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World’s Quietest Room: A popular myth suggests that no one can remain in this chamber for more than 45 minutes. However, this is false as the longest recorded stay is one hour
Microsoft built this anechoic chamber primarily for audio testing of its products. (Courtesy: Microsoft)
Does the noise and hustle of life ever get to you? Do you feel like just isolating yourself in your room to get some quiet time? Well, if your room or even your bathroom fails to do the trick, you can always travel to Washington that has the world’s quietest room where you can even hear the blood flowing in your body or your eyelids blinking!
This room is an anechoic (or free from echo) chamber located in Washington’s Redmond Campus which serves as Microsoft’s headquarters. This campus, built approximately 40 years ago, comprises 87 buildings and also houses the anechoic chamber.
The World’s Quietest Room
The anechoic chamber is an ultra-quiet room that was completed in 2015. According to Guinness World Records, this chamber maintains a background sound level of -20.35 decibels, which essentially means complete silence. To put this in perspective, the normal human hearing threshold is 0 decibels, while calm breathing registers at 10 decibels.
In this profound silence, visitors can hear the subtlest of internal sounds: their heartbeat, blood flowing through their body, stomach rumbling, and even the sound of blinking. The room is so quiet that people can actually hear the blood flowing through their head.
While Microsoft’s Redmond campus houses three anechoic chambers, the largest one holds the Guinness World Record. The chamber effectively blocks all external sounds while preventing any internal sounds from creating echoes—hence the name ‘anechoic’, meaning ‘without echo’. This absence of reverberation makes even simple sounds like clapping seem unnaturally stark and unsettling.
The Human Experience
Entering the anechoic chamber creates a unique and often overwhelming sensory experience. Since external sounds are eliminated, visitors become acutely aware of their body’s internal sounds: heartbeat, blood circulation, digestive processes, joint movement, and even tinnitus (ear ringing) become amplified.
Most people find the complete absence of sound disorienting, experiencing feelings of heaviness or ringing in their ears. Even the faintest sounds become clearly audible due to the exceptionally low ambient noise level. Simple movements like turning one’s head or breathing become noticeably loud.
Reactions vary significantly among visitors. Some find the experience meditative and relaxing, while others feel uncomfortable and want to leave within seconds. The chamber’s complete darkness compounds the disorientation, affecting visitors’ balance since the ears typically help determine spatial orientation through sound cues. Some experience dizziness or anxiety, and prolonged exposure may even cause auditory hallucinations, such as hearing phantom voices.
Debunking the 45-Minute Myth
A popular myth suggests that no one can remain in the chamber for more than 45 minutes. However, this is false. Microsoft engineers who regularly work in the chamber can stay for extended periods, with the longest recorded stay being one hour. Upon exiting, the normal sounds of the outside world can seem explosively loud by comparison.
Access and Design
Microsoft’s anechoic chamber is not open to the public. Access is restricted to company engineers, researchers, and hardware team members. Visitors must arrange access through Microsoft employees who have authorization to use the facility.
The chamber is designed as a 21-foot cube with 4-foot-long fiberglass wedges covering the walls, floor, and ceiling. The floor consists of a grid of sound-absorbing cables, and the entire structure rests on 68 springs with its own separate foundation. The construction process required eight months just to identify a suitable quiet building location. Every element—doors, air conditioning, and sprinkler systems—was specially designed to prevent sound leakage.
Purpose and Applications
Microsoft built this anechoic chamber primarily for audio testing of its products. Engineers needed an environment where they could precisely measure subtle device sounds, such as the faint hum from circuit board capacitors or keyboard clicking sounds.
The chamber is used to test audio features across Microsoft’s product range, including Surface computers, Xbox consoles, HoloLens, voice assistants like Cortana, and other hardware. Specific tests include measuring microphone dynamic range, frequency response, total harmonic distortion, and acoustic sealing effectiveness.
Construction and Achievement
The chamber’s construction was completed in 2015, following two years of design and planning work. Microsoft built this facility because their engineers lacked access to sufficiently quiet testing environments. Previously, the quietest chamber belonged to Orfield Laboratories in Minneapolis, measuring -9.4 decibels. Microsoft’s achievement of -20.6 decibels broke this record significantly.
The company’s goal was to enhance user audio experiences by testing products in an environment of absolute quiet. The anechoic design prevents sound wave reflection from surfaces, ensuring highly accurate measurements of Microsoft products’ sound levels.
Industry Impact
Microsoft’s anechoic chamber represents a significant technological achievement and serves as an example of the company’s commitment to innovation. Similar chambers are used by other technology companies for acoustic testing, but Microsoft’s facility remains one of the quietest places on Earth, demonstrating the lengths companies will go to perfect their products’ audio performance.
Nitya Thirumalai, News Editor at News18.com, writes on Indian and global politics as well as Formula 1. She was Google News Initiative-Columbia Journalism School Fellow in the inaugural Newsroom Leadership Prog…Read More
Nitya Thirumalai, News Editor at News18.com, writes on Indian and global politics as well as Formula 1. She was Google News Initiative-Columbia Journalism School Fellow in the inaugural Newsroom Leadership Prog… Read More
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