The Detroit News: GM seeks quiet riot for Enclave

2008 crossover boasts soundproofing features in a bid to compete with Lexus, Mercedes-Benz.

Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News

MILFORD -- General Motors Corp. will employ an arsenal of soundproofing technology in hopes of making its upcoming Buick Enclave crossover one of the quietest rides on the road.

Buick officials said Thursday that the brand will face off with the likes of Lexus and Mercedes-Benz when the five-door luxury crossover debuts next year as a 2008 model. The Enclave will be built at GM's new $1 billion plant in Delta Township near Lansing.

GM hopes a sleek exterior, laminated steel and perforated leather seats that absorb sound will quiet critics and sell the Enclave to a younger, more affluent crowd. The features are the latest incarnation of Buick's QuietTuning technology, used in such models as the Lucerne and LaCrosse sedans.

"This technology is very powerful and very simple," Buick general manager Steve Shannon said Thursday at the GM Proving Grounds, where the Enclave underwent sound testing in high-tech wind tunnels and on low-tech bumpy roads. "This is basically a luxury car that just happens to seat seven or eight people."

A quiet ride is not a perk, but an expectation in the luxury market, and it's an area where Buick has fallen short in the past, said Brian Moody, road test editor for Edmunds.com. "People who are purchasing luxury vehicles expect a certain serenity or quietness with a vehicle," Moody said. "If they don't get that, it seems cheap."

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A guy builds his new home on "the noisiest site in San Diego"

While most of us try to avoid the noise, Architect Lloyd Russel built his home under the flight path of the San Diego Airport and next to Interstate 5. Using concrete and special windows, he was able to tame the noise.

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Even in space, one can not find quiet

Russian astronauts are in need of soundproofing. Read More

Technorati Tags: astronauts, space station, soundproofing

Living In Florence: Noisy Neighbors are Normal

Sunday, October 15, 2006
Melinda Gallo

It seems like Sunday is the day when I hear my neighbors the most. Our windows are open because the weather is still nice, but at 9AM I heard the elderly man downstairs whistling at the pigeons and another girl, probably one of the new tenants downstairs, singing along with the radio.

During the week, we hear the elderly man yelling at the younger woman who lives with him in the apartment underneath ours. Doors slam and windows bang shut quite often in the middle of the afternoon. There is a small child that lives above us in the building next door to us who cries almost every night at 11PM.

And, now our new neighbors downstairs come home late at night, around 1AM, and talk outside in rather loud voices as if it were the middle of the afternoon. They also have a German Shepherd that barks sometimes and usually never before midnight.

We had one neighbor woman the first year that we were living in this building who would scream at the top of her lungs twice a day. It got so bad that if anyone wanted to come by our apartment, I would make sure it was during a time when she wouldn't be screaming.

I found out that I'm not the only one with noisy neighbors. It's quite typical here in Florence, if not in most of Italy. One of my friends, Sara, said that an elderly woman who lives next door to her yells a lot as well for hours on end. Luckily, she's not home much, but still the elderly woman isn't going anywhere.

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Technorati Tags: noisy neighbors, florence, italy

Lowercase sounds - Whisper the songs of silence

"Lowercase sound" is the name given to a loose movement in electronic music that emphasizes very quiet sounds and the long, empty silences between them.

Created largely by scientists, techies and experimental musicians, lowercase recordings are frequently based on the magnification of minute sounds through a

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Bang & Olufsen Release Earset 2 Bluetooth Headset

Bang & Olufsen have released the Earset 2 Bluetooth heaset as a sequel to their Earset 1 wired headset. The heaset as with all Bang & Olufsen products was designed to produce and transmit the clearest possible sound. The Earset 2 features two microphones in order to minimize background noise as far as possible.

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'Silent aircraft': How it works

Engineers from the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have unveiled a radical design for a "silent aircraft". The team says any noise from the concept aircraft, known as the SAX-40, would be "imperceptible" beyond the boundaries of an airport. It would also burn far less fuel than conventional planes.

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Jury Selection Starts in Nightclub Fire

Jury selection began Tuesday for the highly anticipated trial of one of the owners of the nightclub where a fire killed 100 people three years ago. The blaze at The Station, which began when sparks from stage pryotechnics ignited soundproofing foam on the club's walls and ceiling.

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