How do You guys STOP from bothering neighbors with BASS (1 Viewer)

[Anthony_Gomez]

I think the real solution is to relocate the neighbors

 

[Joe Tilley]

I must just have the perfect neighborhood because no one around here seams to care & my sub carries bad. I couldn't believe how much it did until I went across the street to my friends house & heard how it sounded in his house. I made sure to let him know that if it was ever a problem to just let me know about it, but I haven't heard the first complaint from anyone of my neighbors. I don't know if it has more to do with being fairly good friends with everyone around me or that they just don't care.
At the same time though there are a couple other people that are close by with pretty loud systems, But I can drown them out any time I wont

 

[Gabriel_Lam]

Dual pane windows really do help. We have them in our house, and it makes a big difference. You can still hear the bass outside, but it's nothing remotely close to what it's like when we had single pane.

 

[marc seals]

I know what you mean Joe. One of my neighbors is too far away. The closest one says it doesn't bother her in her bedroom....the hallway is loud though. The one behind me competes and usually beats me for volume.....though it IS a live band doing it

Overall I can't complain a bit!

 

[TonyiBe]

Guys,

My room is 14x20. I am now building the AV15 box as of now, its 6.5ft3 firing down. After i finish building it i will try to sound deaden the room some. Will the sub sound louder facing down or towards me?

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

it will be just as loud in either arrangement

 

[Jerry Parker]

You guys think you have it bad, try having your massive subwoofer setups in a dorm room!!! Thats my problem, my 1803 with my QSC RMX 1450 powering it is exactly there. Every time I remotely turn it up even a tad, somebody comes downstairs to complain. Right after I got my new amplifier, I turned it up to show a friend. He went down the hall and said he could hear it on the stairwell on the second floor. My amplifier was not yet clipping, but a minute or so later, an RA and Dorm director came down to pay me a visit. :frowning: He thought it was cool, and wanted to hear it, during the day he said (I was playing it at like 8pm). I am seriously considering leaving my stereo equipment at my parents house (they only live around 10 miles away) and go home to watch movies or anything anymore. I played K-19 the widowmaker and couldnt even play it at the levels I wanted to. Oh well.

 

[Allen Ross]

bummer i am also in a dorm and the only time i had someone complain was when i played Clint Eastwood by the Gorilaz, followed by the intro to Welcome to the Macine by Pink Floyd, I have never seen that much excursion. It wasn't low but damn it was loud, i was around 75 on my Onkyo (goes to 92 or somthing, never made it that high) and he said the heaters were shaking above him.

In the 3 months that i have had it, though my neighbours next to me or accross from me havn't complained, so i am guessing i haven't been playing it loud enough.

 

[Rob Formica]

Tony, from past experience in construction, almost all sound infiltration problems come from gaps, openings, ducts, doors, windows, etc... In Canada, we don’t any single pane windows, but simply opening one slider (on a dual slider version) will increase the amount of traffic noise substantially. Glass in windows is low in mass and have high Q, both which will easily transfer sound. Double pane glass will lower the transfer, but will still remain the weak point of your division. Although this isn’t really an option for you, sound studios will often tilt the inner and outer glass at different angles, as it’ll reduce standing waves between the panes, and increase the STC. Remember that the doors and windows are probably the entry point for your neighbour as well so changing his windows will further improve you situation. Obviously, I’m assuming you both have your doors and windows closed. Any gaps around doors, grilles, ventilation outlets, etc... will let the sound leak outside, if any air can make it through so will low frequency sound.

Seeing that you have a gate in the fence, it definitely weakens the transfer of vibrations, but like several people mentioned, leave it open and see if make a difference.

 

[DerrickW]

Any good websites out there that describe soundproofing home/apartment? I tried soundproofing.org but am looking for more (and cheap) ideas. I will be moving to a new apartment soon, and will live there a good 4+ years probably, so would love to soundproof it well.

 

[Owen Bartley]

I have been trying to see how badly my Tempest leaks to the outside and the neighbours, but haven't done a total walk around yet. I think I'll put that on my list of to-do's this weekend. I know the big double pane windows in our living room start to flex and vibrate at loud levels, but I don't know if any of it gets into the houses next door. But... since we have to deal with roaming dogs and car alarms from them, a little bass can't hurt.

 

[jeff lam]

I just read an article on sound proofing in a recent sound and vision mag (XXX on a plasma TV on cover). It looked useful for those that need to keep the sound in a specific room. Maybe you should give it a look. I couldn't find the article on the website but you can look again, maybe I just missed it.

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/default.asp

 

[PaulDF]

Do any of you getting complaints have your system in your basement (if you have a basement)? Seems to me this is the best place to have a home theater. The concrete contains a lot of the vibration. If my system were on a higher floor, I think it might do some serious damage.

I had a small sub upstairs in my previous house, and it could definitely be heard outside. Never got any complaints, but the system I have now would probably have the cops at my door!

