Noise on airliners is an interesting topic.
I only ever ehard the big props from the outside and the comment about the Argonaught was spot on-what that must have been like (even for Merlin lovers) for hours on end I cannot imagine.
But have things improved in the jet age??
Well I went on my honeymoon on a 707 436 and sitting behind those four conways was like the world ending. And the same engines ona DC8 40 seemed noisier yet despite the huge retractable 'silencer' thingy hung on the back
On the other hands sitting in front of four Conways on a VC10 was the complete opposite with the engines really only audible at all on take off.
Same thing with all rear engine craft- the MD80s were for me the best shorthaul plane ever in that respect.
Now along come the really big fans and things do get better at first but s the fans get bigger and mask the actual jet efflux noise the frequency of the fan noise gets lower and lower and more intrusive until you to get to the in my view horrid triple & with its weird collection of groans and whines as the fans
seem to struggle to keep a consistent power setting and set up what to me are very unpleasant low frequency noises all through a long night.
And then along comes the A380 and that beast may not be pretty but it is fantastic to fly on and seems like it is powered by fan engines of the electrical office fan type with very little cruise noise at all.
And a final comment on comfort-airline travel is a reflection of the world we live in -first class gets better and better and the lot of the great majority gets worse and worse. For me personally premium economy works very well but not many airlines do it and those who do limit the number of seats.
I am not really sure I buy the 'we are forced to do it ' line since in many many industries there is a sophisticated analysis of price versus value . In Europe Easy jet which cut out some frills has prospered while Ryanair which cut out some of the basics as well struggles in a the real bottom end of the market and especially now people have wised up to their various 'scams'.
It gets back to the fact that today too few influential people fly the airlines- if the corporate jet folks ahd to fly through hub airports service would improve on the ground overnight- if they had to travel the way they force many of their employees to so would onboard service.