The most sensible comment on this whole thread came from Bee-Dubya-Ell on 12th June 2008: worth repeating!

"Lumping all varieties of pipes together is like lumping all varieties of guitar together. We don't consider a 00 Martin and a Les Paul connected to a Marshall stack to be the same thing, why should smallpipes and highland pipes be equated? Blanket statements about instruments usually indicate ignorance on the part of the speaker.

Anyway, it's the player, not the instrument, that defines the sound. Any instrument can be irritating in the wrong hands or enthralling in the right hands."

Some pipes were designed for indoor use: the GHB was not, tho can be Ok in a very large concert hall. And no, they don't irritate me; I love them: particularly like the sweeter sound of Asturian and Galician gaitas and Northumbrian pipes, as well as Uilleann pipes, tho' being a Scot, I have to like the various Scottish pipes too: it's not hard to like them!