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Ask HN: Yard Noise Cancellation Speakers/Systems?

by EwanG on 5/20/25, 3:52 PM with 5 comments

As summer is approaching, our neighbors on all sides are spending more time in their yards. That's generally a good thing, but it can make for a cacophony of children's voices and various music selections. I don't want to just crank up some music to try and overpower theirs, nor do I want to keep them from enjoying their own yards.

So I'm wondering if there is some kind of speaker or system I could put that would give us an area of the yard we can sit in and use "noise cancelling" for everything coming in without messing with their own enjoyment?

  • by poobear22 on 5/20/25, 4:30 PM

    Suggest bushes, water fountain or a noise-generating water source Probably a losing battle but perhaps something like cork or wood lattice-type structure to absorb sound - that is commonly used in noisy places? Try talking with you neighbor to see if the children's play area can be slightly relocated. It's not worth a lot of conflict. Having kids play and hearing the fun can be nice too. If the sound it inside your house, there are more expensive things like double wall windows, check out house in area in airline flight paths. They have several noise reduction issues that have applied. The teenagers next door played basketball late into the night. We were glad to see the kids having fun and let them know it. It subsided after a few yrs. No conflict. Your issue is very different from my first house where having a stupid neighbor that plays loud music and blows up firecrackers in your front yard and drives his truck on your yard and knocks your fence boards out so his dog has a little more space to run. For that problem, you may want to move.

  • by throwup238 on 5/20/25, 4:06 PM

    Active noise canceling headphones work because they can physically separate the input and output sides. Outdoors there are just too many surfaces for sound waves to bounce around.

    Your best bet is to plant trees and bushes around your fence line because other sound absorbing materials (like those blankets used on construction sites) are going to be pretty ugly.

  • by joezydeco on 5/20/25, 3:54 PM

    Try a water fountain.

  • by JojoFatsani on 5/20/25, 4:14 PM

    THC works