If you’ve ever ran water at your kitchen sink while trying to talk to someone in the next room, you’ll understand how sound masking works. You can tell your conversational partner is speaking, but it’s difficult to comprehend what they’re saying. That’s because the running water has raised the noise floor in your area.

The noise floor is the level of constant sound present in a space. If it is too high, you’ll find it irritating. Too low, and you can easily overhear conversations and noises.

Sound masking systems create a noise floor high enough to mask unwanted noises, and low enough for acoustic comfort. Sound masking works because the human ear can’t separate, or distinguish, sounds of similar volume and frequency.

So, you can reduce distractions and achieve speech privacy. A more consistent sound volume across your facility also makes it feel quieter. Movements from one area to another become less disruptive.