Also I no longer live in a suburban area, so I can crank it as much as I want!!

 

[DerrickW]

Basements? How many of us are in apartments, with a neighbor's bed probably a few inches away from our sub on the other side of a flimsy wall?

Still looking for some web resources on this. I'm thinking about constructing a second wall over the old ones where I border with neighbors, sealing my door, and hanging acoustic drapes. Hmmm, ceiling and floor too if possible.

 

[PaulDF]

I know anytime I lived in an apartment, I was VERY conscious of my neighbors, and tried hard not to be loud enough to disturb them. To be honest, I wasn't really into theater nor did I have any sound system worthy of mention so I suppose I don't have much right to make judgement here... But it seems to me that apartments and SERIOUS music or theater systems do not mix. It is good to see that many of you make curfews for yourselves.

I understand I am biased, and am gonna get BLASTED for stating my opinion here. I mean no offence to anybody, but it is good to be respectful of others, especially if they're that close of neighbors.

 

[Rob Formica]

Derrick… would you really invest all that money to build and then demolish (when you move out) these sound proofing devices? If you are, there are many solutions to help reduce sound transmission. I guess it really depends on your budget.

With HT you are dealing mostly with air borne versus impact sound transmission, so you'd be looking for compositions with high STC. Assuming cost wasn't a problem, one of the better ways to do this would be to build a second room in the interior of the first one... with no rigid connections between it and the existing structure.

- seal all openings before starting
- rubber pads on the existing floor (these are commercially available)
- new floor joists filled with wool
- new subfloor
- walls independent from the existing ones set on top of subfloor
- walls filled with wool and covered with resilient bars and gypsum
- new ceiling attached to the new walls only
- wall to wall carpet + pad
- double door (existing one opening outward and new one opening inward)
- acoustic seals on door and windows

If you want take it even further, you can add mass to the existing building before adding the new floors, walls, and ceiling.

On a tight budget, some essential items above would be:

- seal all openings
- acoustic seals on door and windows
- wall to wall carpet + pad

But after all that, i'd have to agree with Paul: "apartments and SERIOUS music or theater systems do not mix" ... detached homes are really the way to go here.

 

[Greg To]

Add some bass traps and acoustic treatments, if you don't already have them.

The improvement to the sound will allow you to turn it down (only slightly of course!) and still have a good experience.

 

[DerrickW]

Rob, show me some homes in the Loop in Chicago and I'll have more options, but until then it is an apartment! I'm buying, not renting, and will live there a minimum 4 years. It will be one bedroom with open living room to the kitchen. I will be able to live at my old location for a few weeks while I mess around with the apartment, but I need to do some more research on soundproofing. It kind of depends on the condition when I get the apartment, but I was already thinking about repainting and carpeting myself. I don't want to spend too much, I would certainly keep the budget under maybe $750 for the soundproofing materials. Here is what I'm thinking for sure:

-wall to wall carpet, thick pad.
-additional layer of barrier under the carpet pad
-seal all cracks
-seal door to hallway
-heavy drapes
-add 2nd wall to common wall in living room (speaker location)

Weaknesses:
This relies on the kitchen and bedroom to handle 2 directions. It also does nothing about the ceiling.

The outlook:
I can't imagine this being as bad as you are describing. I'm new to home theater, but I've done 3 cars to my satisfaction. You know all those stupid booming cars that you can hear for blocks? Well, I've also got dual 12" on 800 watts, and another 500 watts distributed to 12 mids/tweets. But with my doors and windows shut it is pretty quiet outside the car after killing all rattles and sound proofing all pillars, the trunk area, the doors, and the undercarriage. Keep in mind, that isn't a true full treatment, just attacking the main places sound comes from with under $200 of material. Now before I did it, you could hear the car nearly a mile away with the windows open- bass travels a long way.

Based on the various dorm rooms I've blasted with music, I can attest to doors, windows, and cracks being the main weaknesses. Even still, the subwoofer will never be allowed to its full potential. I'm going to try bass shakers to keep the feeling without turning up the volume as much.

 

[DerrickW]

here is one source I've found to be decent. still looking for more:

http://www.customaudiodesigns.co.uk/help.htm

 

[Rob Formica]

Seeing that your living room is connected onto your kitchen, one of the sound leaks I forgot to mention are plumbing vents, esp if the units share a common stack. I believe there are some acoustic pipe vents available for this. If you want to improve the sound insulation on the bathroom and bedroom sides, consider installing acoustic seals on their doors and keeping them closed when listening to music.

If you don’t already know, you should make a couple of exploration holes in the walls and ceilings to see if there is any insulation in them. If there isn’t any, you can easily get some blown in from your unit at a reasonable cost... the result is similar to that of the acoustic mat used in cars. If there is some, you’ll have a couple of extra holes to plug....

there is a ton of documents available at the Canadian CHMC at (search acoustic):

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/search/search_001.cfm