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Noise is much, much different in a rural area.

An old friend of mine was in a 'biker gang' of sorts and when I visited his farm, the bikes were loud, but didn't really seem to bother me.

First time I went to Chicago, walking around downtown, a few bikers came by and I can only describe the noise as head pounding, ear piercingly loud.

Acoustics are weird in that way.

That’s a good point. When I haven’t been into a city in a while, it’s always jarring. I suppose some of the acoustics are related to the sounds hitting buildings and doing the canyon effect. I live in the high desert and the incredibly dry air (usually <15% humidity) doesn’t propagate sound much.

In my small rural village, there's an idiot with a noisy car who's bellowing exhaust wakes everyone, every morning at 6:00am. The noise literally carries for miles.

Curious- do you live some place wet/humid? I was just noting to another reply that in the high desert where I am, we are normally <=15% humidity and sound doesn’t really carry much and the local explanation is the low moisture content.

They’re not random.