[honeyjjack]

Hi. After moving from iems to headphones, I have moved over to speakers now that i live in an apartment with thicker walls. I have just set up my Tekton lore reference and Hegel 90. In the first 5 min of playing music for the first time at average listening volume, the guy from next doors knocked on my door :/ I gave him my number and now every time within 5 min of starting music he texts me telling me that im shaking his walls(im not).

Im trying to figure out what i can do to keep this guy happy. Currently the speakers are backed up against the shared wall(4 ft away). I plan to move the speakers to the center of the room or have it face the shared wall to keep the boom away from the shared wall.

Other than speaker placement, are there any way to keep this shared wall from "shaking"? I know that these cheap "soundproof" foams everyone uses do absolutely nothing, especially in the bass region. Are there any affordable options to soundproofing a room? My best idea so far is getting a room divider and thick blackout curtains to cover the shared wall. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Even though my Xi Audio and Abyss TC are monsters, i find my budget speaker system to be more enjoyable. Thanks.

 

[surfgeorge]

I think it's very kind and considerate how you think about this and how you are trying to solve it.

Let me just say that if I were your neighbor and you'd tell me about how you are trying to reduce the sound transmission I'd feel understood and respected, and I'd feel obliged to be more tolerant.

You'll have to be the judge how much chance of success it has, but if you could talk to your neighbor, and tell him that you would like to reduce the impact your music has on him, ask him at what times it would be less annoying for him, tell him that you are looking for sound treatment to reduce the transmission to his flat. See how that goes.

No guarantee of success, for sure, but may be worth a try, and I think it has a higher chance of success than just taking some mitigation measures.

Good luck!

 

[Raketen]

Don't know too much about speakers but just some basics I'm aware of:

moving away from (but not facing toward) the shared wall as you plan might help (although not necessarily for every speaker) - also moving anything on that wall that might be vibrating

if they have rear bass ports you can try stuffing them up (might be damage risk though), or minimizing troublesome bass frequencies w/ EQ

Not sure if it's what you were describing but just in case - isolation pads (or stands or spikes) and room treatment- the pads supposedly help reduce transmission of vibrations through the floor, acoustic room treatment for the walls etc... (not necessarily full soundproofing, but things like bass traps in the corners etc...). there's lots of DIY room treatment info on the web- i'd imagine for apartment specific sound issues as well.

Alternately - switching to smaller speakers or near field monitors on stands? (though can't say for sure this would be be less audible to neighbor)

 

[MaggotBrain]

Hi. After moving from iems to headphones, I have moved over to speakers now that i live in an apartment with thicker walls. I have just set up my Tekton lore reference and Hegel 90. In the first 5 min of playing music for the first time at average listening volume, the guy from next doors knocked on my door :/ I gave him my number and now every time within 5 min of starting music he texts me telling me that im shaking his walls(im not).

Im trying to figure out what i can do to keep this guy happy. Currently the speakers are backed up against the shared wall(4 ft away). I plan to move the speakers to the center of the room or have it face the shared wall to keep the boom away from the shared wall.

Other than speaker placement, are there any way to keep this shared wall from "shaking"? I know that these cheap "soundproof" foams everyone uses do absolutely nothing, especially in the bass region. Are there any affordable options to soundproofing a room? My best idea so far is getting a room divider and thick blackout curtains to cover the shared wall. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Even though my Xi Audio and Abyss TC are monsters, i find my budget speaker system to be more enjoyable. Thanks.

I live in a house but I have a very noise sensitive wife so I can understand where you’re coming from. Originally my speakers were right under the master bedroom and I’d listen into the wee hours as I’m a bit of a night owl. I had to keep it down because particularly because of the rumble of the sub. So then I moved my kit into my study in another part of the house. Still heard grumbling and, around the same time, decided to get a nice elliptical because of the rains ruining my morning runs. I then came up with the crazy idea to lift the system up -WAY UP - to bring me into the sweet spot of listening and reduce household tension. Did I use fancy audiophile stands - ummm, no - but I did have handy a pair of Chinese wardrobe cabinets with mother of pearl inlays sold to me at a yard sale from a beatnik artist down the street that my wife hated the sight of - so I made lemonade from lemons and a picture is worth a thousand words so here ya go:

Now you don’t have to go the crazy lengths that I did but find a way to get those suckers off the ground and that should stop the shaking walls.

 

[Barone Birra]

Ask your neighbor what music he likes

Unfortunately you will always be conditioned by the doubt if you are bothering or not, probably you'll not fully enjoy it. I've been there too.

 

[go_vtec]

Is this apartment located in South Korea or USA? The reason I am asking is that the constructions of such apartments and building materials/codes are quite different and there is little to nothing you can do to change anything in certain cases. Most of modern days apartment constructions in South Korea or other Asian countries are known to have different building constructions such as bearing walls than more older/traditional columns based constructions. On column based apartment, the columns are not integral with the floor so there is less noise heard or felt between adjacent apartment units. On the bearing wall structures, noise from floor or wall can transmitted to the neighbors in different floors or adjacent to your home much easier.

