4 ms·

Your edit got there before I did :) I live in a high-rise next to a motorway in London and at 3am I can measure the noise as 60-70db using a mobile phone noise

by buro9 8y ago

Your edit got there before I did :) I live in a high-rise next to a motorway in London and at 3am I can measure the noise as 60-70db using a mobile phone noise meter (inaccurate but indicative). I investigated the feasibility of using my stereo speakers as noise-cancelling for the room... mics on the window sills and the speakers to reduce the noise in the room. I figured it would work well enough to remove the constant background hum of the road. I was wrong. It doesn't really work, and it is just noise upon noise. The best I've managed to do is hang materials inside of the windows (quilts, sheets) and have been able to knock off just under 10db of noise in the best case (when it's just the drone of vehicle volume rather than specific engines or sirens). The downside is that my high-rise is a high fire-risk tower block and I'm trading one life affecting issue (noise pollution) for another (fire risk) as now I have flammable materials inside my windows. Hard to know which affects sleep more, certainly the noise is the most real and present issue.

grandinj 8y ago
Noise cancellation can be a little tricky depending in the frequency. Low frequencies are easiest. Trying feeding the signal through your PC and adjusting the delay, using different delay for different frequency ranges. Some nice thick shag pile carpets, and wall-hung rugs will also help. If you like posters or pictures, consider using a block frame and putting some sound adsorbent material between the paper and the wall. Double glazed windows are your best bet, but probably quite hard to install in a high rise. Ideally you want the ones where each glass layer is a slightly different thickness. Otherwise get some custom fit earplugs from an audiologist, if it's just sleeping that is a problem. They can even fine tune them, so that voice frequencies pass through, but other frequencies are blocked.
- buro9 8y ago
  More likely to get a pair of these https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/headphones/noise_masking_sleepbuds/noise-masking-sleepbuds.html https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/headphones/noise_masking... Though stopping or masking all noise carries risk by itself... being unable to hear what fire alarms we do have.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    Assuming these are roughly equivalent to their in-ear headphones, I wouldn't worry about missing a fire alarm. They're pretty effective, especially for low frequency noise like aircraft engines, but they're a very long way from blocking all sounds.
    - sigstoat 8y ago
      the sleep pods are a combination of average ear plugs, and tiny little speakers playing white-ish noise rather loud. they don't do any active noise cancellation. sounds like they'll be good for somewhere around 90dB of noise masking. still doubt they'd stop a fire alarm.
      - ghaff 8y ago
        Interesting. I hadn't heard about those. I doubt it would handle 90db though. That's pretty loud, probably dangerously so for an extended period; it's about how loud a lawn mower is when you're operating it. Standard ear protection attenuates about 15-30db.
        sigstoat 8y ago
        the 90dB of noise masking isn't all sound energy. they're also ear plugs (on the less effective end of things) so 15-20dB of that 90 is from jamming them into the ear canal.
marmrk 8y ago
I live in Dublin in rented apartment facing very busy street and a pub across the street so had the same problem with noise during the nights. I bought polycarbonate transparent sheet (firesafe) that can be attached to the window wall with a help of magnetic adhesive tape. http://goldstarplasticsireland.ie/secondary-glazing-system.html http://goldstarplasticsireland.ie/secondary-glazing-system.h... It is effective in blocking mid and high frequencies, still some low freq energetic noise comes in. Before I had to sleep few nights in a week with wax earplugs, now I manage to sleep normally.
- miranda_rights 8y ago
  What a great invention! I've always rented apartments and have always ignored the advice to get double-glazed windows since that's not something a renter can usually do, but this would be perfect. Thanks for posting it!

by buro9 8y ago

grandinj 8y ago

Noise cancellation can be a little tricky depending in the frequency. Low frequencies are easiest. Trying feeding the signal through your PC and adjusting the delay, using different delay for different frequency ranges. Some nice thick shag pile carpets, and wall-hung rugs will also help. If you like posters or pictures, consider using a block frame and putting some sound adsorbent material between the paper and the wall. Double glazed windows are your best bet, but probably quite hard to install in a high rise. Ideally you want the ones where each glass layer is a slightly different thickness. Otherwise get some custom fit earplugs from an audiologist, if it's just sleeping that is a problem. They can even fine tune them, so that voice frequencies pass through, but other frequencies are blocked.

buro9 8y ago
More likely to get a pair of these https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/headphones/noise_masking_sleepbuds/noise-masking-sleepbuds.html https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/headphones/noise_masking... Though stopping or masking all noise carries risk by itself... being unable to hear what fire alarms we do have.
- ghaff 8y ago
  Assuming these are roughly equivalent to their in-ear headphones, I wouldn't worry about missing a fire alarm. They're pretty effective, especially for low frequency noise like aircraft engines, but they're a very long way from blocking all sounds.
  - sigstoat 8y ago
    the sleep pods are a combination of average ear plugs, and tiny little speakers playing white-ish noise rather loud. they don't do any active noise cancellation. sounds like they'll be good for somewhere around 90dB of noise masking. still doubt they'd stop a fire alarm.
    - ghaff 8y ago
      Interesting. I hadn't heard about those. I doubt it would handle 90db though. That's pretty loud, probably dangerously so for an extended period; it's about how loud a lawn mower is when you're operating it. Standard ear protection attenuates about 15-30db.
      - sigstoat 8y ago
        the 90dB of noise masking isn't all sound energy. they're also ear plugs (on the less effective end of things) so 15-20dB of that 90 is from jamming them into the ear canal.

marmrk 8y ago

I live in Dublin in rented apartment facing very busy street and a pub across the street so had the same problem with noise during the nights. I bought polycarbonate transparent sheet (firesafe) that can be attached to the window wall with a help of magnetic adhesive tape. http://goldstarplasticsireland.ie/secondary-glazing-system.html http://goldstarplasticsireland.ie/secondary-glazing-system.h... It is effective in blocking mid and high frequencies, still some low freq energetic noise comes in. Before I had to sleep few nights in a week with wax earplugs, now I manage to sleep normally.

miranda_rights 8y ago
What a great invention! I've always rented apartments and have always ignored the advice to get double-glazed windows since that's not something a renter can usually do, but this would be perfect. Thanks for posting it!