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Neighbors and loud music

I'm glad that you are thinking of your neighbors. I tried to be considerate when we lived in an apartment in LA, but the new neighbor below me came to the door one night to complain. I invited him in and he was surprised the volume was so low. I asked to go to his apartment and I was surprised at how much the bass was bleeding through the floor. We worked out a comprimise where I turned down the bass and he put up with a little sound bleed. We ended up friends and good neighbors.

I no longer have to worry about it. I live in the middle of 13 acres. In addition, my office and home theater are in a daylight basement with a poured 12 foot concrete wall 8" thick facing the nearest houses 1/8 mile away. I crank it whenever I want. ;-)
 
chadnliz said:
Wait, if you can't even walk away for 5 minutes for fear its going to blow its a pretty safe bet you are doing something wrong.....either to your neighbors or yourself.
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My nervousness in regards to leaving my system unattended while playing loud has more to do with paranoia on my part than anything really having to do with the gear. Sort of the same reason why driving fast in your car can be fun, but letting someone else drive fast in your car can be nerve-racking. Leaving my system unattended in such a manner provokes similar emotions. I will probably end up doing the walk-around nevertheless.

Bucky Badger said:
Just noticed that you seem to really like JBL speakers. Maybe someone with more knowledge on JBL will chime in on what's going on to your speakers with the music up so loud.
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There isn't anything "going on" with my JBLs other than lots of sound coming out of them :D

There have been times in the past when I have pushed some of my woofers too far, which typically results in a heart-stopping "THWACK" that sounds like a wrist-rocket slingshot hitting a paper-plate at close range as the voice coil hits part of the magnet assembly :tears: It it something that very rarely happens, but nonetheless is at the very front of my mind whenever I am playing music with lots of bass loudly.

BillyBatts said:
OP:

A lot depends on your living situation. Are you in an apartment, or a Condo or a Home? What construction is your home? Any insulation in the walls and ceilings? Do you know your neighbors or not? What kind of music do you play at how "prominent" is the bass?
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It's a typical early 80's construction 2-story house. I can't comment on the insulation as I've never personally looked inside my walls or ceiling. My neighbors are all friendly but mostly keep to themselves. Our house is on somewhat of a hill however, which gives fairly clear line-of-sight to about 5 other neighbors on the other side of a street below.

I play a lot of Alternative/Rock/Metal, bands like Disturbed and Breaking Benjamin. I also play a lot of electronic music, which seems to have the most bass by far. Bands like Pendulum, Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM7c99vvzJQ
 
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I basically can´t listen to music with my Cerwin Vegas as long as anyone else is in the building. Even at very low levels, the bass just spreads through the whole building. If I crank it, their apartments shake :banana:

The three guys that live one floor below us and on the other side of the building are very quiet and polite. I get along with them well. I have talked to them several times and they suggest I cut the bass down a bit. I told them that if I did that, I could just as well use headphones.

I also told them that I can´t enjoy my music if I think it might be bothering them. I am going to give them my cell number and they want to let me know IF they ever all go out at the same time.

Life sucks in an apartment :(
 
Judas Priest said:
I basically can´t listen to music with my Cerwin Vegas as long as anyone else is in the building. Even at very low levels, the bass just spreads through the whole building. If I crank it, their apartments shake :banana:
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I've provoked some anger from within my own house in the past when all of the delicate items in the china cabinet seemed to relocate themselves every time I played music loud :scratch2: A little rubber pad on the bottom of each and everything is good again :D
 
The question that seems to have be ignored is just how loud is loud. The only way to determine how loud "loud" is to use a meter and measure the actual SPL.

For the record my loudest usual volume is in the 95dB (A weighed) range with occasional peaks in ~100dB area.
 
petes'picks said:
If loud music is a must and you live close to others, getting a house with a basement would be my suggestion. There is some noise canceling windows and materials for walls that help but are expensive and not as effective as being below ground.
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This is always the most effective solution. When I was single, a couple of friends and I rented several houses, and converted the basements into big party rooms, fabricating soundproofing baffles for the windows and bulkhead door. Even when cranking stacked Advents with a Phase Linear 700, the sound was barely audible outside the house.
 
I have found that it's usually the bass thump that drives the most neighbor issues.

There was a thread about a year ago where someone was complaining of a neighbor's music and the constant thumping of the bass coming through the wall.

OP;
Since you are in a stand-alone home, air insulates a lot more than you think. Your home can only resonate so much, and passing this resonating to the air is not easy, even at very high volume. Unless you have all of your windows open, and really have the music cranked up past 8 or 9 PM at night, I can't imagine you would have a problem.

If it were me, just to be on the safe side past 8 PM at night, I'd for sure keep the music inside and have the windows closed. That's just a neighborly thing to do.
 
First thing I did, 7 years ago, was to meet my new neighbours,
and let them know that I LOVE music.
I told them that it would only ever be 10am to 6pm weekdays, midday to 6pm weekends, well within council rules.
Not a complaint ever.
Windows closed and curtains drawn to help with noise abatement.
 
I have actually been in jail for a loud stereo. Believe it or not I had a pretty good time there. Of course I knew it was only overnight which helps, but I met some interesting people. One day I'll write about it down in off topic.

That was a free standing house. A double but we owned it did not rent it out. I highly recommend air conditioning so you can keep the windows closed. Also, heavy drapes.

