I live in the humid Northeast (Hudson Valley of NY State, ~60 miles NE of NYC). Just as COVID hit us I tossed the air conditioners and installed split systems throughout our fairly large and intricate house (~3,400 sq. ft). That meant 2 compressors and a total of 6 interior splits. A 3rd compressor and 7th split will be installed 2 weeks from now. One of the smaller splits is in my home office, located above my head and ~7-8 feet from my head. One of the two extant compressors is located on the outside wall of the office, maybe 15’ from my chair.
So, what effect have this nearby split and compressor had on my listening room, which is the home office, with 2 separate audio systems, one including amps, speakers and sub?
Answer: nearly no effect all. Compared to how it was when a 6,000 BTU AC unit was in the side window of this office vs now w/a split, nothing I can think of. No distortion, new ground loops, anything electrical (I’ve had the same ground loop issues here for ~25 years--it has been unaffected by the presence of the split).
The split is definitely quieter than any in-window AC unit, very low dB.
The split also cools way better than a window AC unit. Honestly, the only minor complaint I could make is one that kinda/sorta applied to the window AC unit: it’s rather difficult to not feel a cold breeze from either type of technology in a space constrained space like this. Both designs move some air, and without a large volume of interior space in this room, I tend to feel the air movement.
Don’t be afraid of splits. Compared to AC units or the more expensive to operate whole house AC, I think they’re way better. They also do 3 critical things whole house units can’t:
1 - Each split is effective its own cooling zone. So I know have 6 cooling zones, each independently operable. I turn this one/that one and and off as needed. Difficult or impossible to do this with a whole house AC system.
2 - Each split can also produce heat, in the unlikely event my propone fired house heating system fails. I only used one of the larger splits for heat once: it worked perfectly.
3 - .Depending on the splits you buy, they are way more efficient than window AC and also cheaper to run than whole house (reason is #1)..