Advice needed - How to keep the bass up AND keep the neighbors happy

Is there a way to minimize the effect my sub has on the neighbors?

 

You want to know if there's a cure for your room swelling up with sound pressure blasts?

 

 

The cure is to invite them over and give them all the beer they want......  That or buy yourself a decent set of headphones and a headphone amp and write it off as the price of good listening.

 

 

Edited by beeman458 - 8/31/10 at 5:23pm

....we watch movies and game as well on the big screen.

 

Then a set of these guys should fit the bill.  Personally, I have a pair so me and the wife can listen to movies, each at our own listening pleasure.  Cheaper than trying to get new neighbors.

 

 

Edited by beeman458 - 8/31/10 at 5:42pm

This might help

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Auralex-SubDude-Subwoofer-Isolation-Risers-Charcoal-/250661515798?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5c973216

If you can tear up the flooring, a layer of soundboard will help a lot. We put it into common walls in our apartments. It drastically cuts down on noise complaints. If you can't tear up the floor, then you might want to get a piece of it, sandwich it between maybe 3/4" plywood sheets, carpet it, and put it under your sub. It'll help somewhat.

I'll second Kawai, sub risers do a great job. Don't waste the money on a subdude though. Check blu-ray.com and search for the diy riser, mine cost me $5 and does wonders for vibrations. Might look at acoustic panels and corner bass traps as well. It's all going to be a compromise though, no matter what you do if you share a wall/floor with someone they're going to hear it.

Put the sub away from objects,wall and especially corners as far as you can then you can use riser and a carpet then you can use the built-in EQ to reduce bass volume. The bass will be much cleaner and defined.

 

Corners are the worst place to place sub.

Lets start with location

 

Place the sub away from corner, away from the wall by atleast 2 feet. Use the crawling technique to find the optimum location of the sub without hitting corners or walls. In case you havent done this before, you basically place the sub on your couch or chair close to your ear level (use some boxes, or if you cant just put it on the couch. If you have bar stools or high chairs, they work great to place it at ear level.) Once you do this, play some song with a nice constant bass line, prefereably something thats repetitive. Make sure its low deep bass as well not a bass solo or something. Then basically get crawling around the floor around your house listening to the bass line. Start with the corner to hear what you DONT want to hear, you will hear loud Boomy bass that will give you a head ache in minutes. Then move away from the corner and a little away from the wall and crawl around till you are convinced about a spot where you feel it sounds the best. There will be spots where the bass sounds very weak as well, this is why its important to get a reference level by going to the corner to see how loud it can actually be boom wise.

 

Your final location should not be in the middle of the wall, not close to the wall (atleast a 2 feet away), or not anywhere close to a corner.

 

Next the risers, an alternative to the Auralex was this thing

 

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Gold-s-Gym-Aerobic-Step/10910439

 

The Aerobic step. (It was a little cheaper in store actually I dont think I paid more than 20-25)

 

See the gray thingies at the bottom, they simply snap off and have rubber feet. Use blue tak on the top and stick these to the bottom of the sub. Don't use the surface on the top, its just plastic and wont do any good, just use the feet.Raises it off the floor quite nicely and looks much nicer as well. This has helped immensely in my apartment, cos the floors and walls dont rattle anymore during movies. Yes I'm sure they still hear the bass when it gets loud, but this has definitely improved the situation. This makes the biggest difference.

 

Next step. curtains. If you can put curtains, this helps absorb sound a bit. Then put up picture frames around the room, nice big ones if you can. The more the better, as simple as that. If you stand at the center of your room and clap once really loud, do you hear echo, or reverb? If you do, your room will tend to be boomier with bass. Try and keep more stuff in the room to see if the echo/reverb reduces. Consider an extra carpet as well which can add to decor and help with sound.

Edited by jilgiljongiljing - 9/1/10 at 4:00pm

 

 

 

Why not start with some good old fashioned manners and turn the bass Down.

You are basically isolating the bass from the floor. I have seen the Auralex in action (as my friend has one) and I dont see it doing anything drastically different or better IMO. Agreed that the material they use for the base might help a bit, but the biggest benefit actually comes from decoupling the subwoofer from the floor not by the absorption of the bass. I also find that for lower end subs, the body/housing of the sub itself isnt inert enough or stable enough to begin with. So instead of using the standard tiny feet or no feet at all, using feet like these actually stabilize the unit more as well. The other big advantage is its Walmart. Give it a go, see if it helps, if you feel it doesnt actually do much, return it. As simple as that. Blue tak comes off as easily as it goes on. So you wont do any damage to the sub or the feet in trying it.

If you can, experiment with the frequency of the bass rolloff; a speakerset not going lower then 40hz causes a lot less distress then a speaker -at the same volumelevel- that can go down to 20hz. Those real low bass waves seem unstoppable; I've been a soIid appartment building where the deep deep bass from enormous speakers went through 2 appartments without seemingly loose much power while the total sound volume was not unreasonably loud.