<p>A pressure sensitive paint (PSP) frequency response comparison experiment is proposed leveraging a nitrogen-fed sweeping jet oscillator as a representative high-frequency surface pressure signal source. A known low-frequency response paint is compared against a developmental high-frequency response paint to evaluate the efficacy of the methodology. First, traditional power and cross-spectral techniques are applied against a reference transducer. These classical techniques did not clearly indicate the difference in frequency response between the two formulations. To isolate the response to individual sweeping jet harmonics, spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) is applied. Extracting the highest-energy SPOD modes at each sweeping jet harmonic gives a strong visual indication of the frequency response differences between the two formulas under test. This qualitative difference is then quantified by estimating the intrinsic noise level function and then the noise level of the SPOD reconstructions. Then a signal-to-noise ratio-like metric is developed to compare the ability of PSP to render tonal modes. The experimental methodology outlined is shown to be a powerful tool for quickly comparing PSP formulations and applications on the benchtop.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>