Ideas on controlling woof from woofer for evening viewing

I simply could not live in a multi-family home. Music is lifeless without good bass, to me. I understand that many people can't just get up and move...I wouldn't be able to either. But, I think that is your only choice, if you really want to enjoy your music.

There are many ways to block sounds between rooms...but they involve extensive (and expensive) mods.

A friend of mine had the same problem. He solved his in a novel way, that might or might not help you. When he wanted to crank up the music, he just invited his neighbors for drinks and music. Sometimes, that worked! :banana:
 
Zygmo said:
A friend of mine had the same problem. He solved his in a novel way, that might or might not help you. When he wanted to crank up the music, he just invited his neighbors for drinks and music. Sometimes, that worked! :banana:
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Include dancing and his and your wife will love it. :)
 
VolvoHeretic said:
Include dancing and his and your wife will love it. :)
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He did. :thmbsp::thmbsp:

Back when we used to throw parties here on Saturday nights, we also would go around and invite the neighbors, and tell anyone who didn't want to come to just call us if the music became objectionable. We had very few complaints.

We don't throw parties anymore, but have added a virtually sound-proof music room. When really cranking Corner Horns, you can barely hear it outside. What is it Ren and Stempy used to say?..Happy, happy, joy, joy?!:D
 
Revman can fill in the science, but it sounds like you need a second insulated 2x4 fir wall placed 4" next to the party wall. I would suggest placing a strip of 1/2" carpet pad under the bottom and over the top plates and against the studs at the perpendicular walls, just screw the top plate and side studs gently into the sheet rock at 6" o.c., since there are no 2x's to secure it to. and fill it with 6" friction fit fiber glass insulation. I think that cramming 6" f.g. into a 4 inch cavity should help dampen the drywall.

Next, I would add 1/2" fiber wall sheathing (often called "Buffalo Board") followed by a layer of 1/2" gypsum board. There is a thread in "Listening Spaces" called "Reflector/Absorber Sandwich?" that goes into more detail.

I have no idea if it would help, but your floor joists are a lot like a trampoline, in that they vibrate UP and down. Their design live load is rated at 30 PSF, so I wonder if you added a row of cement blocks along the common wall, it wouldn't pre sag the floor and at least take the up bounce out of it and maybe help.

I bet that there are no breaks separating the floor or ceiling cavities, so I've got nothing for you there unless you want to start cutting holes in the ceilings sheet rock and add insulation.

Anyways, good luck.
 
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I wish I had neighbors like yours, I'd just break out my Sennheiser headphones and listen to those.

My one neighbor, every nice day in the summer he has a boombox blaring in the back yard. He seems incapable of doing anything without "music", a bit like the old (English) nursery rhyme about Queen Elizabeth I, who it was stated "she shall have music wherever she goes".

My other neighbor, their kid seems unable to go anywhere in his crappy Honda without blaring out obnoxious, racist crap full of profanity (otherwise known as rap). Sometimes he comes home in the early hours of the morning with it blasting.
 
Listen with headphones when they are home. We have an atrium ranch and if I go downstairs, the wife complains that she can't hear the TV upstairs. I just put on the headphones and drown her out.
 
HTHMAN said:
Listen with headphones when they are home. We have an atrium ranch and if I go downstairs, the wife complains that she can't hear the TV upstairs. I just put on the headphones and drown her out.
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My wife walks around with ear sound insulating protecting headphones on and I crank my stereo. :)
 
I've requested neighbors to be more tolerant during afternoon and early evenings and mentioned I'll turn down everything when it's their bed time which is unfortunately 9pm. I don't go to bed till 11pm.
What a neighbors match made in hell! I hear monkeys don't make home and trash others' homes as well. They don't enjoy music or movies and don't let others enjoy either. I see them watching blu-ray in large LCD tv and they sit like 3 feet from the TV and use TV's puny speakers. May be they enjoy it like that. :no:
The other neighbors on my right are okay. I sometimes hear their sub but I never mind unless it's past midnight but I never hear anything past that time.

