My comment won’t add anything substantial to this discussion apart from information …. Unfortunately an acute sense of hearing can be a female ‘thing’. I have a far better sense of hearing (and smell) than my husband who is not bothered by many ‘ nuisances’ that bother me. The majority of the comments about ‘nuisance noise’ on this Forum come from our female contributors.
https://www.health.com/mind-body/5-surprising-ways-men-and-women-sense-things-differently
All that being said, perhaps this is a simple matter of having a plumber look at the pipes. Water hammer can be fixed. There may be issues with the pumps, flow valves, restrictions in the galvanised pipes etc. As buildings age so does their plumbing. This could be a better way of solving the problem.