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How quiet is your listening room?


Max2

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I just started treating my room a couple of years ago and have been adding bits here and there which have made a huge difference. I was wondering how many others have taken interest in correcting their room and how it has improved your listening.    

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My cold air return line hits ~60 spl at the main listening position. I am going to fix that crap with the remodel one way or another. Plan on trying to turn the fan speed down first and / or adding another intake upstream in the venting to a different part of the basement, it is super annoying.

 

My inukes get noisy too ~50 spl. They will eventually end up in a closet though, so no big deal there.  Other than that though, we are on 1.3 acres and it is dead quiet aside from those two items. I recently went back to my mom's house and was really shocked just how much noise you hear with cars going up and down the street all night, trains coming through town at 3 AM

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I wasnt expecting some of the changes that all the flooring dampening and panels did to my room.  The biggest thing is how well I can hear everything going on outside the room (when the audio is off) since I have made it so quiet.  I guess that's the misconception of soundproofing a room vs dampening it. As long as my AC isn't running and the Washer and dryer is running downstairs, I can get a 32db reading.   I was really pretty shocked the first time I got all the panels hung, floor finished  and got to play a nice Hi Res recording.  The pauses and decays in some of the music content is a real game changer, not to mention the huge change of clarity in vocals and background instruments now that the reverb and echo is so low.  Even listening at 85 ish db, where I'm at 90% of the time, I'm still enjoying the "room" to noise ratio.   I had to move my security DVR into the attic because it has a cooling fan that was insanely loud. I get the tinnitus thing too, sometimes I think having a quiet space really magnifies it. I just turn off the music and on the TV when its gets bad enough.

 

I was reading about some anechoic chambers that get way into the negative db range.  I think some of these levels would be where you could whisper to someone and it get eaten from the chamber so you would hear no voice.  I could see how people would get a little freaked out being in a room where slight movements and low levels noises would be "invisible" for the ears.

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I'm stuck in the basement and things a very quite at time and then the furnace or air conditioners kick-in.  I can't block off the furnance room due to ventilation requirements for the area.  Doors are up and help a wee bit.  The basement is a bunker, you can't hear anything outside at full tilt.

 

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43 minutes ago, muel said:

I'm pretty lucky in my room I think.. it is around 35 to 38 db but sometimes closer to 30.  With kids around it varies drastically! 

 

That's measuring with AudioTools.

I know what you mean.  I never knew that a two year olds cough could be heard down stairs and at the other end of the house with doors closed on both ends. Before I started I was basically in a wooden box with a little sheetrock and wouldn't have known if someone kicked in the front door.

 

 

Here you go.

 

 

 

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25 minutes ago, RoboKlipsch said:

If the return is one of many in the home you should cover it when listening.  Will solve most of that issue.  Inuke has many fan mods but i have not done one to relay any details.

It is one of two attached to the second furnace for the basement only. The vent in the room is quite a bit larger than the other one, so that vent other vent in the bedroom would really be screaming. Maybe I will check out one of those heavy plastic / magnet sheets to put over it if all else fails. I have read somewhere that a lot of times there is a varible speed fan on the furnace that is simply turned up to max. And I would only need to add in about 2' of HVAC venting and cut a hole in the utility room wall to start drawing air in from one additional location. I am getting the ducts cleaned next week so I want to talk to that guy first.

 

If I were better at soldering, I would probably tackle that iNuke mod. That 12v switch relay and DSP filter mod look pretty cool too. 

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4 hours ago, holtrp said:

 

If I were better at soldering, I would probably tackle that iNuke mod.

 

Soldering isn't necessary.  The stock fans have a plug, you can just unhook the plug then take a new fan with a plug and stab it onto the terminals.  It's just that one of the wires and holes on the fan plug isn't used.  Anybody who does this and solders just like to work for no reason. 

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5 hours ago, holtrp said:

My cold air return line hits ~60 spl at the main listening position. I am going to fix that crap with the remodel one way or another. Plan on trying to turn the fan speed down first and / or adding another intake upstream in the venting to a different part of the basement, it is super annoying.

 

My inukes get noisy too ~50 spl. They will eventually end up in a closet though, so no big deal there.  Other than that though, we are on 1.3 acres and it is dead quiet aside from those two items. I recently went back to my mom's house and was really shocked just how much noise you hear with cars going up and down the street all night, trains coming through town at 3 AM

 

OK, what are "Inukes?"

JJK

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5 minutes ago, JJkizak said:

 

OK, what are "Inukes?"

JJK

 

Pro amps for driving DIY subwoofers. 

http://www.parts-express.com/behringer-nu6000dsp-inuke-6000w-lightweight-power-amplifier-with-dsp--248-6710

 

 

15 minutes ago, MetropolisLakeOutfitters said:

 

Soldering isn't necessary.  The stock fans have a plug, you can just unhook the plug then take a new fan with a plug and stab it onto the terminals.  It's just that one of the wires and holes on the fan plug isn't used.  Anybody who does this and solders just like to work for no reason. 

 

Hmmm... If I were keeping them out in the open indefinitely, I would probably look into it. Maybe after the warranty runs out or if I don't get to building in the next 6 months. Those DSP filter mods and 12 v switching modes look a little more involved.  

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  • 3 weeks later...
28 minutes ago, Schu said:

Mine in not nearly quite enough for my personal tastes.... I am planning on adding even more deadening material.

Double drywall and stuff is for room isolation.  Absorber, diffuser, ect are for listening environment  room control.  This does little for outside noise.

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44 minutes ago, JJkizak said:

 

I see the peak noise at 10.4HZ. Do you live on top of a volcano?

JJK

That's probably due to microphone response: in this case, that's a Behringer ECM8000, driven by a small mixer that provides phantom power and converting the microphone signal via DAC to convert to USB.  Deep infrasonic noise outside is basically not attenuated, speaking relatively, so you can imagine the real sub-10 Hz SPLs.

 

1 hour ago, Schu said:

Mine in not nearly quiet enough for my personal tastes.... I am planning on adding even more deadening material.

 

I've actually got the same problem with refrigerator compressor turn-on noise and other human- and pet-caused sources.  But the cost to provide a much quieter environment is to build another room onto the house, so I've learned to live with it.  I actually like the slightly higher room RT60 (reverberation time), shown below.  If I lived in a much quieter room, I'd probably become a real hermit ( :wacko2: )...

 

Room RT - New Center 1 m.png

 

BTW: the reason why I posted my room and outside noise plot is so that others can also compare their environments. My room is a bit on the noisy side.

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