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Learned a valuable lesson about ambient noise

I've been kinda bummed the last few days because my turntable, well my system as a whole I guess, sounded really congested and just not as wonderful as it's been sounding lately. I figured it started July 3 when I was playing around with a possible new belt on my Amazon turntable. It didn't sound great. Then the old one didn't sound great and I've been trying to figure out what was wrong for half a week... what I had messed up. Turned things on late afternoon today and was still not happy. Now, four hours later, 9pm, everything is great again.... and all that's changed, I suddenly noticed, is that all the 4th of July holiday traffic and drunken people and parties and just general noise is gone. I live in a beach area and I just didn't remember how much noise there could be until it was gone!
dhcod
photon46
1,089 posts
 
I agree, keeping ambient noise levels as low as possible is a great benefit and helps one enjoy the music more! I replaced our homes central air system in large part because the air handler was too close to my listening area and created a constant low level racket. Refrigerators humming away in modern homes with an open floor plan are another big noise offender too. Double pane windows can help reduce the transfer of outside noise as well I've found.
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
No question. Systems always sound better late at night (like 2am). Not only is there less ambient local noise, there's less noise on the electrical circuits too. We rarely do critical listening in the daytime in Summer because the A/C noise is too high. As for that refrigerator groaning through the open archway behind my left speaker ... grrr!
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
I guess that Heaven has minimal ambient noise
photon46
1,089 posts
 
Doug, one thing I did to help dampen the 'fridge noise was to get a couple large sheets of 2" thick acoustic open cell foam and lined the walls behind and beside the fridge with it. Home Depot had fasteners that look like a large thumbtack I used to tack it to the drywall. Leave just enough space for air to circulate where it needs to for heat removal. It definitely knocked down the audibility in my particular situation.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
...and certainly closed back headphones.
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