Background noise.

@dpop

I have also been lucky enough to experience quiet. I used to explore caves and underground mines. Frequently alone… hmm, having said that, I am thinking in retrospect that was not that safe… I did this stuff a lot. Anyway, I have always been surprised at the quiet… but that in confined areas how you can sense the walls… in big caverns the noise floor drops away. You have to hold your breath and listen of course.

I worked for high tech companies. Our office in Germany had an anechoic chamber… yeah, now that is quiet.

@twoleftears 

+1

I just remeasured the background… 25db with iPhone. It is Thursday mid morning… so, under ideal late night conditions it probably goes down a bit more, low 20’s. I then flipped on the air cleaner. My phone showed 27db… but… of course it jumps to high 30s - 40s if I take a breath. I think my conclusion is the iPhone Microphone just isn’t that sensitive in this range.

To me carefully listening, with and without the air cleaner sounds more like a 10db change (guess). I have a better SPL meter somewhere and a high quality microphone I bought for this purpose. I’ll pull them out.

BTW, three walls of my audio room (front and sides) are underground and as such help significant lower the noise floor. The distance from the speaker wall to rear wall is over 40 feet… so rear reflections are minimal.

I have always been cognizant of background noise. But, I am really surprised at the amount of special information, dynamics, and detail lost by a seemingly really small increase background noise.

Obviously, there are two things going on… your system background and ambient room background. These factors and their interplay have to be really important in results reported by lots of folks about there equipment performance.

@nonoise

Ok, your user ID is taking on a meaning. I am really sorry to hear about your situation. That has got to be hard.

I actually assembled my former Office headphone system in the adjacent room in part to get away from my quiet air conditioner (in its own room, with a solid door) during the afternoon in summer. But now I can control my air conditioner from my iPhone… so I can turn it off during summer afternoon sessions.

I then upgraded my headphone system to audiophile levels. So, it is in a quiet place and offers isolation. It also allows me to watch the fire and listen to music in my library during the winter.

I really hope you can get into a quiet house soon.

@phusis

I had the same problems with the fans on my amp. While really small, I could hear them. So, I put a line of bolster pillows along the wall behind my system… problem gone. It was all reflection from the wall.

111db speakers… wow!

@panzrwagn

Wow, what a story. Add sound to create a sense of privacy. It is incredible what some people will come up with. I now wear my noise cancelling EarPods when I walk the dogs and go on bike rides. The lower noise level relaxes me… while the background is more or less white noise… it kind of “jacks me up”… not relaxing.

One of the most profound improvements in my professional life was getting Bose Quiet Comfort headphones (I flew over 250,000 miles a year). I would put them on when I got to the airport and take them off when I got to the hotel at my destination. Huge improvement in my life! Lowered stress. Most of the time I had nothing playing… just noise cancellation.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments @snilf. On your father and background noise. I struggled with ADHD through school until I was around 30. I did not know I had it… but I could not concentrate… nearly flunking out of college more than once. I noticed sometimes if I studied in the Student union cafeteria I could concentrate for a while… all the talking would become background noise and suddenly I could study. Many times it would not work. For much of my life I just thought I was stupid… that was my fathers belief.

I found that being in exceptional shape (massive amounts of daily exercise) also allowed my mind to concentrate. I figured this out in my early 30’s. Then I went to graduat school where I graduated near the top of my class. I figured out that I had ADHD while in my mid 40’s. Confirmed by my doctor when I was 60. Maybe your dad had a little AD.

Thinking further along the line of low levels of background noise, I dawns on me that different systems have different presentations of low level detail. I am thinking of the recording venue. Let’s assume a symphony hall for the moment.

I used to listen at the symphony to just the reflections of the sounds. So, if the violas would abruptly start playing I could hear the sound reflect off the sides of stage left, then the ceiling and then blend from the same sounds reflecting at the back of stage. These are pretty sublet and only a small number of db above background.

One my major realizations were that many systems overemphasize the venue of the recording. So say these reflections were 5db above the background… my current system would represent them as about 5db. But a lot of systems… my last generation included would represent them as 10db above the background. This is what I consider details forward. An overemphasis on quiet detail. Thirty years ago, I would have chosen this as “better sounding”.

My thought is that these two systems would sound very different in rooms with different background noise levels. Assuming the same character of sound in a noisier room, one would probably identify the 10db venue as better balanced because the details would not be drowned out. One more variable in evaluating systems.

Better and better equipment tends to get better at presenting all sounds proportionally (I think… assume.. in general). So if you don’t make sure your audio environment is up to the challenge, you could be losing a lot. Maybe by accident, I have worked at more and more aspects of sound as my system has improved… so I now have the best quietest audio room I have ever owned.

I am not adding, change volume… because that adds a bunch of additional variables.