Since I became a member (A lurker, though) of SPCR, I've noticed this little thread, but never read through it. "Probably irrelevant to my interests". However, this thread caught my eye when I was browsing around the forums (looking for new silent case mods, heh). I was curious if I was becoming obsessed with noise, but from what I've read, I'm clearly only a mild case.
The situation is this: I'm a student in Leyden, Netherlands, and currently have a small room in the aforementioned city. Two months ago, I got a new housemate, who occupies the room next to mine. Before that, it was almost always empty, as the girl who used to live there had a very active life somewhere else. All was quiet, and I was a happy camper.
Now, this new guy has quite a collection of electronics, all hooked up to his TV and sattelite speakers. Whenever he wants to watch TV, play a game or play music, it is too loud for me to live with. I've complained numerous times, but he is just too much of an asshole to keep his volume down when I'm around. I started to question myself if I wasn't being a whiner, and then read the posts in this thread.
Apparently my ears aren't nearly as sensitive as the ones of some SPCR users. When I go to sleep (and everything is quiet), I can't hear the ticking of clocks in the room, I can fall asleep with the hum of the heating system or the sounds of the trains screeching outside (the railroad is about 300m away from my house). As long as I know where the sound is coming from, and wether I know if I can stop it, I don't get bothered by it, most of the time. However, my samsung monitor has to be unplugged in order for it to stop screeching when turned off. I can hear the computer of my housemate running when I go to sleep. He recently bought a new 700-800 watt power supply, and it's fan is such a screamer that I can hear it through the wall. If I'm correct it was a Chieftec

.
I don't have to sleep with earplugs in, though the sounds of the city force me to close the windows when the wind direction is wrong.
Good thing is I can't hear the broken fridge in the kitchen, one flight down. It's thermostat is broken, and the pump keeps on whirring all day long. You would probably go mad, but I can't hear it.
Just like another user said: I can't stand the sounds of some car brakes, train brakes (waaay too loud on the older models here!) and the hiss when trucks exhaust pressurised air scares me. Same goes for barking dogs.
This thread brings me relieve, as I can complain on the internet about my problem. And I've found out I'm not the only one with sensitive hearing.
Now to get out of this lousy room and find a place where it is quiet enough. I'll post some more later on.