Well GDHAL, I guess that depends on who you ask:
www.quora.com/What-is-noise-floor-in-terms-of-audio

Speaking of, you should hear the racket of my darling watching her Thai TV show on the iPad in the next room!!!!
Fans blowing, raining outside,
Critical listening is darn near impossible around here.
YMMV.
God Bless,
Wayne

Hi Charlie, interesting question.
I live way out in the country, so I did a measurement today with my cheap old radio shack type meter, but one I use for safety purposes, so the dBA scale I use is not the one the Moderator Dude recommends.
OK, TV on, stereo on, all amps on but no music or TV sounds playing, here are my results:
I have the A/C off (because it is broken) so the window to my home theater open, birds singing and get 32 dB. Then I turn on my ceiling fan (a supposedly quiet one, DC motor, but on the highest setting cause it is SUMMER here in Thailand) and get 46 dB. OUCH.
Not as quiet as it is at night and with the A/C running. And not as loud as it is at night with music going or a movie, ha ha!!!!
Hope this helps answer your question.
God Bless,
Wayne

Well, this conversation is tough slogging. I sorta understand that the Moderator Dude wants to have veto power over what gets posted, new posts, subjects and all. And Hi Res is a pretty scary, highly inflammatory subject, and my posts in particular are likely to get outta hand in a hurry.... (I am being facetious here, therefore case in point).
All that said, it is hard to post responses at the right time when they don't show up in order and you have to wait to see what others have written, may have already responded to, etc.
So I will try again, come at this question a different way. I can buy SACDs which are usually hybrid with a DSD track and a normal redbook type track. Then I can listen in lovely multi-channel DSD bliss in my home theater and I can rip a CD quality file in FLAC for use in my DAP for on the road. I cannot rip a DSD file, thanks Sony.
This works pretty well but IS IT WORTH IT TO BUY A DOWNLOAD OF THE DSD STEREO TRACK FROM SOMEPLACE LIKE NATIVEDSD SO THAT I CAN LISTEN TO THIS ON MY DAP ON THE ROAD?????
Anyone got experience, opinions on this?
Looking for help here,
God Bless,
Wayne

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for the measurement! I use a Triplett meter, not the best either, and it has only a C weighted scale. I'd like to get a pro quality one, but most of the ones I see online only go down to 30 dB anyway. Plus I'm cheap about some things other than stereo equipment.!

Charlie

Wayne,

On the road? Now we're really talking noise. In most cars, you're lucky to have a noise level of ONLY 70 dB at 60 or 70 mph. My friend has a Porsche Boxter ragtop, and he took the Triplett and measured -- get this -- over 90 dB when he was cruising to work. Holy cow! And he likes to listen to CDs when he drives! That's one reason why people use dynamic compression for environments like that.

With that level of ambient noise, you have a very low signal-to-noise ratio, unless you want to crank it up and damage your hearing. So you might as well listen to (GASP!) mp3. Now there's a blind A/B test for you to try!

Charlie

NO, Charlie, NO MP3, thank you very much, I KNOW they suck.
I am not talking about in a car, but rather with custom in ear monitors (designed to exactly fit your ear canals) and a DAP, portable digital audio player, I can get really sweet sounding tunes and enjoy audiophile level music as I walk (my heart healthy exercise these days).
And my DAP can play DSD files, or the best FLAC, in fact there are NO MP3 files on it.
But MOST DSD music I find is classical with wide dynamic range and sure enough, even walking down the road in the country in Thailand (not counting when a truck passes by) the lowest passages are still below the noise floor, I can't hear the quiet passages without cranking them, and then that takes the chance of blasting out my ears when things come back to normal or get loud.
What to do????
Is it worth the extra cost and file space to get DSD files over just buying SACDs and ripping the CD portion myself to play during walks?
Thanks for any help, God Bless,
Wayne