Neighbor Complaining...


I moved recently to a new apartment, and my neighbor is already complaining of the noise... :) Right now I have my speakers (Quad 12L2) placed closed to the shared wall, now, would it make a difference if I place the speakers against the other wall (which is not shared), and facing the shared wall?

Plus, any other tips on how to deal with this would be appreciated as well.
toufu
Toufu writes:
>I moved recently to a new apartment, and my neighbor is already complaining of the noise... :) Right now I have my speakers (Quad 12L2) placed closed to the shared wall, now, would it make a difference if I place the speakers against the other wall (which is not shared), and facing the shared wall?

Talk to your neighbor and see what's a problem. Being somewhat reasonable goes a long way.

Moving the speakers is only going to help a little (unless you have the speakers too close to the wall). The problem is that you're in a reverberant space, and once you get 2-4' from the speakers in a typical room the sound can't drop more than 3dB.

Structure borne vibrations are a big problem. Once sound gets into the structure, it's going to come out.

You want to isolate speakers from the floor instead of coupling them with spikes. You can put the speakers on small platforms hanging from the ceiling with ropes (makes for a great mechanical low-pass filter), use commercial products like the Auraflex SpeakerDude, apply industrial vibration isolators, use a forstner bit or your circle jig to make matching holes in two pieces of your favorite sheet good that will locate racquet balls, etc.

Bass is a big problem because you get more transmission at lower frequencies. With room modes being up to 10dB hotter than the rest of the spectrum, I wonder what applying notch filters does to what your neighbors pickup.

Jamesw20 writes:
>I had the same problem with my condo, neighbors above, beside, and below! I finally bought a home and had a baby 11 months later!!! I guess I'll never turn up the volume. HA

Once you own the property you can have a room (or basement) with double staggered studs, constrained layer damping, , one (or two) exterior doors, separate ventilation (mini split A/C), etc.

You won't be able to hear them and they won't be able to hear you.
I lived in a condo for 10 months and never met the neighbor next to me until 20 minutes after I hooked up my subwoofer.....
If you don't have a sound level meter, buy one. (The Radio Shack models can be had for about $50.)

That can form the basis for really finding out how loud you listen and also what level bothers the neighbor. If you're a 100 dB kind of guy, you've got your work cut out for you.

However, the above suggestion about inviting the neighbor over and offering to work with him on both the volume and hours issue is a great idea. There is a fair (though certainly not absolute) chance he might try to meet you halfway.