How to keep the sound from neighbours?

[CauliflowerEars]

Just got a message from my neighbour asking to keep it down. Apparently they even heard in the other end of their 76m2 apartment.
What can I do to listen not too quietly without disturbing them?

So far, the speakers (front ported Elac DBR-62) were standing on a sideboard, which is mounted to the wall (the neighbour right behind it).
The wall is a very sturdy type. The same kind of wall in my bedroom gives a lot of echo. Thought this probably transfers vibrations a lot.
1) So, thinking about placing the speakers on dedicated stands and 4cm thick isolation pads underneath the speakers - could this help much?

On-Stage SMS6000-P Studio Monitor Stands

Adjustable Studio Monitor Stands (pair)

www.sweetwater.com

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MoPADXL--auralex-mopad-xl-monitor-speaker-isolation-pads (similar)
2) Apart from proper (and expensive?) 4 inch/10cm thick isolations on the wall, would putting anything on the wall directly behind the speakers help?
Say, curtains or acoustic panels covered by art (could be fabric kind of art ...) or maybe even bookshelves with all kind of objects ...
3) Anything else we could do? From my research, seems it would be better to have the speakers where the sofa is, facing the neighbour, but the sideboard is already fixed and right above it is where we screen movies with a projector ... Also, in current position, we can see some nature from the sofa. The other way round and we would just see buildings ...

We would be grateful for any tips and comments. If things don't work out, I might have to exchange the whole system for headphones ...

 

[Keith_W]

If the wall is hollow, you could talk to your body corporate about putting some expandable foam into the walls?

 

[CauliflowerEars]

If the wall is hollow, you could talk to your body corporate about putting some expandable foam into the walls?

Thanks. My bet would be that it’s not hollow. Feels hard and doesn’t give much sound when knocking on it, as opposed to the wall behind the sofa.

 

[Elkerton]

Move. Sorry, that wasn't very helpful.

Alternatively, if possible, I would first exchange places, the sofa with the sideboard. Your neighbour is likely hearing only bass because it fires omnidirectionally. with the speakers where the couch now is, you would likely hear little difference, but your neighbour would hear much less bass.

Others, I hope, will chime in on various sound treatments, though the usual furnishings, paintings or wall coverings (a rug perhaps), table, chairs, bookcases, drapes, are usually sufficient to tame, or even out reflections. This is, after all, a living room and not a dedicated sound room.

 

[Keith_W]

Watch this video about soundproofing, there are 3 categories of increasing sound isolation: (1) airborne sound isolation, (2) structural sound isolation, and (3) structural mass.

By far the easiest to tackle is airborne sound isolation. The crickets outside my house used to drive me crazy until I went around ensuring all the windows were sealed. The construction is a pane of glass sandwiched between a wood, and the window presses against the window frame. I silicon glued the pane to the window, and installed some adhesive foam between the window and the frame. I also put some rubber seals against the door as well as a door draft stoppers. It did not eliminate the crickets entirely, but it improved it by a lot. A side benefit is that me heating bills have gone down because cold wind does not seem to sweep through the house any more.

You could also try some rubber dampeners under your speakers. This would be easy to do as well.

Once you are done with these simple things, ask your neighbour if your attempts at mitigating sound have been successful. If not, you might have to try something more drastic. That video gives you good suggestions on what to do next.

 

[DVDdoug]

Unfortunately, soundproofing is mostly "structural".

Usually the problem is the bass and bass soundwaves fill the room so moving the speakers may not help much. And most of it is soundwaves so "isolating" speaker vibrations probably won't help much either.

You might consider turning down the bass and attaching a bass shaker to your sofa/chars. Those will need a separate amplifier (like a subwoofer). If you have neighbors below you might have to make some kind of isolation platform or maybe modify the feet with springs or foam so you're not vibrating the floor.

 

[Zensō]

I agree that moving the speakers away from the shared wall is a necessary first step. Doing that may or may not solve the problem, mostly depending upon your neighbor’s tolerance level. You can try other measures, but in my experience, with a shared wall there is nothing (within reason) that will completely isolate the sound. For us, in tight quarters, headphones were the only long term solution.

