Quiet Enjoyment: right of audiophiles neighbors to NOT be annoyed

I try to run around 75-80 db on average.  TWA of 85 I believe OSHA calls for hearing protection  Try not to go there most the time...

@elizabeth :

"involved in running disputes with neighbors... who get shot for refusing to stop playing loud music"

I hesitate to share this because it was never as bad as it seems in the telling......and in the end was rather comical.....

But, when I was in med school my wife and I lived in a typical but completely new apartment complex. A girl lived above us who was never a problem until her dirt bag boyfriend moved in with her. He liked to play music really loud.

We typically tolerated it. Just one of the joys of apartment living. Well, one night it just went on and on and got louder and louder. By 2 am and no sleep I’d had enough. I banged on the ceiling. The response was immediate stomping and then the volume went way up.

I pulled on a t-shirt and my pants and walked upstairs and knocked on the door. No answer. Music blaring. I knocked harder and the door flew open and the boyfriend was up in my face. Reflexively I put both my hands on his face and shoved him back into the apartment. When he regained his balance he pulled a small knife out of his pocket and started coming toward me.

Unfortunately for him the pants I pulled on were my hunting pants since I’d been hunting that afternoon. My hunting knife was on my side. A largish but not huge knife. I pulled it out and got ready. He saw it and hesitated and then the girl saw it too and screamed "he’s got a knife".

At that point all the neighbors came pouring out of their rooms when they heard the ruckus. I knew most of them and they were all fed up with this guy and one of the larger fellows got between us.

My wife had called the police and they came up shortly and got the story from all involved. There was never a suggestion of charges against me and I declined to press charges against him and the police left.

The apartment management kicked the girl and her guy out within a couple of days.

The truth of the situation was that neither the boyfriend nor I had any serious will or intention of ’cutting’ anyone. It was all a bluff. But it immediately reminded everyone of Crocodile Dundee with the "that’s not a knife" scene. I wish I’d thought to say that line at the time.............

We moved out of that complex at the end of the semester into an older duplex where our neighbors were a professor of classical piano and his boyfriend, also a professor. We could hear him play the piano through our thin walls but it was always at an appropriate time of day and we looked forward to it.

Ah, the old "my knife is bigger than your knife" situation. Dilly Dilly

Also, the fact that you were a med student gave you another advantage.
By the way, was that guy playing the old "You Give Love a Bad Name" song?

I cases like this, a good pair of headphones may be in order!  Enjoy the music and tune out the old lady gossip!

I have good earphones. Sennheiser HD800 with Rudistor RPX-33 mkII headamp. Custom cord I sadly do not remember the name of the guy who made the cord.