How Do I Keep My Apartment Neighbor From Hearing My Subwoofer?

[MrPeabody]

I do not know the man upstairs.

I can't say as I do either.

 

[devopsprodude]

Surprised that no one has mentioned using a receiver or home theater prepro with Audyssey LFC. It really works well.

 

[Robin L]

I can't say as I do either.

The man upstairs [at the"apartment" (converted garage) in Berkeley, 1985] would crank up the disco real loud in the morning as he did his strenuous workouts. We had to call the cops on him. I guess that was what made the landlord kick us out.

 

[LightninBoy]

Convince your neighbor that he is the reincarnation of Vincent Van Gogh. Hire a prostitute to break his heart, then sit back and let him take care the problem for you.

 

[Wes]

I have been in this same apartment for 30 years and I chose it because, as soon as I walked into it, it was strikingly quieter and more isolated from the neighboring apartments than any of the others in my search. That is not to say that I do not hear my side neighbors from my side rooms but my system is in a central room. Sounds from above and below are rarely obtrusive (recently from a new pet) and the building association requires carpeting in all rooms (except kitchen and bathrooms). In general, we try to be good neighbors.

That said, I have enjoyed my music/audio without significant constraint and, with only two exceptions, I have had no complaints. Both complaints were justified and from the same individual down the hall who has long since moved away. I do not play music loud early in the morning nor late in the evening but, otherwise, I play it as loud as I care. So far, so good.

...

What age is the building?

And, how's the view?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

What age is the building?

1963

And, how's the view?

City views to the west, over brownstones, between larger buildings

 

[Wes]

I wonder if the OP is in a wooden bldg. My guess is that Kal is not.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I wonder if the OP is in a wooden bldg. My guess is that Kal is not.

Reinforced concrete.

 

[posvibes]

The starting point might be that the OP is actually ruining his neighbor's lives.

 

[Chrispy]

Surprised that no one has mentioned using a receiver or home theater prepro with Audyssey LFC. It really works well.

See post 58

 

[devopsprodude]

See post 58

You didn't list Audyssey by name, so I missed it.

 

[Chrispy]

You didn't list Audyssey by name, so I missed it.

Not my post in any case. I have it but have never needed to use it. I played with it briefly once.

 

[GD Fan]

1963

City views to the west, over brownstones, between larger buildings

If you see a New Orleans Jazz Fest flag flying over a balcony on one of those brownstones the last weekend of April and the first weekend every May, wave to me.

 

[mkawa]

wait am i late on this?

turn it off

 

[CMOT]

How about bass only, hear through open back headphones? So only you get < 80Hz? Anything above that is probably okay....
As the post above said, there is basically nothing you can do. Look at the transmission of long wavelength, high energy sounds through solid media....

Or buy your neighbor a really good, full room noise cancellation system - feed it your <80Hz signals and aim it correctly to cancel out everything coming through (to be clear, this is not really feasible...)

 

[intothedragon]

Surprised that no one has mentioned using a receiver or home theater prepro with Audyssey LFC. It really works well.

room correction?

 

[intothedragon]

Convince your neighbor that he is the reincarnation of Vincent Van Gogh. Hire a prostitute to break his heart, then sit back and let him take care the problem for you.

LOL that's excellent

 

[Ron Texas]

Move to a house, a reinforced concrete building or turn off the sub. I had a downstairs neighbor with booming bass and he smoked cigars. I moved to a house. In a wood frame building, or lightweight framing steel, sound travels like crazy.

 

[devopsprodude]

room correction?

No, not room correction, although you need to enable Audyssey's room correction to use the feature. It attenuates the low frequencies that tend to travel through walls.

 

[Kvalsvoll]

In some way, more or less, this is a problem for most audiophiles. And there is no cure that can fix it completely.

But it can be improved, in some cases that is enough to be able to enjoy music and still keep the neighbors happy. I can see 3 things that works to reduce sound outside the listening room, 3 things that are reasonable and practical. I will write down a short text on these.