Guide to White Noise & Sound Conditioners for Privacy or Sound Control in buildings InspectAPedia® -
Principles of sound transmission in buildings
How to make a building quiet: sound isolation strategies
Sound insulation designs for building walls
Sound control for building floors
How to control plumbing noises & sounds
List of soundproofing materials
Tables of sound control data for buildings
This article explains using white noise machines for privacy, sleeping aids, or to control sound transmission in buildings: how to make a quiet home, office, or place of business using masking sound or noise generating machines and equipment.
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Our building sound control articles begin at SOUND CONTROL in buildings. Other noise and sound diagnosis and control articles are found at NOISE / SOUND DIAGNOSIS & CURE. Our page top photograph shows an example of a design to reduce the detection of nearby conversation - a white noise generator or sound conditioner.
Sound conditioners for conversation privacy: As we show in our photo (left), white noise generators may also be used in locations where an extra measure of privacy is required. This installation is in the waiting room outside offices used by psychotherapists.
White noise is a sound containing a blend of all the audible
frequencies distributed equally over the range of the frequency band.
When this sound is generated it tends to make unintelligible or even less noticeable other sounds such as nearby conversation.
The proper setting for a white noise generator or sound conditioner is not to make the output as loud as possible.
Rather, set the volume on the white noise machine to just mask the noise (or conversation) to be overcome. Setting the white noise volume higher than that level risks making the white noise itself an annoyance in the building.
Shown in our photo above is the Sleep Mate™ sound generator produced by Marpac. In addition to white noise, sound conditioners may produce sounds of nature such as that of a river or brook, lakeshore, surf, thunderstorms, or rainfall. Sound Screen® and SleepMate® are registered trademarks owned by Marpac Corporation.
Continue reading about methods for sound control in buildings by using the links provided just below.
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Steven Bliss served as editorial director and co-publisher of The Journal of Light Construction for 16 years and previously as building technology editor for Progressive Builder and Solar Age magazines. He worked in the building trades as a carpenter and design/build contractor for more than ten years and holds a masters degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Excerpts from his recent book, Best Practices Guide to Residential Construction, Wiley (November 18, 2005) ISBN-10: 0471648361, ISBN-13: 978-0471648369, appear throughout this website, with permission and courtesy of Wiley & Sons. Best Practices Guide is available from the publisher, J. Wiley & Sons, and also at Amazon.com.
Marpac, produces white sound generators, a product that they identify as the Marpac sound conditioner. Marpac can be contacted at http://www.marpac.com/ or contact the Marpac Corporation,
P.O. Box 560 Rocky Point, NC 28457 Phone: 800-999-6962 (USA and Canada) Fax: 910-602-1435 1-910-602-1421 (worldwide), 800-999- or email: info@marpac.com
Sound Oasis sound conditioners are produced by Sound Oasis: http://www.sound-oasis.com/ email: info@sound-oasis.com or 1-866-625-3218
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