What’s your obstacles on the way of listening

First, I now realize how lucky I am, and will keep this in mind if I ever think of moving.

What a good decision it was to pay extra for the insulated windows and insulated door glass when I renovated our 3 season porch (adjacent to main living/listening space).

Original listening room windows, 1951, are single layer, but tested very airtight by weatherproofing project, and added storm windows made them a good sound blocking combo as well. 

A prior ’outdoor weather’ problem now gone. Loud talking turned into moving lips if seen. We have a neighbor who is partially deaf, thus LOUD when on the phone, outside in decent weather, close enough to drive Donna crazy outside on her glider. From my listening chair no sound gets thru.

Weather-strips at door bottoms, and sound strip on the adjacent kitchen door (installed for prior dishwasher noise), as well as buying the most silent dishwasher available means the dishwasher can be running, refrigerator can kick on, ice maker can clunk, or Donna and her sister can be in the kitchen quietly talking, I don’t hear them unless they get loud, then somebody has to go, or listen later.

Me listening or viewing while Donna watching TV in bedroom upstairs, around 4 right angle bits of corridor, she can leave the door open, we don’t hear each other. If I raise the volume too much, she closes the door where she is, I also put door bottom strips on my office door and the bedroom door. If noisy stuff, like Korean dramas (they cry loudly a lot), it’s sub-titles so I can turn the sound very low.

Forced air system, listening room is at the end of the line, not a main duct, can be heard if no music or video is on, but not when listening or viewing.

Old ’Sleepy Hollow’ neighborhood, very little thru traffic, but garbage trucks in the morning readily heard, big UPS/FedEx trucks if squeaky brakes, if nearby. Dogs barking when they pass each other right outside. Sometimes a ’whole house shudder’ when a big ass plane passes over, luckily rare.

And, I do have an acquired ability to tune everything else out. Door bell rings, Donna comes home, thru the front door, .... Pizza or Chinese food delivery ... they gotta break thru to the other side.

Prior to CD’s we trained our brains to be unaware of clicks and pops fairly well. After many years of CDs, when I got back into Vinyl, listening to well worn lps, I had to regain that ability. Then get better equipment, clean, new vinyl ...

Incidentally, I was just lying in bed the other day, remembering how I was able to transport myself to another place while riding the subway to and from NYC and Brooklyn everyday. 1970’s, nyc over 8 million, horribly crowded subways, very few air-conditioned trains, and when that crowded, asses to elbows, track and brake noise, odors, OMG.

I would close my eyes, put my brain in ’I’m not here’ mode, think about .... Then, you had to have a clock, like a Cicada, to ’wake’ yourself, break the trance, to get off at your stop. 3 changes from NYC to Brooklyn (living near Pratt Institute). And that reminded me of the period when I could simply decide when I wanted to wake up, say 5:20 am. Just think it, bingo, eyes open at 5:20. Can’t do it now, but for years, any time I chose, bingo, awake.

Point is, you can train your brain to be unaware of other input, even a lot of other input. A few door bottom strips ...

Read somewhere that people get obsessed with finding quiet so they move and move but still end up getting wound up by the slightest noise.

Having said that anechoic chambers are strangely creepy and unsettling places- you need some background noise.

Anyone watched the Ken Russel film Altered States with the isolation/ sensory deprivation tank (admittedly drugs also involved)

The birds are pretty noisy in the morning here but lorries and loud bike pipes on the nearby bypass are the bane of my life

Had a semi 30's cottage- you could tell what channel the guy was watching next door when he wasn't coughing and almost rattling the windows- rent it out now as it used to really get me down (selfish git used to park in the middle of the loop access road and keep his tree surgery stuff everywhere; remember 1st day moving in and he said that's your spot! Tried to be nice but in the end mental health was more important.

We live on a pretty quiet street. No through traffic. I never listen in the mornings as I prefer quiet starts to the day. But the afternoons? Lawnmowers, big jets sometimes (We live under one of the flight paths for Paine Field) and sometimes the neighbor's visiting grand kids. And of course, my wife. She works from home until 1700 so out of respect I headphone or just play Halo in my office. But that works both ways: Sometimes she's not overly fond of my musical tastes. <grin>
So my serious listening sessions are typically when she's off someplace or I'm in a mood for Jazz (and she's not cooking). We negotiate and get by.

Happy listening.

Nice weather here and my car hobby kicks in big time.

@elliotbnewcombjr,

"Incidentally, I was just lying in bed the other day, remembering how I was able to transport myself to another place while riding the subway to and from NYC and Brooklyn everyday. 1970’s, nyc over 8 million, horribly crowded subways, very few air-conditioned trains, and when that crowded, asses to elbows, track and brake noise, odors, OMG.
I would close my eyes, put my brain in ’I’m not here’ mode, think about .... Then, you had to have a clock, like a Cicada, to ’wake’ yourself, break the trance, to get off at your stop. 3 changes from NYC to Brooklyn (living near Pratt Institute). And that reminded me of the period when I could simply decide when I wanted to wake up, say 5:20 am. Just think it, bingo, eyes open at 5:20. Can’t do it now, but for years, any time I chose, bingo, awake."


Yes, it’s a weird habit that. I could do it once upon a time. Each morning I’d open my eyes and the clock would say more or less what I imagined.

Nowadays, my restful sleep seems to happen in the last couple of hours before waking, if at all, and without prompting I could very easily oversleep.

It was a good thing my daily treks on the London underground happened during the 80s - my late teens/early 20s - I couldn’t take it now. The trains were often hot, noisy and very crowded and back then you were obliged to give up your seat to a woman or an elderly person. I wonder if they still do it now?

It’s also kind of strange how some background sounds are quite acceptable eg surface noise, birds singing, general low level hum etc and yet the sound of a tap dripping is almost painful.

Ditto the sound of my wife’s kitchen blender - a horrible racket. She doesn’t seem bothered, whereas I’m checking noise levels on everything from fridges, washing machines, vacuum cleaners etc before buying them.

Voices too. The only less than harmonious ones (Dylan, Costello, Springsteen) I can listen to are usually surrounded by lavish production techniques.

I’ve also gradually gone from listening mainly to punk, rock and pop to easy listening (Frank, Nat, Matt) and now seem to be heading towards the string sounds of Percy Faith, Frank Chacksfield, Syd Dale, Roger Roger etc.

Oh well, I don’t care. Image no longer matters as long as my tastes are still expanding and not contracting.