What is the sound level of Your Listening Room?

now…..run the RTA……

how many db down is the subway sound in the various famous Carnegie hall analog recordings….hint…> 30

of course, maybe some systems / ears cant resolve the …noise…

Why introduce your own ?

Okay some of you, I worked in a recording studio. I made a dB meter when I was 13 and it was calibrated to an NIST standard as my uncle worked for NIST. I don't dispute your list of sound levels. Some of the dB reading you guys are quoting must be "L" weighted. BTW "shouting in the ear" is way higher than 110dB!

fiesta75, yes, I was thinking the same thing. 7 is imo not attainable in a domestic environment. Recording studios are doing well to be under 20dB.  

mijostyn, Have you experienced what a room with reduced environmental noise does for the listening? Obviously, reducing source noise is advantageous, but irrelevant to this discussion. 

The genre of music played is absolutely associated with this topic. If you listen to music that has quiet or silent passages, guess what? You can hear environmental noise if your system doesn't intrude with its own noise. Those in normal domestic environments will have little appreciation of that variable.  

For instance, the start of Shelby Lynn's "Just A Little Lovin'" begins with a field of silence into which individual drum and cymbal strikes repeat. I assure you that a deeply depressed ambient noise field changes the musical perception radically. Any ambient noise, from an AC unit to an appliance motor running, etc. intrudes obnoxiously. At about 2:45 there is a pregnant pause as the instrumentation fades until almost silence. Again, if there is ambient noise of any degree in the room, it will sound like utter intrusion. Perhaps that is not your preference of genre of music, but simply because it is not important to you doesn't mean it's not an issue/consideration for other hobbyists.  :) 

7dB is totally obtainable. I was able to go much lower than that even. Remember, dB is a log scale of pressure differentials. We like to think of it as measuring sound pressure level when really it is measuring pressure wave differentials. Sound is a wave of compression followed by rarefaction. High pressure followed by low pressure. This is the key concept to keep in mind when trying to lower your dB.  

Since what dB really is measuring is the difference between the two then the way to get it lower is to eliminate this difference. This is done most cost-effectively by filling your underground concrete bunker with liquid nitrogen. Within a few hours, a day or two at most, all motion ceases and you have virtually 0 dB. At least I am pretty sure. Every time I try and check my meter freezes over.