Electronic Sound Dampening?

[Diablo2K]

Would an Electronic Active Sound Dampener work in a computer case? And if it would how would one go about trying it out?
Just a crazy thought I had last night when I couldn't sleep and I was listening the the humm of my case fans!

 

[awdark]

If an electronic sound dampener works, I demand someone make a program that will do the same thing and output that from your speakers. It just has to output the opposite frequencies right?

 

[Token User]

If an electronic sound dampener works, I demand someone make a program that will do the same thing and output that from your speakers. It just has to output the opposite frequencies right?

Actually, doing that you would hear a sound source from your PC that produced the frequencies from one direction, then you'd get a sound sound from your speakers that produced a sound source from another direction, and they would interfer with each other, amplifying in some parts, to produce even MORE noise.

Electronic sound dampeners work because the sound sources are coming from the same location (or near enough the same location that the human ear can't tell). Sound cancelling headphones can do something similar, becaue you hear the sound source as being at the ear, but speaker in a different location would not give the same effect.

 

[Steel Chicken]

Actually, doing that you would hear a sound source from your PC that produced the frequencies from one direction, then you'd get a sound sound from your speakers that produced a sound source from another direction, and they would interfer with each other, amplifying in some parts, to produce even MORE noise.

Electronic sound dampeners work because the sound sources are coming from the same location (or near enough the same location that the human ear can't tell). Sound cancelling headphones can do something similar, becaue you hear the sound source as being at the ear, but speaker in a different location would not give the same effect.

perhaps, but you could make a program that took the mic input, then did processing on it, reverse phase, perhaps even adjust the phase and volume a little. proper mic placement would help

however, the best solution would be a bunch of sound absorbing material

 

[Token User]

perhaps, but you could make a program that took the mic input, then did processing on it, reverse phase, perhaps even adjust the phase and volume a little. proper mic placement would help

however, the best solution would be a bunch of sound absorbing material

All very true. Best solution is to have a quiet machine to begin with ... before switching to a laptop as my primary machine (because I travel and use it for work) I had a watercooled rig with a moderate (not extreme) OC on an AMD 1300 CPU.

Major panels where covered internally in Dynamat to give weight to the panels to minimise vibration, then they were covered with cork tile (the sort you get at Staples for pin boards) to absorb sound from the pump, HDD, etc. All fans were controlled via a Rheobus - when I was gaming, compiling, or otherwise stressing the system, I'd crank them up - otherwise they would sit at just above a whisper. Also had them mounted through grommets - again to minimise noise due to vibration transfer to the case.

Electronic sound dampening is a great concept (I use noise canceling headphones and ear plugs on airplanes), and has been trialled on autos, but there are better and cheaper alternatives for the PC ...