If your room has heavy carpet, then it could slightly reduce the amount of bass felt by your neighbor, but insulating only the shared wall would not eliminate the noise transmitted. Without fully isolating your listening room including floor, ceiling, and other 3 walls, you will not be able to fully contain the noise heard by your neighbor(s). I think adding heavy drapery or sound damping foams on the facing wall should help with the most dominant source of the noise, but you should still need to be aware of how difficult is to fully eliminate the noise transmitted through other walls, floor and ceiling. I think building relationship and understanding from your neighbors on how much efforts you are putting to reduce the noise is very important. You should also need to be aware, just because your other neighbors (upper floor or lower floor) did not complained, it does not necessarily mean they are not hearing you.

I feel your pain because I too went through the similar situation when I lived in apartments at NJ/NYC and other areas. I had a two channel system and THX 7.1 home theater setup where I invited my neighbors to watch movies and hang out with me time to time to keep the good relationship, but it didn't always work out to all my neighbors. I ended up listening to headphones a lot more.

 

[castleofargh]

At low frequency you're not going to stop the waves from getting through. The only instant solution is to massively high-pass the audio to get rid of all the low end.
The consequence is that now you'll have speakers that sound like a cellphone or a really cheap TV.

If we consider that you pretty much need material with the thickness of 1/4 the wavelength of the sound, it's obvious that low frequencies are going to be a problem between rooms. at higher frequencies things are a lot easier so long as you don't have holes between the rooms.

Also, anything to decouple the speakers from the ground is going to be a really good idea.

 

[honeyjjack]

Wow thank you everyone for the input.

go_vtec, Im currently in LA. Indeed back home in Korea, noise complains mainly are from apartments above and below. Ive noticed in the states, the walls between apartments were super thin/ hollow. This is the issue with my studio apartment. One side of my apartment faces an elevator shaft and is solid concrete, and two walls face the outside of the building and the hallway, but one wall, the shared one seems like i could definitely get all the way through if i punched it. I believe my apartment was once a office building and they put up some cheap walls to separate the space. the floors luckily seems to be solid concrete. Thank you for pointing out that that I should also consider those below and above me. I will definitely give them my number too.

I will try putting my speakers in the middle of the room facing the hallway and place some cinderblocks and pads under the speakers to decouple them from the floor. Hopefully with this and the curtains on the shared wall will mitigate the issue. Thanks everyone again for you input and help. Happy listening

 

[IEMusic]

Wow thank you everyone for the input.

go_vtec, Im currently in LA. Indeed back home in Korea, noise complains mainly are from apartments above and below. Ive noticed in the states, the walls between apartments were super thin/ hollow. This is the issue with my studio apartment. One side of my apartment faces an elevator shaft and is solid concrete, and two walls face the outside of the building and the hallway, but one wall, the shared one seems like i could definitely get all the way through if i punched it. I believe my apartment was once a office building and they put up some cheap walls to separate the space. the floors luckily seems to be solid concrete. Thank you for pointing out that that I should also consider those below and above me. I will definitely give them my number too.

I will try putting my speakers in the middle of the room facing the hallway and place some cinderblocks and pads under the speakers to decouple them from the floor. Hopefully with this and the curtains on the shared wall will mitigate the issue. Thanks everyone again for you input and help. Happy listening

Decouple the speakers from the floor and use floor spikes. Unfortunately, to stop the bass from getting thru that wall, you would essentially need to stack huge rolls of pink stuff/insulation from floor to ceiling and completely cover that wall, PLUS decouple the speakers from the floor.

Probably the best way is to work with your neighbor to find acceptable hours, and perhaps roll off the sub bass frequencies some. This is definitely a challenge with speaker systems, and there is no easy answer, after being on both sides of this scenario.

 

[Guidostrunk]

Wow thank you everyone for the input.

go_vtec, Im currently in LA. Indeed back home in Korea, noise complains mainly are from apartments above and below. Ive noticed in the states, the walls between apartments were super thin/ hollow. This is the issue with my studio apartment. One side of my apartment faces an elevator shaft and is solid concrete, and two walls face the outside of the building and the hallway, but one wall, the shared one seems like i could definitely get all the way through if i punched it. I believe my apartment was once a office building and they put up some cheap walls to separate the space. the floors luckily seems to be solid concrete. Thank you for pointing out that that I should also consider those below and above me. I will definitely give them my number too.

I will try putting my speakers in the middle of the room facing the hallway and place some cinderblocks and pads under the speakers to decouple them from the floor. Hopefully with this and the curtains on the shared wall will mitigate the issue. Thanks everyone again for you input and help. Happy listening

You could try some yoga or gym mat material under the speakers. It should dampen it somewhat. I also recommend the opposite wall of the shared wall to place your speakers.