Wind turbine (WT) noise is commonly reported to be very annoying. There is a consensus in the literature that this is mainly due to the non-stationary nature of the signal, which is modulated by the movement of the blades. However, measuring and recording such noise is very difficult due to the fact that in most cases a single wind turbine is only one part of a larger complex (consisting of dozens of them). In this paper we describe a laboratory experiment in which people were asked to rate the annoyance of WT noise as a function of distance from a WT. Wind turbine noise was recorded from both sides, downwind and in line with the rotor plane. The results suggest that annoyance ratings decrease with increasing distance from a WT and that noise recorded from the side (in line with the rotor plane) is slightly more annoying than that recorded downwind. In addition, the RT used as reference noise was the least annoying source.