Noise floors

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.

Ambient noise floor in my system you have to look forward to Rick.

Note to self - purchase matching bullet proof vests for wife and myself when entering Seattle area.

Two weeks until my big road trip!

@desktopguy - yeah if I build a house, it'll have a split system in the listening room, or acousitflex duct weaving it's way into the room.

Take the 405 bypass. Stop at Wade's on the way. https://maps.apple.com/place?address=13570%20Bel-Red%20Rd%2C%20Bellevue%2C%20WA%2098005%2C%20United%...

Ever been in anechoic chamber? The absolute quiet is so quite it’s deafening.  
If the ambient noise floor is 40db and the music is playing at 85db, guessing you aren’t being bothered by the ambient.  
MC gets it.

You don't get it. The problem isn't when music is at 85db, its during the quiet passages, music may be at only 50, 60db, perhaps lower. Unless all you listen to is highly compressed music at high volumes, bring on the fireworks, furnace sounds, loud cars, what have you. Oh, and then I'll get drunk and not notice a thing. Sorry, I listen to highly dynamic recordings, kind of like real live music, for that matter,speach. Man, if you don't get the difference between music playing at 85db with ambient sound level 30db and the quiet passage at 50-60db, perhaps lower and ambient sound level of 30db I will never get through to you. Would you seriously not think that 20db, perhaps even lower difference between ambient and music volume would not impinge on hearing even lower level information contained within that overall global music volume. There may even be information you miss altogether if that info is reproduced by your system at lets say 25db and your room or ambient sound level is 30db. Perhaps some of you don't get it, at any volume setting volume level of music, say 85db there are lower level signals, could be any amount of db less than that 85db. This is commonly referred to as low level information, also related to micro dynamics. Can you imagine if the entire range of music presented was all blaring out a exactly the same db, we'd have no such thing as micro dynamics or even music for that matter, it'd be noise like I doubt ever heard in real life, even single notes have overtones, differing harmonics, not all those overtones are one single level db. And then we have all the variables of recording chain and playback on our systems. As previously mentioned recorded dynamics highly variable. Our systems also reproduce these recorded dynamics in variable manner, the higher one's system micro dynamic capabilities are will bring these higher to lower db micro dynamic differences into greater relief. The lower one's ambient or room noise level is will also bring greater micro  dynamic relief or shading.