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Subwoofer isolation pads and downstair neighbours
- Thread starter NTomokawa
- Start date
There are several possible paths for the sound to travel to another apartment, and it not not only dependent on the common barrier between the spaces. It can be transmitted through air gaps, through resonances and vibration in the structure and through flanking transmission paths.
There is usually no simple solution, but in general more mass helps so making walls heavier tends to reduce sound transmission.
Those pads you linked to probably do very little for transmission issues. If sound transmission is a problem, work with your neighbour to minimise it, you could simply try putting the subs on some cheap blocks of foam rubber to see if that reduces the transmission - it might, but you need to test it. Be very very sceptical of "magical" cures and claimed benefits. Also get a money back offer on anything expensive you want to try (like the pads in your link) as there is a good chance that it will not work.
There is usually no simple solution, but in general more mass helps so making walls heavier tends to reduce sound transmission.
Those pads you linked to probably do very little for transmission issues. If sound transmission is a problem, work with your neighbour to minimise it, you could simply try putting the subs on some cheap blocks of foam rubber to see if that reduces the transmission - it might, but you need to test it. Be very very sceptical of "magical" cures and claimed benefits. Also get a money back offer on anything expensive you want to try (like the pads in your link) as there is a good chance that it will not work.
Victoria
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Haha this can be a difficult fix, especially if you have a lot of furniture or fixtures that will reverberate with the lower frequencies coming out of your subwoofer; so even if your subwoofer is anchored into the floor or otherwise designed to eliminate cabinet resonance, chances are that you're going to have something else resonating that you'll be hard-pressed to do anything about.
Example: one of my speakers is solidly anchored into a concrete wall but despite that if I pump the volume up I have wooden tables that aren't even in the same room vibrating, so I've got those padded as well.
As said by PaulD mass is your friend, and having solid walls help, but that may not be viable for your apartment.
I noticed your subwoofer is ported though? Try stuffing something into it, it can help. I've always preferred sealed cabinets as they tend to have much tighter (less "boomy") bass and that can greatly reduce unwanted resonance in my experience, and if I end up with ported speakers (like my Yamaha NX-N500's) I always shove a bunch of packing foam into the ports to tighten up the bass.
Hope this helps! And good luck!
Example:
Example: one of my speakers is solidly anchored into a concrete wall but despite that if I pump the volume up I have wooden tables that aren't even in the same room vibrating, so I've got those padded as well.
As said by PaulD mass is your friend, and having solid walls help, but that may not be viable for your apartment.
I noticed your subwoofer is ported though? Try stuffing something into it, it can help. I've always preferred sealed cabinets as they tend to have much tighter (less "boomy") bass and that can greatly reduce unwanted resonance in my experience, and if I end up with ported speakers (like my Yamaha NX-N500's) I always shove a bunch of packing foam into the ports to tighten up the bass.
Hope this helps! And good luck!
Example:
Last edited:
OP
- Thread Starter
- #4
https://www.audioholics.com/loudspeaker-design/10-nonsense-myths
Sealed vs. ported subwoofers (and speakers) is never a simple comparison. Personally I'd let my equipment "perform as intended", i.e. to not plug up any ports if there are any.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #5
So far I haven't gotten any complaints, but I'm on the lookout.
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- Nov 22, 2018
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FWIW, speaker walls vibrate far more from mechanical connection to the woofer/mid than by internal air pressure.
A small or high-output cabinet sees something like 140dB inside! Consider that both sides of driver move the same air, so you need to compare SPL by internal box volume versus room size. IOW, make sure you don't have air leaks, then decouple woofer from floor. Don't worry about turning it down until you do this. Maybe that should be don't worry after... If floor or ceiling resonate too much, leaking bass downstairs in a narrow band, sweep to find the right notch filter.
A small or high-output cabinet sees something like 140dB inside! Consider that both sides of driver move the same air, so you need to compare SPL by internal box volume versus room size. IOW, make sure you don't have air leaks, then decouple woofer from floor. Don't worry about turning it down until you do this. Maybe that should be don't worry after... If floor or ceiling resonate too much, leaking bass downstairs in a narrow band, sweep to find the right notch filter.
Victoria
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- Jul 26, 2019
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Oh it definitely isn’t a simple comparison! I forgot to mention that in my case my speakers are typically rear-ported and located pretty close to walls in order to conserve space; and room acoustics makes a big difference.
Hence why I mentioned in my experience. The only reason I brought this up though is that it’s pretty much a 0$ experiment and adjusting the frequency response of a speaker can help with unwanted resonance.
Speaker placement can also make a huge difference and glad to hear you’re getting results experimenting with that as well! Best to try all the “free” options first before splurging on something that may not work
I am no expert on acoustics, but what I would try:
Get a large mass platform, stone or concrete slab or whatever. but very heavy maybe 50 lbs. Isolate the slab from the floor with large sorbothane hemispheres. Attach the sub to the slab with blu-tack.
Get a large mass platform, stone or concrete slab or whatever. but very heavy maybe 50 lbs. Isolate the slab from the floor with large sorbothane hemispheres. Attach the sub to the slab with blu-tack.
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