My girlfriend Maia, also an audio nerd, gave me one of the best birthday presents ever – a tour of the “World’s Quietest Room”! The Guinness Book of World Records bestowed this title on the anechoic chamber at Orfield Labs in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
So what makes this chamber incredibly quiet?
- The entire room is suspended to avoid vibrations from the outside (trucks driving by, air conditioners, etc.)
- Giant wedges all around the room help trap sound waves. Notice we’re standing on chickenwire with more wedges below us.
- The room is lined with fiberglass, which is incredibly sound-absorbent. According to our tour guide, the fiberglass is much more important than the wedge design in preventing sound reflections.
Anechoic, as we learned, means the room is echo-free. The weirdest thing to hear in that room is a clap. What we think of as a “clapping” sound mostly comes from the sounds bouncing off walls. But in an anechoic chamber, you only hear the quick, weak slap coming straight from your hands.
It was also interesting learning about the office sound designing they do at Orfield Labs. You would think a quieter office space is always better, right? Not the case. If you’re in a cubicle and there’s no background noise, you’re going to hear everything going on next door with complete clarity. That’s why many offices pipe in specially-generated noise to mask human speech.
Our tour guide explained one of Orfield’s coolest forms of speech-masking, for times when you really need to keep a phone conversation private. Their system asks you to first record yourself saying a series of nonsense syllables. Then those audio bits get layered and played back, making your real phone conversation totally unintelligible to your cubicle neighbor.
Thanks for visiting! If you’re a podcast listener interested in songwriting and composing, I humbly invite you to give my podcast Composer Quest a listen.
Hi,
I live in Minneapolis, MN. I want to visit this lab but I cannot find much information on the internet. Can you please let me know the open hours and how much does it take for the tour/visit??
Thanks!
Hi Shilpa,
I believe Orfield Labs does tours on Fridays. They ask for a $20 suggested food shelf donation. I would call them (612-721-2455) or visit their website. Have fun!
Charlie
Did you see how long you could last in the room?!
I wish we could have. Unfortunately psychotic breakdowns weren’t a part of our tour…
where in the world is this located?
Orfield Labs in Minneapolis, MN.
I would like to go for the record, how do I?
Hi
How much does it cost to go there?
And how long can you be in that room?
Thank you
We were in there for about 10 minutes. They ask for a food shelf donation of $20.
how do you go about scheduling a tour?
Call Orfield Labs at 612-721-2455.
What materials would I need to build my own, and how would I be able to go about doing that? Are there any blue prints for sale or something?
This guy went all out. What are you using it for? If you’re just going to use it for music or voiceover recording, no need to go that extreme. For my vocal recordings, I just use my closet, which is filled with clothes and blankets to help trap echoes. The main goal is to eliminate any smooth walls, which can make for some ugly reflections in recordings, especially in a small space like a closet. Good luck!
Hi, I’m Skylar. I am 14 years old and I believe I can handle being in this room for more than 45 minutes. You see, I don’t really enjoy loud things, and sometimes I need to retreat and be by myself, but that rarely ever happens. I’m also claustrophobic and a lot of people scare me, although I appear to be calm for at least an hour, I eventually freak out on everyone. I’m seriously thinking about one day–when I’m older– coming to this room and being in it. I honestly think I can do it. And I’m wondering if I could have the exact address of this room so someday I can journey on over and visit. Thank you, have a nice day.
nom says i can beat you.
I just want to build it and beat the record, if it turns out that traveling there will be cheaper then I’ll do that instead
Hey, I just wanted to ask the same questions asked above for the fourth time. Just kidding! I hope to visit that place one day.
Haha, yeah, c’mon people, please read above! JK, I appreciate all of you stopping by and also being interested in nerdy stuff like this.
I heard you could hear your own blood flow in the room, is this true?
I wasn’t in there in silence long enough to, but yes, I think that’s possible. Jad Abumrad of Radiolab chronicled his trip into one of these anechoic chambers. He heard his heartbeat, and he also hallucinated bees!
If I lived nearby, I’d sure as hell try it. The record is supposedly only 45 minutes? That sounds pretty weak. I’d be willing to bet that I could go, at the very least, a few hours.
I think a lot of people would want to go for the record but it would be really naive to think it’d be easy. I wonder how much is costs to build one of these. Personally I’d love to what the results or experiences would be of someone meditating in the room.
I know you weren’t in there for very long but, if you went is there any way you can try and stay in the room? He did it for forty-five minutes! I wish I could try…
Hi,
is it really possible to visit this room and stay there as long as possible? I would love to do it. 😀
Hey this might be a silly question but I was wondering how long you were actually allowed to stay in the room, like do they just let you stay until you can’t handle it. Thanks for answering my weird question. 🙂
So I wanted to go to this for my birthday also. It’s 20$ food shelf food and you get a tour, at least that’s what you’ve said above. You also said you didn’t get to stay in the room. How long is the tour? And do you get the option to stay in the room?
Hi Rachel, I would suggest calling them (612-721-2455). Their tour policies may have changed since I went there. It was about a 30 minute tour, and we didn’t get an option to stay in the room longer than 5 minutes or so. It’s well worth the visit though if you’re around Minneapolis!
Can u hear yourself
Would such a room affect a Deaf individual?
That’s actually a really good question that it’d be cool to know the answer to! Haha
Hello! First of all a big thank you! You have provided a lot of details about tour timings and the cost etc… We live in Mumbai, India and background noise is a very big problem here (maybe so in most big cities)! We always wonder what it would be like to experience complete silence.. and yes, I too thought that I could last more than 45 mins in an anechoic chamber till I read Jad Abumrad’s description. Sounds like a fun trip nonetheless! Thanks
Is there anyway I could do a test? Id love to see how long I could last in there!
Hello. I was wondering if there is any way to volunteer to stay in the room? Did they have anything advertising this while you were there? Also how old do you have to be to go on the tour, and/or try to break the record? Thank you for your help!
I don’t think they let people stay in there for more than 15 minutes now, since they actually use the room for testing. But I would try calling them to set up a tour. I doubt there’s an age limit.
is it true that is quiet enough to hear your blood flowing?