 

[AudiOhm]

If renting, speaker relocation may help.

If you are the owner you could install some QuietRock, they have various products for sound proofing.

Ohms

 

[anotherhobby]

The unfortunate reality is that unless you are prepared to rebuild walls structurally using mass, damping, and decoupling (the three pillars of sound isolation), you're not going to be successful here. This means investing a ton of money. The more practical answer is you'll need to work with your neighbor becaue you won't likely be able to put much of a meanful dent in sound tranmission.

I was in an apartment for 2 years and had a similar situation with a neighbor, except is was their system and volume level that was annoying. I was very kind and offered them to come over to my place to hear it, and we adjusted his volume a bunch with different music so he could understand the impact on my space and empathize with me. There isn't much else you can do other than work together or move. I did the former until I could accmoplish the latter. Maybe they can give you a heads up when they are out of town, or they have a work schedule or something where you can have opportunites to listen more loudly when you know they are gone.

 

[ZolaIII]

I am experimenting with egg sitter cushions under speakers/sub's and impressions are very positive (including from my household members as I don't have neighbors problems) better than acoustic spikes. Idea isn't just to dump vibrations but also deal with room fundamentals. I don't know how much successful will fundamental part be (I am out of my listening room where I have one at 45 Hz and in living room where I don't for now) but it lowers transfer of vibrations considerably.
Chose egg sitters because you can find them cheap now (7~10€ a peace for ripoff/original where I live) because they are from silicone and honeycomb construction and can carry a lot. Silicone has very low transfer rate and fundamental at 9 Hz and stable on room temperature. Would be good that someone with good measurement equipment conduct experimental measurements as I don't have very good equipment. If it works it will be a big thing.

Comparison of vibration isolators with silicone to anti-vibration products made of natural rubber compounds - vibro.gr

antivibration-systems.com

 

[CauliflowerEars]

Watch this video about soundproofing, there are 3 categories of increasing sound isolation: (1) airborne sound isolation, (2) structural sound isolation, and (3) structural mass.

By far the easiest to tackle is airborne sound isolation. The crickets outside my house used to drive me crazy until I went around ensuring all the windows were sealed. The construction is a pane of glass sandwiched between a wood, and the window presses against the window frame. I silicon glued the pane to the window, and installed some adhesive foam between the window and the frame. I also put some rubber seals against the door as well as a door draft stoppers. It did not eliminate the crickets entirely, but it improved it by a lot. A side benefit is that me heating bills have gone down because cold wind does not seem to sweep through the house any more.

You could also try some rubber dampeners under your speakers. This would be easy to do as well.

Once you are done with these simple things, ask your neighbour if your attempts at mitigating sound have been successful. If not, you might have to try something more drastic. That video gives you good suggestions on what to do next.

Thank you, this is a PERFECT introduction.
1) Airborne - in the kitchen there's an ventilation shaft and some of the sound might be going through it. Hoping putting some materials on the wall right behind the speakers will absorb some of the waves as well.
2) Structural - the credenza is screwed to (most probably) the load bearing wall, so will move the speakers away and put on the stands with isolation pads.

 

[CauliflowerEars]

Unfortunately, soundproofing is mostly "structural".

Usually the problem is the bass and bass soundwaves fill the room so moving the speakers may not help much. And most of it is soundwaves so "isolating" speaker vibrations probably won't help much either.

You might consider turning down the bass and attaching a bass shaker to your sofa/chars. Those will need a separate amplifier (like a subwoofer). If you have neighbors below you might have to make some kind of isolation platform or maybe modify the feet with springs or foam so you're not vibrating the floor.

Thank you, so putting some materials on the wall right behind the speakers will not absorb some of the waves?
I thought they could capture and damped the first waves coming out of the back of the speaker. There's data for front horizontal and vertical directivity which could give an idea how much of the wall behind the speakers could be covered.

