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How much noise floor is too much? (for you)

L

Lux Man

AK Subscriber
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Dead quiet? A tiny bit - almost negligible? A bit more so at moderate listening levels you'd never know? More than that?

For me - my listening room is the basement/man cave and I always run a dehumidifier. So..... since the dehumidifier fan is louder than the noise floor -I'm good. I think it's valuable to know if tube gear is in your chain. For me there is a tube preamp Luxman Cl-32, It feeds 2 Crown PS400's and a Crown XLI2500. There is a very very low hum if I turn off the dehumidifier. The PS400's run in mono but in stereo mode they are dead quiet. I did have to put one on a separate circuit - didn't like being on the same as the other one and preamp.

I suppose the question is, are you a "A" personality and ANY noise is absolutely unacceptable?
 
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The ambient noise levels here in my garage is in the 45 - 65 db's range,depending on whether or not the birds are singing too. If the birds shut up, My music is at about 55 - 65 db's. S/N is 0 - 20 db's

So a class "D" amp might be fine here.
 
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Lux Man said:
Dead quiet? A tiny bit - almost negligible? A bit more so at moderate listening levels you'd never know? More than that?
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For listening, with the A/C and the ceiling fans running, my ambient noise level is around 50 dBA. If you want to record via mics, it has to be much less. Well below 40 dBA (30s are best).

It's funny how the mind works. In real time, the brain can actually eliminate much of the constant background noise. But listen to a recording, and all that noise is very apparent to your ears.

My dBa meter.
 
It can go both ways. Noise floor could be due to under-performing or aged equipment with out-of-spec components introducing its own noise onto the recording. It can also stem from over-achieving equipment that picks up minute detail in the recording that was always there that other equipment glosses over or doesn't pick up. One type is better (or more honest) than the other and can reveal source limitations. The good type is likelier to occur when silver is involved from my experience.
 
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onanysunday said:
It can go both ways. Noise floor could be due to under-performing or aged equipment with out-of-spec components introducing its own noise onto the recording. It can also stem from over-achieving equipment that picks up minute detail in the recording that was always there that other equipment glosses over or doesn't pick up. One type is better (or more honest) than the other and can reveal source limitations. The good type is likelier to occur when silver is involved from my experience.
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In my experience, recording surface noise and imperfections are hard to eliminate. And the more revealing the system... well, you know how that goes. ;)

But you can reduce background noise in the system. AC line noise and EMF noise from nearby electrical lines and interconnects. I use a headphone to find the lowest-noise power supplies and the geometry of line layouts. I use thin grocery ties to keep the lines arranged to minimize background noise.

Good vs. bad pressing (background-noise-wise) varies widely. Even within the same artists or the same LP labels.


A bit of lead-in noise.
Love Has No Pride.
Linda Ronstadt - "Don't Cry Now." Asylum Records. P-8399Y. Warner-Pioneer (Japan) pressing. 1973.
Run-out: P-8399Y1 6-Y (upside-down) (1) (2) ✲ 〄

__________________________________


A nice, quiet pressing. Blacker background. :thumbsup:
Blue Bayou.
Linda Ronstadt's "Simple Dreams." Nautilus Recordings. NR26. 1/2-speed remaster SuperDiscs. 1981.
Run-out: NR 26 A1 IAM RD 1/2 KM - 6432 - A1
 
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If I can't hear it, it doesn't exist. ;)
I recently bought a stand alone DAC. It's the first one I've ever bought. While looking at various new DAC's it seemed to me that the noise floor specs have gotten so low in many of them, does the latest noise specs of the various brands even really matter anymore? I didn't notice any difference in noise, or the absence of really, between my older CDP's and this new DAC.
I've had and have CDP's from the 80's through the mid 2000's. I haven't noticed any noise from them unless I happened to use really cheap interconnects.
 
Lux Man said:
I have tinnitus, but it’s a completely different frequency. I’ve never seen a realistic solution to tinnitus so I’ve never had it tested or looked into. I’m guessing mine is in the 6K range.
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only "solution" I've ever found is to not be in a dead silent room. A little air noise from a fan or whatever is enough, otherwise the constant high-pitch ring drives me batty.

also avoiding things that make it worse helps, loud noises, riding around in cars with open windows, that sort of thing.
 
I've got one at about 5k, another near 1.1k, if i avoid the dead quiet it's usually ignorable. Been 30 years since that rush concert.

There's that drumming method that works for some, gets you a break at least. Worth trying.
 
gadget73 said:
only "solution" I've ever found is to not be in a dead silent room. A little air noise from a fan or whatever is enough, otherwise the constant high-pitch ring drives me batty.

also avoiding things that make it worse helps, loud noises, riding around in cars with open windows, that sort of thing.
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I have to have a fan on low at night when I sleep to mask that high pitched ring and hash.
 
freya+ and mimir, audiosource amp threes. i don't hear jack from the speakers with no volume. im lucky.
the ambient background varies from low 20s early morning to 50 with the ac on. or if the wife is home and has the tv on, 70ish. she cannot hear the tv unless it's on scream.
im usually playing music around 55-65db.
i have some tinnitus. its about 45db background noise in my office. i hear some tinnitus over that. most of the time, i dont notice it unless it's dead quiet.
 
izeek11 said:
freya+ and mimir, audiosource amp threes. i don't hear jack from the speakers with no volume. im lucky.
the ambient background varies from low 20s early morning to 50 with the ac on. or if the wife is home and has the tv on, 70ish. she cannot hear the tv unless it's on scream.
im usually playing music around 55-65db.
i have some tinnitus. its about 45db background noise in my office. i hear some tinnitus over that. most of the time, i dont notice it unless it's dead quiet.
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What's up with that anyway? My wife also listens to the TV cranked up between 35-40. The volume only goes to 50 when turned all the way up. :) I can listen easily between 5-7 on the remote volume control normally. With the AC on I sometimes have to crank it all the way up to 8.
 
I don't know what the noise floor measurement in my listening area would be but I would classify it as "too high".

I sit right by the inside part of the mini-split A/C so I get noise from that. There is a ceiling fan although that's not bad at all. We have an open floorplan and you can hear the 'fridge running. The main offender is the %#@&^%ing ice maker my wife insists on having running 24/7. It sits on the counter in the kitchen and makes more noise than ice.
 
I have a few 78s and cylinder records that are noisy as all get-out, and the noise is a big part of their charm. That said, I don't like to hear any audible noise in modern gear and recordings. The lowering of the noise floor, which allows you to hear more depth in the recorded performance, is one of the main goals of the advances in technology over the last 100 years.
 
I remember upgrading my theater from using the amps in my Rotel AVR to using the Rotel as a preamp for a McIntosh MC7106 6-channel amp. I expected improved dynamics when things done blowed up in movies :) -- which I didn't really get -- but I couldn't believe how silent and crystal clear the quiet movie scenes became. I was sure there was no perceptible noise floor before, but it was kind of ridiculous how much better quiet scenes sounded. Noise floor has kind of been the universal area of improvement with high-end components. I feel certain that Joni Mitchell was talking about noise floors when she sang "you don't know what you've got till it's gone" :).
 
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