sound level’ means SPL, because pressure tracks perception.

Related

• Sound level convention defaults to pressure level because it is measurable and matches hearing. (similarity 0.96)
• Sound pressure level is the standard because it matches hearing (similarity 0.92)
• Sound level meters measure pressure, from which intensity is derived (similarity 0.87)
• Sound intensity level and sound pressure level are roughly equivalent (similarity 0.86)
• Sound amplitude is measured as root mean square pressure because ears sense pressure (similarity 0.85)
• Objective sound amplitude measures do not describe perceived loudness. (similarity 0.84)
• ‘Sound level’ is a deliberately vague unit-free term for sound size (similarity 0.84)
• Sound pressure level depends on oscillation amplitude, not average pressure (similarity 0.84)
• Sound pressure level and intensity level coincide only without reflecting surfaces (similarity 0.83)
• Loudness is not reducible to sound pressure level or signal power (similarity 0.83)
• Sound audibility depends on both its level and its frequency (similarity 0.83)
• Human hearing spans sound pressures from 10-5 to 102 Pa (similarity 0.83)
• Loudness is measured psycho-acoustically via magnitude estimation against a reference (similarity 0.83)
• Loudness depends on more than physical sound intensity alone (similarity 0.82)
• Sound pressure and intensity are distinct quantities interconvertible by a known relationship (similarity 0.82)