Click bait title should actually read "Everything is getting louder for people who live near loud things"...
Everything Is Getting Louder
81–90 of 316 posts
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#82Whoever decided to make cars beep when you lock or unlock them did humanity a disservice in my view. I don't think the small benefit of helping the driver locate their vehicle outweighs the shear number of times that has woken people up.
Most cars have the ability to disable the beep/honk when locking. I was really stoked when I found this feature in my manual. Too bad it's not the default and most people probably won't know it's possible.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#83In NYC the screeching of the subway trains at the station is easily loud enough to be physically painful to my ears. Especially in underground local stations where you have a local train arriving + express trains rolling past. That can be 90-100 decibels (equivalent to a jet engine taking off 300m away).
Restaurants here are regularly 70-90 decibels. Equivalent to the noise of a blender next to you. Everything in the restaurant reflects sound and its not unusual to be sitting about 2 feet from the person at the table next to you.
I’m genuinely worried for my long-term hearing living here. Noise-cancelling headphones and even ear plugs are a must.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
> bells from catholic churches The huge bronze bells in Germany are another thing entirely. They sound wonderful (dare I say heavenly?). But the cheap electric klaxons used in American churches are horrible.
There's nothing wonderful about them when you live half a km/mi from them and they go off at 9AM, don't stop for 10-15 minutes and you really wanted to sleep.
That's surely a sign.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use Howard Leight’s Max every night during sleep to keep my sanity.
I used to sleep with earplugs very nicely until I got an ear infection and the doctor told me to lay off them. So I bought a bluetooth speaker that can play files off a SD card, and loaded it up with a 1 hour rain sounds file and play that in a loop as white noise when I sleep. Feels better as my brain can focus on the soothing sounds of the rain instead of the thoughts that sometimes creep up in the silence of the e…
I use an air filter for white noise. I breath better too.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#86For me the trigger is TVs. I've been renting a flat in a poorer area for over a year now. The walls are a lot thinner than in other places. There are a lot of people today (mostly 50+ year-olds) who cannot fall to sleep without the TV on. My neighbor is one of them. And the thing with TVs is that the most irritating sound frequency they emit is the one that is barely audible when you're in the same room, but when you…
I sold my previous house precisely because of noisy neighbors (or rather their dogs). Their three dogs lived in the backyard permanently no matter what the weather - never seen them walked. Talked to the neighbors twice about the noise - no action. Called the cops at 3 in the morning - still nothing. Finally, I decided to sell the house and move somewhere where there is low dog density. I developed a dislike for dogs…
In Bavaria if your dog barks more than 30 minutes per day, the neighbours can record it on video, call the police and you will get fined. At first I thought this is astupid law but after reading your story I changed my mind.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who has a car without an alarm? Almost everything manufactured in at least the past 2 decades has one installed from the factory, at least in the US.
Not my 2005 Jeep Wrangler, and I don’t recall my 2012 Civic having one, but I didn’t have it very long so that may be a flawed recollection.
The Civic doesn't have an alarm and does not beep when you lock it. German cars and appliances do. Like our coffee filter. We make "achtung! alarm!" jokes about it all the time.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#88Whoever decided to make cars beep when you lock or unlock them did humanity a disservice in my view. I don't think the small benefit of helping the driver locate their vehicle outweighs the shear number of times that has woken people up.
I had use of a Nissan Leaf for three months summer before last. Due to the lack of engine noise, it beeped loudly when in reverse as a safety feature for anyone who might be standing nearby. At 5am when I'd leave for work, I knew it had to be annoying the neighbors. I was able to replace it with a non electric car by the end of the summer but still feel guilty about the beeping the neighbors had been treated to for those three months.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't usually find the lock beeping to be noticeable, certainly not louder than people's cars starting or that one asshole with the "loud and proud" engine that likes to idle it for heat in the morning. What gets me are the people that have car alarms. I've never seen one do anything useful and people still get them. One in particular goes off weekly to the point I'm amazed it hasn't gone off due to someone putting…
Car alarms come standard in most cars, and you generally can't disable them (that's the point). Even my 20 year old VW has a car alarm, and there's no simple way to disable it, short of never locking my car door or disconnecting the horns (which are also activated by pressing on the steering wheel). I wish I could disable it, because this specific model has faulty door-open sensors that sometimes detect an open door…
My immediate thought is: find the speaker and cut the damned wire. Is it protected deep inside the car or something?
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#90One of the biggest benefits of electric vehicles will be quieter streets. Gasoline cars are so damn loud when you really pay attention.
I'm looking forward to this. We live near a tourist area and by far and away the largest noise contributors are the 400-600hp diesel engines of the tour busses. They seem to have two modes, slow/low idle of about 650rpm, and then fast idle of about 1200 rpm. Both are banned with big red signs up and down the street but the drivers either don't notice or don't care that they are by far and away the largest noise contributors to the neighborhood.