Where Is the Most Quietest Room in the World?
If you have ever wondered where the most quietest room in the world is actually located, the answer takes you to an unassuming building in a quiet neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Tucked away in the Seward neighborhood, across the street from a liquor store and a block from a bowling alley, sits Orfield Laboratories. This facility is home to an advanced acoustic anechoic chamber so silent that Guinness World Records has officially recognized it as the quietest place on earth.
As a leading anechoic chamber manufacturer and technology company, JV Micronics understands the complex science required to eliminate ambient noise. Below, we look at the fascinating physics of this world-record space and how professional engineering creates these ultra-silent environments.
How Quiet is the Quietest Room on Earth?
The specialized chamber at Orfield Laboratories was measured at an astonishing negative 24.9 decibels in tests conducted on 19 November 2021. To put that in perspective, zero decibels is the absolute threshold of human hearing. A quiet bedroom typically measures around 30 dB, while whispering registers at roughly 20 dB.
The Orfield chamber sits nearly 25 decibels below the level your ears are biologically capable of perceiving in a normal environment. This makes it the quietest room on earth, featuring a heavy-duty design that absorbs 99.99% of all airborne sound waves.
Inside this unique soundless chamber, there is nothing left for your senses to grab onto. Visitors report hearing their own heartbeat thumping, blood rushing through their vessels, organs gurgling, and even the soft click of their eyelids when they blink. As founder Steven Orfield put it, “In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound.”
Where Exactly is the Quietest Place on Earth Located?
The full address of this record-holding facility is Orfield Laboratories, Inc., 2709 East 25th Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55406, USA. The building itself has a fascinating past. It was originally constructed in 1970 as Sound 80 Studios, which was the world’s first digital recording studio. Musical legends like Bob Dylan and Prince recorded hit tracks there before Steven Orfield purchased the property in the 1980s and transformed it into a multi-sensory research laboratory.
To create the quietest place on earth, the acoustic chamber is engineered as a room within a room within a room:
- The Outer Shell: A heavy concrete shell with foot-thick walls blocks the initial structural noise.
- The Intermediate Layer: A large steel chamber sits isolated inside the concrete structure.
- The Inner Core: A small steel box, suspended on large vibration-absorbing springs, sits at the center.
Every interior surface, including the floor (which is a suspended steel mesh grid), is lined with 85 cm fiberglass wedges that completely swallow sound waves before they can reflect. The usable space inside measures roughly 12 ft by 10 ft by 7.4 ft.
How Much Does It Cost to Visit This Famous Soundless Chamber?
Yes, you can actually visit this famous testing facility. Orfield Laboratories regularly opens its doors to the public, and there are a few ways to experience the quietest room on earth depending on your budget and curiosity level:
- Standard Group Tour ($200 per person): A 90-minute guided tour of Orfield Laboratories that includes the history of Sound 80 Studios, a walk through the lab’s multi-sensory research areas, and a 20-minute session inside the primary anechoic chamber.
- Private Silent Session ($75 to $150+ per person): A more intimate experience where a small group of up to four to six people is sealed inside the chamber for 30 minutes to one hour in complete silence—and if you are brave enough, in complete darkness.
- Custom Corporate Consultations: Available by appointment for companies, industrial researchers, and engineering teams who need to utilize the space for specialized product testing or sensory research.
All visits are by appointment only from Monday through Friday. Bookings can be managed directly through the official website or via email.
Why People Cannot Stay Long Inside the Most Quietest Room in the World
Despite its peaceful description, the chamber has a notorious reputation. Most visitors cannot last more than 45 minutes inside the most quietest room in the world. With no external audio reflections to orient by, spatial balance becomes highly difficult, and many people end up needing to sit down within 20 minutes.
The longest anyone has officially stayed inside this specific soundless chamber is 1 hour and 26 minutes, a Guinness record set by YouTuber Callum McGinley in 2019. Steven Orfield himself recommends not staying longer than 45 minutes at a stretch.
Strangely, the experience is not completely unsettling for everyone. Many visitors describe it as restorative, deeply meditative, and a way to “reset their brain.” Orfield believes these controlled, ultra-quiet rooms have real therapeutic potential, especially for individuals with sensory sensitivities, dementia, or PTSD.
JV Micronics: Leading Anechoic Chamber Manufacturer and Provider
While Orfield holds the current world record for public curiosity, professional testing environments like these are essential infrastructure for modern technology. They are critical for testing audio products, calibrating microphones, validating EMC/EMI compliance, characterizing antennas, and conducting advanced acoustic research.
JV Micronics, headquartered in Faridabad, Haryana, is recognized as a leading Anechoic Chamber Manufacturer and global supplier. Established in 2011 and ISO 9001:2015 certified, our company specializes in the indigenous development and manufacturing of:
- RF and Microwave Absorbers (with a proven product life of over 25 years)
- RF Anechoic Chambers & EMI/EMC Shielded Chambers
- Portable Anechoic Boxes & Custom Soundless Chamber Enclosures
- Antenna Positioners, Turn Tables, and Measurement Software
Every chamber we design is engineered to comply with internationally recognized standards including IEEE, MIL, CISPR, ANSI, and EN. As an experienced technical provider, JV Micronics serves some of the most demanding industries in the country and abroad, including Defence, Aerospace, Medical Research, Automobile, and Telecom.
Our facilities are trusted by prestigious organizations such as the Indian Air Force, DRDO, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), SAMEER, ISRO, leading IITs, and global tech brands. With fast turnkey delivery, highly customized layouts, and full lifecycle support covering installation, commissioning, and AMC, JV Micronics ensures your organization gets silence engineered to precise scientific standards.
