What is the difference between sound masking and white noise?
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Sound masking is an engineered audio spectrum shaped specifically to match the frequency range of human speech, while white noise is a flat-spectrum signal containing equal energy across all audible frequencies. The practical consequence is that masking blocks conversations effectively at low, comfortable levels (42 to 48 dBA), while white noise has to run louder to achieve the same privacy and tends to fatigue listeners after a few hours.
| Attribute | Sound masking | White noise |
|---|---|---|
| Spectrum | Tuned to 100Hz to 5kHz, shaped to speech curve | Flat, equal energy at every frequency |
| Typical level | 42 to 48 dBA at ear level | 50 to 60 dBA to achieve similar privacy |
| Listener perception | Barely noticed after a few minutes | Audible as a hiss, fatiguing over hours |
| Speech privacy effect | Reduces SII directly across speech bands | Effective but inefficient, energy wasted at non-speech frequencies |
| Calibration | Tuned per zone with sound level meter | Usually fixed level, no zoning |
| Typical use | Open-plan offices, legal firms, healthcare consult rooms | Sleep apps, consumer products, occasional residential |
| Hardware | Ceiling or plenum emitters on a 3 to 5m grid | Single source or small portable units |
Pink noise sits between the two - it rolls off high frequencies relative to white but still is not shaped to the speech curve. Engineered masking is the only one of the three designed to maximise speech privacy per decibel of added sound, which is why it dominates UK commercial deployments while white noise stays in the consumer space.
In a real office, the difference matters because the masking system has to run for nine or ten hours a day with people at desks beneath the emitters. Anything fatiguing fails the wear test. A properly tuned sound masking system is calibrated within +/- 2 dBA across each zone so the experience is uniform from desk to desk; commodity white noise generators have no such commissioning step. For workplaces specifying broader office audio infrastructure, masking is integrated with paging and background music on the same emitter network rather than treated as a separate retrofit.
Quick reference: masking 42-48 dBA, speech-tuned, barely noticed; white noise 50-60 dBA, flat spectrum, fatiguing.
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