# Living room decibels



## Landshark77 (Aug 28, 2015)

Hi,

I'm starting to educate myself and wanted to ask if 59-60dbs sound right for a living room next to a kitchen (quiet, except for refrigerator running in background).

My upstairs room was quiet (to me) and it registered 55db.

Thanks,
Richard

I'm using a umik-1 and starting to learn few.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Probably about right, depending on where you live (urban vs. rural) and if the meter was set for C or Z weighting. C-weighing or Z (flat, no weighting) captures low frequencies that may be present but not readily audible, whereas A-weighting ignores low frequencies.

Regards, 
Wayne


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## Blacklightning (Nov 22, 2011)

Sounds right to me I was surprised how loud some places where.

Both 40db and 60db will sound the same to us if it's a constant sound and we are around it for a long time.
I can be in my house and think wow this is quiet but then the fridge compressor turns off. I then think to myself wow I did not even know it was on, now it's quiet... then the furnace turns off...


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Blacklightning said:


> Sounds right to me I was surprised how loud some places where. Both 40db and 60db will sound the same to us if it's a constant sound and we are around it for a long time. I can be in my house and think wow this is quiet but then the fridge compressor turns off. I then think to myself wow I did not even know it was on, now it's quiet... then the furnace turns off...


 that's funny. Just like home.... It's funny what we acclimate to without realizing.


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## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

Furnace/AC and refrigerator/freezer are machines we quickly tune out, but they sure show up in measurements.

I had a 20 Hz "thing" showing up in my measurements one day recently that was constant at about 70 dB. I could see it, but could NOT hear it. Turns out it was a box fan sitting on the living room floor right above my listening room.

When making critical measurements, I usually turn off all such systems, and hopefully remember to turn them back on again. The WAF for leaving the refrigerator turned off is very poor around here.:rant:


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