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
OP,
I get where you comin' from:
" This is ONLY about the noise floor of one's listening room. With the stereo system OFF"
My dedicated room with double walls and blah blah blah registers an
18 on my iPhone with the FREE NIOSH app.
It is so quiet that standing perfectly still 2-3 feet from the iPhone and exhaling gently as if you want to clean your glasses causes it to jump into the 20s.  That is freakin' quiet.
Go ahead gentleman tweak away, start with lowering the "noise floor"
of your environment.  Then and only then will you be able to hear what you are setting out to accomplish.  All the rest is just noise. 
Regards,
barts  
In order to mitigate or solve a problem, one must first identify that it is in fact a problem. Once identified as problem, you have a number of choices. You can ignore the problem, they say ignorance is bliss. You can admit there is a problem, decide there's nothing to be done to solve or mitigate, fixate on problem which brings suffering, at this point you can choose to keep on suffering or end it by not subjecting yourself to the suffering (give up the audiophile game). Finally, you can either solve or at least mitigate problem.


I've chosen to mitigate problem by choosing to listen at certain times of day, treating my room to minimize outside noise, minimize home generated noise. As for the remaining noise I can't eliminate, I've chosen the ignorance route. Sometimes putting things into the empty section of the brain is best choice.
Glad I have tinnitus, no more worries about that remaining noise you can't eliminate, it will always be there anyway 🙂

Worrying about what you cannot control seems to be a waste of time and it subtracts from enjoying one’s audio system.  If non-audio system ambient noise is bothersome then maybe headphones better, but like most/all things audio there are trade offs.