Not much you can do in an apartment. I did live in an apartment with alot of partiers for tenants. In fact at that place I had the cops come once from anther city. i **** you not, lived in Rocky River and the Lakewood cops came about the music. Believe it or not I didn't really have alot of power at the time but I had a Realistic amp connected to a Magnavox console that had just about the best speakers I ever heard in a console, and even though I considered it low power, it was more power than they were used to.

But that apartment for whatever reason was fairly soundproof. I had been high class hotel converted to apartments. thinking about it, my apartment would have been one hell of a hotel room. Livingroom like 20 X 18, bedroom almost as big, full kitchen and dinette. Very good restaurant on the first floor.

But they do not build everything like that.

I know a guy who knows a guy who remodeled his house and used double 5/8 drywall with alot of insulation, he wasn't looking to keep the sound IN, but OUT. Bet it works both ways though.

There is a world of difference between renting and owning. If I still owned I would try to make it soundproof, and acoustically friendly at the same time. If I ever have a house actually built, other than it being wood frame and brick over, I would have a dedicated room and of course never have a problem, but some people won't do that. It is not just a matter of money, some people like to be able to just make a phone call when the air or furnace or hot water tank breaks down, but if you want to build a room you have to deal with that. Could you see calling the landlord and saying "Hey ummmm, I want to...".
 
i have done a few experiments with sound in outside venues .
first was a dome structure with canvas covering . i hoisted the speakers so they pointed towards the ground .cranked up the volume and walked outside and found i could hardly hear it outside . it was well loud inside under the speakers .
next was in an rectangular structure with a plastic type covering . i angled the speakers towards each other in gradual stages and kept checking outside until it was barely heard outside and was ear bleeding inside .
basically i created a void where the music was heard at loud volumes and beyond that area it was at a low volume .
speakers pointing down from above was much easier to get right .
 
petes'picks said:
If loud music is a must and you live close to others, getting a house with a basement would be my suggestion. There is some noise canceling windows and materials for walls that help but are expensive and not as effective as being below ground.
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Basement works great. :yes: Living in the city, I don't want to track any unwanted attention resulting in possible loss of equipment. With windows and doors closed, I can play as loud as I please and cannot be heard from the sidewalk out front. Keeping a low profile is a must. :smoke:

Lots of great suggestions. A walk around is important and can be revealing.
 
JURB said:
I have actually been in jail for a loud stereo. Believe it or not I had a pretty good time there. Of course I knew it was only overnight which helps, but I met some interesting people. One day I'll write about it down in off topic.
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REALLY? I've never heard of anyone going to jail for sound. Getting a ticket and a fine? Yes. Jail time? No. Unless you got into it with the Deputy/Officer.

And you had a "good time"? REALLY? I have never heard of anyone going to jail and having a good time. Not even for an overnight.

Yes. I'll be on the lookout for that thread. Truly. I'd love to hear about it!
 
Once when I was in an apt. I had a cop at my door due to a noise complaint. He was surprised that he didn't actually hear my music until just in front of the door. I mentioned that there had been someone else blasting their system 10 minutes prior, and he excused himself and moved on.

I am now in a house, standard wood frame built in 1951 and it is solid. I set the level one night to the highest I thought safe, and louder than I ever listen, and did the property line walk around. It was barely audible at any point. I haven't worried about the level I listen at since.
 
When I first moved into my house, I checked to see how just how far the sound would carry. Having experienced all sorts of neighbor issues related to noise when I lived in apartments, I had to know where to draw the line. With the windows shut, sound is audible about 12' from the exterior walls when set to painful levels in the house. The closest neighbor's house is more than 40' away, so there is no issue, even late at night. If the windows are open, care is needed. The house is a '40s pier and beam arrangement, so the whole thing behaves like a speaker enclosure under the right circumstances. :D
 
It's not like the current neighbors are likely to care about loud music. The closest neighbor has late night yard parties on the weekends, and at least two others enjoy phenomenally loud Conjunto music at 3:00 AM. I don't bother them, and they don't bother me. :thmbsp:
 
I see a couple of members have commented on basements. Well my "basement" is above ground and I live in it.
Cinder block walls and a concrete slab really hold the sound in and I have zero problems with shaky floors or speaker coupling issues.
It's a real POS to live in and maintain, but for audio it's really worked out.

Like some others I can't enjoy music if it bothers others, too much time in apartments with people banging broomsticks I suppose.
 
catrafter said:
How about asking your neighbors if it bothers them?
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Exactly this. I simply regularly ask the people around and under me if I'm too loud and encourage them to tell me if I get too loud.

But I live on the top floor of a 9 floor apt building, outside walls are concrete and inside walls are ca 10" brick with 1/2" gypsum on both sides. Floors are concrete with an insulating layer and another 1 1/2" of porous cement on top of that. And above that I added laminated flooring with 3mm of cork under it. So there really isn't a lot of sound transmission through the building. I can get as loud as I want with never a complaint. So I guess that I'm lucky.

Also I built speaker stands with a firm 10mm closed cell foam pad under the speakers and 5mm felt pads under the feet to try to decouple the speakers from the floor. Seems to work. My Speakerlabs have considerable bass but it doesn't go directly into the floor.

Cheers,
James
 
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