Background noise.

ghdprentice-

I can appreciate your comments and it makes me want to ask “how low is the typical noise floor in your listening environment? I would think very low if the effects of an air cleaner made a difference from that distance.

I fight this myself since putting my equipment into a small room. The equipment (tubes) can quickly raise the temperature in this space by over 10 degrees and demands the use of air conditioning for listening periods of over an hour.

This room (when using a db meter phone app) sits at 25db with just the equipment running. That will jump to 45 with the A/C on. The airflow definitely has an effect on how I hear the music- but sometimes it becomes unbearable without it!

BTW- I like your system! A very nice setup- our systems have some similarities as we are both AR users.

Ambient noise is a number one priority with me. I’ve been in some very nicely constructed radio station studios, and have been amazed at how quiet, quiet can be. There’s a radio station studio that I sometimes still step foot into, and I’m always completely blown away by how quiet it is (without question, it is the quietest place I know of on this earth). I was not involved with construction of it, but I know they went to great lengths to soundproof it - you can’t even hear the air conditioning in action. If I somehow step into a very quiet public space (like maybe a museum of some sort), my ears and brain immediately recognize this, and bask in all of its unintended glory. Many of us just don’t realize, on a daily basis, how we’re constantly bombarded with noise.

I too try and strive for quiet home listening environments, and even though I’m most times able to achieve that (thankfully most times my neighborhood is quiet too), I still prefer my headphones when critically listening. I even go a step further, and darken my listening environments. Many times I will also close my eyes when listening, and try and tune everything out, except the music I’m listening to. It’s not always easy creating a quiet home listening environment, but with all of the great sound systems many have assembled on this site, attaining an ultra-quiet listening environment should *also* be a top priority.

I find bad rooms and background noise don’t necessarily detract from the music but they add to the stress. You don’t realize you are working harder to listen until it’s gone.

Yes!  And that n-th degree of blacker black that reviewers talk about as attributable to expensive components, doesn't matter that much if you have any significant degree of ambient noise.