Poroton (36.5 cm) versus lightweight expanded clay aggregate solid wall (41 cm)

The louder noise in our place comes from inside,
music inside at very high volume (speakers with music output >2000W) can be heard from outside at below room volume level

And please don’t come with the argument that if I have no clue, I should just not write anything...

No, but if you have no clue, you cannot properly assess the competence of the respondents – neither those who claim extreme A, nor those who claim extreme Z, nor those who say the truth lies in the middle. The relevant question is rather, what is it about for you? If you want to know which online calculator makes which error in reasoning, the answer will come on the day after forever and it will be “42”. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a suitable wall building material, then ask the neighbors what they have and how satisfied they are with it. The philosopher’s stone is pretty much the only one that no building materials supplier has in stock. But every savior and every hate preacher has their own stone, which is supposed to be the greatest lucky charm (or flop). I tell you (to borrow a biblical phrase), you will not enjoy a test-winner stone if your builder is less skilled in working with it than with another stone that is only good average.

and reads "42".

Hehe yeah, I agree with you there.

If someone responds and says that they have a PhD in physics and work exactly in that field, I tend to believe them more (though not 100%, idiots exist everywhere) than someone who simply writes "yeah it has to be like this because the answer is 42".

I’m interested in the topic because I want to build a house myself – and noise should stay outside or loud music should not be too audible outside (Sunday/evenings etc.).
Why the topic and my own thought process:
- we want to build a house ourselves once a plot is found
- the noise should stay outside and inside (e.g. music on Sundays or evenings should not annoy the neighbors)
- the developer uses 30 cm Ytong as standard, looked it up, Ytong disadvantage: poor sound insulation
- read further into the topic and discovered this discussion here
- read statements like "windows 36 dB, the wall doesn’t matter at all"
- thought about it and according to my logic formulated the thesis that the wall still plays a role
- trying to get information on this is not that easy, so I wrote this thesis here and clearly marked it not as "knowledge" but as a "hypothesis". To generally illuminate the topic of sound with multiple levels, I found a calculator that can calculate sound from multiple levels – of course very roughly – it’s not about an exact calculation but an approximation to reality with a request to correct this thesis if you have expertise.

and how satisfied they are with it.

Does the car accelerate well or very well? -> Of course very well!
How many seconds does the car need from 0 to 200 km/h? -> 12.4 sec.
It’s all a matter of perspective... some people are unaffected by noise, don’t notice much and might even have poor hearing anyway. Others hear perfectly well and are used to quiet.

You won’t be happy with a top-rated stone if your builder is less experienced in its processing than with another stone that is just good mid-range.

I agree with you 100% on that too.
Possibly a developer might exclude a material for exactly this reason—or maybe not.

In my thesis, it would indeed make a difference which wall you use, but the difference is much greater if a very poorly insulating window is installed in that wall. The better the window insulates, the more important a better insulating wall becomes. I find that logically comprehensible as well.

Currently, I can only guess and derive from my not! well-founded knowledge: Standard window -> thicker wall brings only about 1 dB, significantly better sound insulation for the window -> better sound-insulating wall can already have some effect.

Therefore: I would find well-founded professional statements or calculations very helpful so that a builder can decide which wall and which windows they want or need to install.

- However, the developer uses 30 cm Ytong as standard, as read, Ytong disadvantage: poor sound insulation

A constructiondeveloper is only the contractor who sells you a bundle of house and land. My father lived in a aerated concrete house almost forty years ago, back then a wall thickness of 25 cm was considered modern. I slept there like a log, the house was located at a busy intersection. In my office directly above the workshop - also made of aerated concrete - noise was also not a problem. The myth of aerated concrete as supposedly a noise-attracting building material I have only known since I started browsing construction forums. Strange, isn’t it? – I was not deaf then nor am I now. But what is on the internet must be true.

If noise protection is so important to you, define it as a requirement for your executing company.

You might possibly find someone who agrees to that.

Otherwise, it won't help you much if you have selected the components according to DB values and then no attention is paid during construction.

A noise bridge that is overlooked will ruin your concept again.

But what is on the internet must be true.

Why do you assume something like that? So far, I have had a nice and good opinion about your posts. The fact is that aerated concrete alone insulates sound worse than other types of construction. How bad or good and what difference it makes – that is exactly what this is about, whether better sound-insulating walls make sense or not and under which aspects one notices the difference. Your statement, where you lived with 25 cm aerated concrete... all fine and good... I can only explain again that everyone has a different perception. Some say "oh how nice and warm" and at the same time I say "oh way too hot, I'm sweating like crazy." Do you want to stand there and firmly claim that one of the two statements is right and the other is wrong? I don’t believe so... your posts that I have read in the forum haven’t seemed that rigid so far.

A noise bridge that is overlooked already ruins your concept again.

Yep, certainly. The best insulation is useless if the door is open. When everything is closed, you can notice and/or measure the difference. For me personally, I estimate that the 30 cm aerated concrete wall is sufficient. I am not moving to a main street/country road/federal road/highway/flight path, so somewhat better sound-insulated windows will be enough. For others, however, it can definitely be good to know that possibly (attention, currently a pure hypothesis) the wall can also become decisive, depending on which windows they want to use for soundproofing.