Advice on Apartments (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

I am moving.
I currently live in an appartment, an by some miracle, my neighbors have never complained of the noise. I know there are people downstairs, I have seen them myself. Also, I own a 20-39PC and crank my system as loud as I can, before 10pm anyway. I guess I have been very lucky. Unfortunately, that has come to an end, I will be moving in a month or so.
While I am not really entertaining any hope of playing this loud in the new place, I am hoping for advice about what would constitute a HT friendly apartment:
I am thinking that the living room should be in one angle of the building so as not to share any of its walls with the neighbors. In the same spirit, what do you think of living on the first floor to avoid having neighbors downstairs? Is there anything alse I should think of? Will these measures allow me to enjoy my HT or am I kidding myself?
Anyone knows any affordable HT friendly buildings in the Hartford, CT area?
--
Holadem - no I can't affor a house

 

[RyanDinan]

I too live in an apartment, and I have people above me, and behind me.
My HT is in the living room, which only shares the ceiling/floor of the lady upstairs. I deliberately moved into a ground floor apartment, so the bass wouldn't be as bad. I still can't crank it up too loud without it traveling though.....Unfortunately, apartment dwellers are SOL unless they have neighbors who are into the same hobby
-Ryan

 

[NickSP]

An idea would be to locate like an end unit in the complex with walls on just one side. That way you have just neighbors on one side to deal with and your HT might also survive well.

 

[Ron Eastman]

As someone who has lived in apartments on 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors I recommend staying out of ground level apartments.

I've heard differing theories on this but my practical experience has been that I've been most annoyed with my neighbors' stereo noise when I've lived on the second floor directly above them. In third floor apartments (as I currently live with my SVS 20-39PC), I haven't had a problem. Same for the reverse, downstairs neighbors have never complained about my noise but when I lived in a ground floor apartment the upstairs neighbors complained.

Why you may ask? My theory is that the concrete floor in the 1st level apartment reflects the bass wave upward, essentially doubling the volume that the neighbors hear by bombarding them with both direct and reflected waves.

 

[Daryl Furkalo]

Well I am on the third floor of a three level building and am at the corner, so I only have neighbors below and to the side. Across the hall doesn't really count. I have not yet had anyone complain about noise. When I lived in university residence on the second floor of a four story building, are hall routinely had complaints from the FOURTH floor about noise.

 

[Jerry AZ]

I second staying away from ground floor units, especially if they have kids. Sounds like a herd of cattle running around.
I am getting ready to put my 1st HT together and I hope my downstairs people don't have a fit.

 

[Christian Speights]

I am in an apartment with neighbors above and below only. I usually try and practice SOME restraint and keep things quiet after 10 or so.

The building manager told me her philosophy on noise: if your neighbors can hear you, you're probably violating your lease.

Knowing this has prompted me to keep the HT scaled back. Until they start selling houses cheap on eBay, I'm afraid I am stuck with this scenario.

 

[Jerry AZ]

"Until they start selling houses cheap on eBay, I'm afraid I am stuck with this scenario. "
True, true. If I bought a house I could afford now, it would be in an area where my HT stuff would likely walk away the first time I left the house.:frowning:

 

[PaulHeroy]

Is a townhouse instead of a regular flat apartment an option? Man, I can sympathize with this... after my final year at college when I lived in a couple of flats, I resolved to never live above OR below (esp. below) anyone else. I found a single story 4-plex at one point that was great, and a couple of townhouses worked out fairly well. If you get really lucky and find an end unit townhouse that's the best, only one neighbor on the side.

Good luck.

 

[Evan S]

IMO, this is a moot point thread...there is no such thing as a HT friendly apartment...just HT friendly neighbors.
Find a place you want to live in, nice neighborhood, friendly people, adequate rent and show some discretion. Then, instead of getting upgraditis, take that money and put it to a down payment for a house in a secluded area!!!
Seriously though, I live in the Hartford area and have had about 4 apartments in the last 8 years. I wish I could steer you in the right direction here, but you really just have to get lucky. One time, the elderly neighbor next door had a heart attack initiated due to one of my subwoofer sessions. SERIOUSLY. Thankfully, he turned out OK.
That was when I was 22. I've learned to turn it down some since then.

 

[Leif Wall]

Here's my story:

I lived in an apartment for about a year and a half, just moved out about a month or so ago. Pretty much everbody in my building hated and despised me. I was within inches of getting evicted before I moved out. I was on the third floor of a 3 floor building, in the corner. So, I had people below me and people to both sides of me. Needless to say one day at 12:30 in the afternoon somebody from the bottom floor came up and asked me to turn it down. (I was watching Saving Private Ryan DTS) All I have for a sub is a JBL pb12 too. (I could only imagine what an SVS or something in that ballpark would of done) I will never live in an apartment again. Rent a house if you can. That's what me and a few buds will be doing.

