“Full detailed sound” can easily be heard at ambient noise +
about 20 db. In general ambient noise will be anywhere between 35-50 db,
depending on the time of the day and other running equipment in the room like
Air Conditioners, Computers or others using cooling fans. Ambient noise of 30
db or lower will only exist in studios or specially treated rooms. Even people
may believe that their rooms are as quiet as 30 db or lower usually they don’t
have the equipment to support their assumption. To measure such low sound
pressure levels your sound level meter should be able to measure as low as 25
db. Now, for all those owning a calibrated sound level meter, not the one on
your mobile phone, please check the lowest end of the scale, mostly it’s only
able of measuring as low as 30-35 db.
As for waking up the baby, it may happen a few times at first, but after some time the baby will adapt to the sound of music. I remember when my wife was pregnant, I used to play music at ambient + 40 – 50 db levels almost daily, so after the birth of my son we thought it to be better to lower the levels to ambient + 20 – 30 db or so. Now, all babies sometimes have their “crying hour”, including my son, but after some time we found that when we played our favorite music, ambient + 30 – 40 db, he became quiet, relaxed and would fall asleep real quickly. It almost worked as if the music to his ears was as familiar as his mothers’ voice. It came to the point that before sleeping we played Joan Armatrading (popular music 37 years ago when my son was born), he would sleep real quickly. Not surprisingly…. he is now into high end audio…
So, go ahead, enjoy the music, even with the whole family is in the house or in the room. Just remember that the ears of a baby are still much more sensitive than ours, so keep the sound pressure levels between 60 to 70 db at most….. Happy listening.