Is there more noise now?

[ashcatlt]

The premise of this question is that much of the noise we deal with in the reproduction of sound comes from EM radiation and/or contamination of the AC power grid.

Both of these factors should have increased exponentially, especially in the last 10-20 years. Today, everybody you meet has a radio transmitter in his pocket, there are many more houses with many more appliances attached to the power mains, etc.

So the question, in case anybody was around and paying attention in the "good old days", will a guitar/amp combo from the early 60's buzz today more than it did when it was new? Is the noise floor going into the recorder (we're not talking about tape hiss) noticeably higher?

[ChrisK]

As far as the increase in radio usage, anything above 20kHz is beyond the audio range and is "generally" not of concern.

[ashcatlt]

Well that's not exactly true. Anybody who's ever heard truckers or radio stations through a poorly wired guitar could tell you that.

I know if my cell phone is close enough to my computer speakers I can hear every time it pings the tower, and I know it's going to ring before it does.

[sumgai]

I'd say that we have probably (but not guaranteed for sure) increased the overall amount of EMF radiation each year since we started "sparking around".

As to contamination of the AC power grid, either here or in any other country, that's something I'm not equipped to address, but my personal opinion is that it's already full of gunk, any EMF floating around in the ether is not very likely to hurt the grid any worse. Or so it seems to me, anyways.

Even so, as we speak (write/read?), there are Luddites¹ out there that are attempting to pull a PETA and have all EMF radiation banned. Some of them are coherent enough to understand that a total ban isn't gonna happen any time soon (!), but they are still up in arms about "all this EMF pollution".

For a good laugh, visit them at www.emfpollution.com. Why am I being just a teensy bit sarcastic? Because they'll "certify" you as an official "EMF Pollution Remediator" Yeah, right. Like I'm gonna remediate my local radio and TV stations, eh?

Worse, it's not obvious yet, but they're also into selling you a gimmick meter that measures "microsurges" of energy that are, gasp!, coming out of each outlet... right in your very home! Oh, the horrors!!

All I've got to say is, it's a damned shame that ignorance isn't painful!


sumgai

1. I'd call them Pet-ites, after the knee-jerk reactive PETA clowns, but I realized that I don't wanna give those yo-yo's any more notariety than they deserve...... which is less than none.

p.s. Yes, I know, PETA stands for Peope Eating Tasty Animals. So let me just finish off by noting this T-shirt from The Best Page In The Universe. ;D