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

[Koeitje]

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.


Ha. When I moved in the couple downstairs was deaf but they moved out.

Carpeting in all rooms? Damn, America is weird . I can't even remember the last time I saw a carpeted living room in person.

 

[mkawa]

carpets are more durable than hardwood and laminate. also much more pet friendly. hard floors are the exception in US apartments.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

Carpets are also more disgusting, lol.

I'll take hardwood or laminate flooring and area rugs myself...

 

[Willem]

Mind you, in the UK some have even carpeted bathrooms.
Anyway, before we can go on, we need more information from the OP.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Carpeting in all rooms? Damn, America is weird . I can't even remember the last time I saw a carpeted living room in person.

That may be but it is certainly effective in reducing the sound of foot-falls from the apartment above. It is, also, acoustically useful in the room with the audio system.

I'll take hardwood or laminate flooring and area rugs myself...

When I said "carpeting," I did not specify "wall-to-wall carpeting." The building rules (which are set by the coop owners in a quasi-democratic process) say that more than 50% of the floor surface must be covered by carpeting. We have really nice carpets.

 

[mkawa]

Carpets are also more disgusting, lol.

I'll take hardwood or laminate flooring and area rugs myself...

hah. carpets are usually the landlord's choice, not the renter's . i much prefer a nice hard floor with my nice area rugs.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

When I said "carpeting," I did not specify "wall-to-wall carpeting." The building rules (which are set by the coop owners in a quasi-democratic process) say that more than 50% of the floor surface must be covered by carpeting. We have really nice carpets.

Oh for sure, if you brought your own rugs it's all good.


When I was apartment hunting a few years ago a couple I looked at were carpeted - as in wall to wall in the living room - and it was gross. It was not new carpeting! lol

 

[Willem]

carpets are usually the landlord's choice, not the renter's

Again, this is different in e.g. the Netherlands, where rented accommodation is not normally furnished and does not normally have curtains or anything on the floor.

 

[Willem]

Is the OP still here?

 

[mkawa]

no, sounds like he'd prefer to bother his neighbor

 

[khrisr]

The second suggestion is off the beaten path but is like the first except that instead of turning down the bass per se, you put a convenient switch on one of the speakers to reverse the polarity. The major effect you will notice is a loss of bass when you are equidistant from both speakers.

A reversed polarity speaker in a stereo pair is just audibly hideous.

This phase idea reminded me of the beam forming ultrasound tech I saw in a museum once. Turns out they don’t work well for low frequencies though - https://www.holosonics.com/fundamental-limitations-of-loudspeaker-directivity

But apparently a phased array can solve for low frequencies by reducing directivity via phase cancellations?

https://soundforums.net/articles/measurement-and-optimization/run-and-gun-subwoofer-arraying-190497/

I wonder if this can be realized in the vertical axis using a line source speaker system like the one below reviewed some years back -

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...er-and-his-amazing-line-source-speakers.1261/

 

[Tom Danley]

I just bought a new pair of speakers and today was the second time I got the downstairs neighbor on my door complaining from the bass shaking his apartment.

I swear it wasn’t too loud ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) but I mean,

What can I do to try to isolate the bass from the floor? Is there any DIY solution? Bass traps?

Do isolators pads as these ones work??

Please advice

It's not your building so "Mods" are out. The only "for sure" solution is to move the subwoofer to a location MUCH closer to your head and take advantage of the inverse square law
Best
Tom

 

[Stu Pidasso]

You could high pass the speakers and install tactile transducers on your listening chair. These can work remarkably well if correctly installed. I have installed these in gaming chairs, car seats, couches, theater seats and flooring, and even nightclub flooring where we were highly restricted in how much noise we could make.

 

[egellings]

Don't play it, or move.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Have two subs side by side or stacked. Play one in reverse phase.

 

[egellings]

Another possibility. Tell you neighbor that you enjoy music but don't want to disturb them. Ask if there is any time of day when they are regularly gone, giving the reason that you would play loud music only during when you know they're gone. That worked well for me. Now I have my own house, so I can enjoy music whenever I want. I don't like blasting loud, but in an apartment setting, it would still disturb neighbors.

 

[trl]

Mechanically decoupling the subwoofer from the floor is the most important step in lowering transmitting low-frequency vibrations to down stair's neighbor. There are several ways of doing this, although I did a DIY thing: thick carpet + thick granite + thick carpet (carpet was manually cut by me with a tchick cutter at the size of the subwoofer).

Worth watching/reading the below links:
-

- https://boomspeaker.com/isolate-subwoofer-from-the-floor/

However, when bass kicks higher than 80 dB SPL bass traps at corners might be needed. Above 90 dB SPL in a small apartment might be impossible to not annoy your neighbors, unless you're using floating floor with rubber isolators in between (professional made floating floor, very expensive) and acoustical panels.

Of course, using your sub only 20-30 mins. per day may not kill your neighbors, especially if it's not happening when their kids are sleeping. Using common sense and being polite might be cheaper sometimes.

 

[Hipper]

I live in a flat and none of my neighbours, above, below or sides, say they can hear me playing music. I put this down to three reasons:

1. I have sound proofing insulation on the floor underneath carpet tiles.
2. My speakers and chair are set up with 'The Thirds' arrangement, meaning I'm quite close to the speakers - about six feet - so I don't need high volumes.
3. I use many bass traps and EQ to get a relatively flat frequency response. This gives a smooth musical bass.

 

[ta240]

Nobody is actually telling him to go out and buy a house as a serious suggestion. The point being made is that there's likely no solution to his problem as long as he's living in a domicile that has neighbors beneath his floor boards. ......

I think the valid point there is that if listening to music, especially with the full range of lower bass, is important to someone, then that should be considered when they choose where to live.

You don't have to buy a house, but look for ground floor, or even better a single story place with a room away from walls that connect to neighbors for listening.

 

[Ron Texas]

I once moved because I had a neighbor downstairs who loved bass and smoked cigars making it impossible for me to open windows. Honestly, I don't think subwoofers and poorly constructed apartments mix. Around here it's legal to build a 5 story apartment building out of wood frame. Noise goes through those with nothing to stop it.