No cutting dry wall to do anything on this unit.
I'll either sell it next Fall or put on rent after buying a single family home.
 
Is there anything in your lease or renters agreement that talks about this issue? Most places will probably have a noise clause that applies from something like 9pm to 9am but does it say anything about absolutely not playing anything loud during the day?

What if you just ignore your neighbors and play your music as you want, when you want? Unless you are really excessive about it, do you see them taking it to the next level and calling the cops or getting management involved?

It seems to me that the recession/housing bubble has forced a lot of former homeowners into apartments/condos/townhouses. Most in this situation end up extremely bitter about it and being able to hear your music through the walls only serves as a reminder of what they lost. Fortunately their problems are not your problems. If they are trying to create the expectation that they can live a building with other people yet remain completely insulated from those people - it's time to create some new expectations.
 
Anyone mention the sock in the port idea. Often the bass will be tighter, which in a good design will be a bad thing. But often is the BOOMY nature of bass that bothers people and sock in the ports can be VERY HELPFUL.
 
Chris,
You are right. They are expecting too much from a town home.
When I used to live in apartment, people had loud musice in the evenings and even parties in the weekend and that was fine. I could hear people dancing, loud music in upstairs apartment but I never asked them to turn down unless it was late night.

Here, I am having hard time listening to dialogues and already neighbors feel the sound. Our community has 20 buildings with 100's of townhouses in them. In the weekends, I see people relaxing outside with doors open and music coming from inside in many other units. If I do that, I'm sure my neighbors will be pissed off.
I don't know if there is a 'quiet hours' in our complex. I'll check that out.
I am not sure if they will call cops if I go my way and even if cops show up, I think cops will understand it's not my fault if it's 6 pm and not that loud.
But I don't want to have bad relationship with neighbors if that's possible.
I'll listen to my normal volume (11,12 volume) and lower the bass as much as possible.
If I hear any more banging in the afternoons or early evenings, I'll just tell them to do what they want because I know my volume is not loud. If they really want to hear what loud is, I can turn my volume up with some bass heavy song to around 45 in my receiver and they'll really know what loud is when frames start to fall from wall.
I tested it once to around 30 when neighbors were gone, and it was not comfortable listening for more than few minutes as it was extremely loud.

Carver,
Not sure if the solution is as easy as sock in the ports but will try anything. :)
 
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Mystery said:
This building was built in 1982 and has 10 units. Most probably the structure is not separated as Volvoheretic mentioned. If someone jumps in another unit, I can feel it inside my home.
Their unit has living room in the front and mine is in the back. That itself should reduce the sound but they once told me they can hear my sound in their closet. It appears that they keep their ears on the wall to check.
Before these new couples moved in, I had much better neighbors who unfortunately had to foreclose. I could hear their sound but I never banged on them as they usually turned things down before 11pm. Also, they never banged on my wall ever and sometimes I even had small parties inside.
But these new ones are horrible, they listen to very low volume themselves and complain when I listen to normal volume that's too loud for them even when it's not late at night.
The reason why I wanted to cut bass is when I talked to them, they said they can hear my boom boom over their TV sound. BTW, they don't have a HT system and just use LCD TV's sound. May be I need to donate them a HT system.:scratch2:
I'll try few things to see what option is realistic.
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What state do you live in? There are many places where that building would not be up to code if it's that easy to hear sound across a demising partition. At least you don't have upstairs neighbors, what a nightmare that would be.

Your problem might not be that hard to fix. Or it might be really hard. We won't know without more information. If you want to try to find a solution, we can definitely help you if you answer our questions. Or if you just want to complain, that's fine, too.

VH's idea about installing a furring wall is a good one, if you're willing to go to that effort. You might be able to make even easier architectural changes than that, too.

Or it might even be as simple as just isolating your speakers from the floor, like I suggested. Have you tried that? Most people would be shocked at how efficiently vibration can travel through a building and re-radiate as annoying noise in another room.
 
