I wouldn't say it is a 'great' meter, but it suffices for what I needed to do. I use it to check levels of a church auditorium PA system after making modifications to our sound system. This gives me some assurance that the sound level used in our normal worship service is going to be about the same after making modifications.
The buttons are a little 'loud' and pressing the button to make it hold on MAX makes the meter jump to 54db or so... so it isn't so good if you are wanting something in very quiet conditions. If you are in the 60+db range it seems to work fine. It also doesn't seem to be very 'fast', and a quick/short loud burst may not register quite right. But, hey, if you are just wanting to know the ballpark sound level...this works. If you want something more accurate...this isn't it.