Well, I don't need much bass per se, but I like the mids. So I guess I'd need to figure out which frequencies get transmitted the most and somehow cut them. Would the Bass dial on the amp be enough? From my understanding, it's the most important to focus on the bass, right?

 

[CauliflowerEars]

I am experimenting with egg sitter cushions under speakers/sub's and impressions are very positive (including from my household members as I don't have neighbors problems) better than acoustic spikes. Idea isn't just to dump vibrations but also deal with room fundamentals. I don't know how much successful will fundamental part be (I am out of my listening room where I have one at 45 Hz and in living room where I don't for now) but it lowers transfer of vibrations considerably.
Chose egg sitters because you can find them cheap now (7~10€ a peace for ripoff/original where I live) because they are from silicone and honeycomb construction and can carry a lot. Silicone has very low transfer rate and fundamental at 9 Hz and stable on room temperature. Would be good that someone with good measurement equipment conduct experimental measurements as I don't have very good equipment. If it works it will be a big thing.

Comparison of vibration isolators with silicone to anti-vibration products made of natural rubber compounds - vibro.gr

antivibration-systems.com

Interesting. So, those aren't as good? https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MoPADXL--auralex-mopad-xl-monitor-speaker-isolation-pads
Also, was curious: wouldn't say wooden speaker stands be better than steel? Thought a softer material will dampen the waves more than rigid steel ...

 

[ZolaIII]

Interesting. So, those aren't as good? https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MoPADXL--auralex-mopad-xl-monitor-speaker-isolation-pads
Also, was curious: wouldn't say wooden speaker stands be better than steel? Thought a softer material will dampen the waves more than rigid steel ...

Wouldn't go for foam. There are silicone feet but they are small and thin so probably less efficient compared to much larger honeycomb cushions.

https://www.amazon.com/Hudson-Hi-Fi-Silicone-Isolation-Capacity/dp/B075KPHZPF

 

[FeddyLost]

Most probably your shared wall is the main problem.
If it's something like reinforced concrete, it will transmit everything bassy like if you are using hammerdrill.
You need to isolate your speakers from direct vibration transmission - target 1. Some vibration isolated stands must work nice.
DBR-62 at reasonable SPL will not be heard through concrete wall with airborne noise transmission.
If something will be still transmitted, you need to find out the exact (most probably airborne) way and cut if off.
There are lot of possible options of weird constructions in multi-apartment houses like shared vents or even shared AC receptacles, when wall have a single hole with 2 receptacles looking into different apartments.

 

[Hear Here]

Just got a message from my neighbour asking to keep it down. Apparently they even heard in the other end of their 76m2 apartment.
What can I do to listen not too quietly without disturbing them?

With my system it's dead simple. I have a NAD M33 all-in-one driving Duo XD speakers that include twin 12" drivers each side, so I don't use separate subs.

Luckily my building's construction meets modern standards and my neighbours are tolerant. However I do sometimes play loud late at night.

With my NAD, within Settings I can "Select attached speakers" with options of No Subs (my normal setting) but also 1 Sub or 2 Subs. If I select a sub setting, I have a Crossover setting where I have 80 as the setting - it can be anything from 40 to 200Hz. With 80 set, the Main speakers (via binding posts) receive nothing below that frequency - happy neighbours. If I had subs connected to Sub Out RCA sockets, the subs would be sent only these lower frequencies.

I could employ Tone Controls within Settings, but the active crossover spoils less of the signal above that XO setting.

 

[UltraNearFieldJock]

I also had the same problem. The solution was UNF. 85dB in low bass at 2am is possible without disturbing anyone .

 

[MRC01]

1. Turn down the volume
2. Invite your neighbor to the party
3. Use headphones

Seriously, as others have mentioned, effective sound proofing is a big expensive rabbit hole.

 

[dasdoing]

everytime I move and sight a AP I punch the walls. if they "sing", I leave.

 

[posvibes]

Ask if you can play your music at the volume they complained about while you are in their apartment.