Revman,
I'm in Denver, Colorado. And it is starting to get cold and everyone stays home in the evenings and even in the weekends when it's snowing or very chilly. So neighbors are always in when I come back from work. :(
I don't want to do any structural changes to please neighbors who cannot even tolerate normal sound.
I'm willing to try simple things like getting a second set of small sound system or raising the speakers etc.
What is good for raising speakers?
Anything I can find in Walmart or Home Depot?
Thanks
 
Hello Coloradan. I'm a Colorado native and I graduated from CSM.

I've never read the Denver building code but I'd be willing to bet a small amount of money your building does not meet minimum sound isolation requirements. But that's not much help to you now.

Probably, your problem is inadequate walls, and there really isn't much you can do about that unless you're willing to add a layer of QuietRock or a furring wall, like VH suggested. But isolating your speakers is certainly worth attempting.

The idea is to raise your speakers, yes, but more importantly, to isolate them from the floor with something resilient, like neoprene, or something with very small surface area, like a spike. As far as I know, there's nothing purpose-made at Wal-mart or Home Depot for that, but you may be able to improvise.

What if you put a few of these compressor vibration isolators under your speakers? At $3 each, it'd be somewhat inexpensive to try, and it's likely to improve your sound, even if it doesn't help the noise problem.
 
I bought a house with the basement fully underground for this reason!!:D

But......
I am in Denver as well so you could come over for some tunes and movies!!
Or you could come over to the shop and build some stands!!:banana:
 
I don't agree that if it's loud enough that the neighbors are bothered, it's too loud. Some neighbors are just way too sensitive to live in an apartment. Just as if you want to blast your stereo all the time, you should move into a house, likewise you should move into a house if you require dead silence. The reality is that people make a certain amount of noise, and part of a being a good neighbor is to accept that.

I used to run a 300+ unit complex and there were certain tenants who complained about every single neighbor they had. We'd come check it out, at like 3pm on sunday, when said tenants were complaining, and it was definitely not too loud.

OP, you might ask management if there is another unit you could move into and explain the situation. We did that a few times - only to find the no matter whom we moved into the former apartment the existing tenant complained...and complained...and complained.

*EDIT* I notice you said townhouse - so obviously if you own it, it's not so simple to move.
 
You could also hang a tapestry on the offending wall as well as stands.

As far as the building there is plenty you can do but construction/cost becomes the issue.
You can isolate your drywall from the studs with “S” channel and put insulation in the middle as well as some other tricks.

It does seem that this is going to be a temporary fix until the time comes for you to move.

Plenty of good suggestions above as well.
:thmbsp:
 
Revman,
Great to know you went to CSM.
I just moved here 2 years ago from Fort Worth.
I'll try those vibration isolators but measuring the effect is a challenge as I don't want to go back and forth to neighbors house to check.

juniorJBL,
I should have bought one with basement but I didn't know I'll have these neighbors then. :(
I see you are in Lakewood. I'm also in Lakewood near Kipling and Dartmouth.
So you have a shop to build stands or you suggesting DIY?

PickyEars,
I can't move to different unit as I own this so the only option is to move out.
I don't get bothered when I hear some music from other units specially during afternoon. But these new neighbors are very sensitive, as soon as they hear anything they just bang.
You are right that townhouse is not to blast stereo but I would genuinely accept my fault if I was playing anything that's considered loud. Even my GF who listens to very low volume was pissed off when the neighbors on our left banged walls.
On Sunday afternoon, another unit on the other side (next to the one on my right) were having party. I could hear kids running, screaming, jumping around and music outside even when there was another unit in between.
Did I complain? No. Did the unit right next to them complain? No, because it's in the weekend and everyone wants to enjoy. I'd have complained if they continued this till midnight.
I'll try few simple things and call it done.
We'll see if they want to make it ugly and deal with it.
 
Also compression can be used to help reduce dynamic range and make dialogue more easy to make out with out cranking it. My AVR has this built in, but you could potentially run a stand alone compressor.
 
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