 

[DonnyD]

Certainly agree with Leif.... move into a house if you can. Apartments are NOT HT friendly and sooner than later, you will have NON-friendly neighbors. I even live in a house and I still hear my system (along with the boom of my SVS) across the street. Imagine what it would be like in an apartment where sound can be transmitted several rooms away! I too had a JBL 12" sub and when I lived in a garden home a few years back, three homes down was still shaking from my sub.

 

[Charles J P]

I really think it depends on the construction of the building, which is something you cant predict or control. I live on the third floor with units accross an outdoor hallway (not enough structural connnection to count IMO) 1 below and 1 beside. I have pretty large speakers, and an SVS 16-46. I have never had a complaint and I usually listen between 20 and 10 below reference with the sub a little hot, which is actually plenty loud in most cases. Now the other week, my friend and I had a POTA and SW: TPM movie day, and we listened a bit above normal. We still not receive any complaints on a saturday afternoon.

 

[Mike Sheahan]

I am a landlord, and for what it's worth, I could care less about the walls shaking a bit now and then as long as the plaster stays on the celing, and the rent is in on-time.
My tenant's 20 year old son in the apartment below me enjoys a healthy dose of rap music every now and again, and as long as it is after 9 a.m. and before 10 p.m., I have no problem with it. It is just telling me that his mom isn't home and I can crank up a good movie without disturbing her.
We regularly have stereo wars in the early afternoon, and I know if my neighboors weren't at work, I would have more trouble with them than my tenant.

 

[NathanP]

If you can, get a duplex..

You can get a nice one for under $600 a month with 3 bedrooms...

Nathan

 

[peter_anderson]

$600 for 3 bedrooms??? Maybe in MO, but even here in Cleveland it would be more like $850.

Fortunately the apartment I live in was built practically out of solid concrete and I can never hear my neighbors do anything unless the windows are open (and movies don't bother them)

 

[Michael_T]

I live in a fairly upscale townhouse, and a few months after moving in, the neighbor complained - not about the loudness of my system, but the fact that there must be something wrong with the walls!!!

The previous owner of my townhome - had their home theatre system on the opposite wall, so they probably didn't hear much. I am using the adjacent wall to the one neighbor who complained. She rang the bell one day while I was listening to a DVD-Audio disc with alot of sub activity. I turned it down (knowing it was her by seeing her through the sidelights by the front door) and I invited her in to see that it wasn't that loud. She declined.

She kept saying that something must be wrong with the walls because she never heard one peep from the previous owners (but he had a crummy sound system anyway). I let her know that I hear bass sounds coming from her townhouse, and she indicated that what they hear from me was mostly bass.

She said, maybe if we both turn down our systems if would be a good thing. OK I said, and listened to music and movies at a lower volume for 2 days. After 2 days, the volume slowly crept up - but I do have some compassion after 10pm - I will either have the remote handy for quick volume adjustments - or I use compression mode late at night.

I actually get more complaints from my wife than I do the neighbors, who only complained that one time about 9 months ago. My wife comes barreling downstairs sometimes telling me the floors are vibrating. My response is always - "hey I never saw this movie before, I didn't know it was going to get that loud at that point." I tell her I will turn it down, I do so, and as soon as she disappears upstairs - I put the volume back up. I guess my selfishness shows through. :b

The funny thing is when my wife wants to watch a movie with me, she never complains - and I have everything just as loud.

One time, the elderly neighbor next door had a heart attack initiated due to one of my subwoofer sessions. SERIOUSLY. Thankfully, he turned out OK.

I know this isn't a laughing matter, as I don't like hearing about anybody suffering - but something about this made me laugh at the thought of someone sitting quietly in their own apartment, hearing rumbling and shaking, and having something like this happen to them. It may sound uncaring, but to the contrary - it sounds like a horrible thing - but I still found something humourous about it. Sorry, I really do care about others. :b

 

[Grant B]

thanks for the laughs guys...last time I saw a 3bdrm 1 bath for rent in our neighborhood it was for $3400 (a month not a yeat)

Most Houses are in the $1.2M - 1.4 range...and believe it our not, it's the average, not the expensive neighbor.

Someday I will sell our flat and and buy Ohio (turnkey)

 

[Christian Speights]

There is one apartment friendly option:
An Acoustimass setup without the Acoustimass module.
Hey, maybe Bose should market that.

 

[ColinW]

I am living in an apartment, but fortunately I own the building and rent out the other units, so I don't get too many complaints!! I try to keep things down for the others though as a courtesy!