The quietest room on earth

The quietest room on Earth is an anechoic chamber at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, which holds the Guinness World Record for the lowest measured sound level. This room registers sound at an astonishing -20.3 decibels, a level so low it’s quieter than the threshold of human hearing. An anechoic chamber is specifically designed to absorb sound waves and eliminate echoes, making the room as close to silent as physically possible.

Inside, the floor, ceiling, and walls are lined with wedge-shaped soundproofing material that captures sound waves and prevents them from reflecting back. This extreme quiet affects visitors in surprising ways. In this environment, where background noise is practically nonexistent, even the tiniest sounds—like a heartbeat, the flow of blood, or the sound of one's breathing—become audible. People often describe a strange sense of disorientation after just a few minutes, and it’s said that most can’t bear the silence for more than 30 to 45 minutes.

This chamber serves practical purposes as well. Microsoft uses it to test the sounds made by their hardware, ensuring that their products emit as little noise as possible. The chamber’s intense quiet makes it ideal for precision testing of small sounds, helping engineers refine technology for quieter, more efficient performance.