HVAC Noise in Listening Area

[RayDunzl]

Assuming a typical vent, take the (assumed) louvered vent off (if you can) and see if the noise is from air flowing through the vent or through the duct or somewhere else down, or, uh, up the line.

I pretty much never notice my AC, the outdoor part is about 80 feet away, and both of the next door houses have their compressors on the other side of their house from me.

 

[JSmith]

Anything I can do to improve the listening experience and reduce the background noise level of the house?

Get the room warm/cool, then turn it off when listening to music?

I would worry about the health of HVAC system this way. The coils can freeze in AC mode.

This is correct... clogged air filters, low refrigerant levels, blocked vents, thermostat problems and dirty evaporator coils can all cause AC coils to freeze.


JSmith

 

[Pretorious]

Get the room warm/cool, then turn it off when listening to music?

This is probably the most reasonable solution. I actually had to do this when running the room correction on the AVR. I turned off the HVAC and a nearby appliance because the supplied Audyssey microphone couldn’t pick up the tone due to the ambient noise (kept getting the warning or a failure). That is an indication of how intrusive the noise is throughout the house.

 

[Clmrt]

I routinely kill the fan and adjust the temp to keep the HVAC silent when I have the opportunity to listen. Then the only noise I have to deal with is tinnitus.

 

[restorer-john]

It's a funny world. While you guys have noisy central heating, we are practically living with industrial fans here in summer.

I'm having ducted A/C (reverse cycle) put in the whole house in a few months and I'll certainly be taking Amir's advice for large opening/lower velocity vents for the listening/entertainment area at least. I hope they can be reasonable looking things.