Noise floors


I'd like to address an issue that every single audiophile experiences, that being inherent/ambient steady state noise floors. Here we spend so much effort and money on our equipment in order to lower noise floor and increase resolution, transparency, only to lose some percentage of it on relatively high ambient noise floors. By this I mean the noise generated internally by home, hvac systems and so much more, add to that external, outside the home generated noise. Measuring over many years, over large variables, lowest readings of mid 20db to highest mid 50db in my dedicated listening room, these are steady state readings, any particular system in house may activate and or outdoor generated noises, which are even more variable, may kick in raising if from here.

And so, while we can address both these internal and external generated noise floors to some extent, we can't rid ourselves entirely of them. I presume there are widely varying levels of these noise floors for each of us, and it should be accounted for in reviews or evaluations of equipment. And could be reason for trusting only long term reviews, with varying noise floor levels within one's listening room, short term listening could have taken place during time of best or worse case room noise floor.

But mostly what bothers me is, here all this effort and money spent on equipment in attempt to lower noise floor, and so much of that lost by relatively ridiculous levels of steady state and/or ambient noise. Makes one think about getting closed back headphones, or moving out to extremely remote area to home with minimal internally generated noise. To think how much better  the very system I presently have would sound in that environment!


sns

Showing 1 response by desktopguy

Ambient noise pollution (ie, a too-high noise floor in one’s environment) is all too real. I am currently experiencing this more vividly in the bedroom than listening room:

1 - BR is relatively quiet in general (house on 2 acres in suburban/rural area).

2 - There is a Bose table radio in the room. I can play it at low volume while reading before bedtime. Easy to hear and appreciate it.

3 - Air conditioning in the BR used to be a window AC unit (loud as hell)--but now it’s a "split system" where the compressor is outside & near-impossible hear inside; and the unit on the wall is a very quiet air handler that blows air over coils containing chilled coolant & into the room. It works like a charm w/far less noise than any window AC. Easy to forget the split's even on...that sound is soft, soothing white noise.

4 - Yet when the split is on I cannot listen to that radio w/o turning up the volume significantly. I haven’t measured decibels, but the split is not simply adding environmental noise (which it is); it’s also adding environment white noise capable of "masking" other low-volume sounds.

I could get exactly the same effect with a box fan set to "low" -- not even close to loud, but able to mask all other low volume sounds.