A bit limited experience
I'm not as fortunate as some of you to have extensive memories of many classic machines, but if my memory is accurate, my Grandmother's mid-60's RCA-Whirlpool TL was remarkably quiet--just a gently undulating hum. I have no real recollection of what the spin sounded like. I think my Aunt's early 70's Kenmore was a bit louder, and maybe a little more with the splish-splash. I don't recall how loud my Mom's late 60's Westie FL was, but I never thought of either of her GE FF's as being particularly noisy. Her early/mid-90's Frigidaire (small cube) FL was a bit on the noisy side. Her current Kenmore TL isn't overly loud. The dryer buzzer, on the other hand is enough to induce a coronary!
My Maytag TL that I bought in 1998 was average-to-loud, especially compared to my LG FL. The Maytag was used in 3 houses. First it was in an unfinished laundry room off of a finished lower-level room in a new-construction townhouse. Mostly I was on the computer or ironing, so there was never a noise concern, and we couldn't hear it on the main levels. From there it moved to an unfinished basement in a 1905 Queen Anne, and it definitely couldn't be heard upstairs (sometimes to our detriment as we'd forget we had a wash going). After moving it to the basement of our first Connecticut house (1930's balloon construction duplex), we could hear it agitating if the TV wasn't on, and could hear it spin regardless. After buying the first LG (which the buyer wrote in to the deal when we moved), we could barely hear it tumble when the TV was off and could only hear the spin because the high pitch carried, even though the decibels were quite low. I have the same model, only newer in this house (1962 split level, laundry room at the foot of the stairs, which are just off the living room). With the TV on, even the spin is barely audible. With the TV off, only the sploshing of water and the spin are audible from the living room, and from anywhere else on that level, I have to stand at the top of the stairs to make sure if/which machine is running. The loudest things on that washer are the little song it sings when the cycle is done, and by far the CHUNK CHUNK when the door lock releases (which lets me know if it was the washer or dryer that sang for me!).