Subwoofer and the Neighbours

weejinky67

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Looking for a bit of advice from those in the know. I live in a newish third floor flat with neighbours above below and through the wall. Im not sure how much they can hear my system when watching movies or playing the xbox etc but was thinking of trying to reduce the vibrations from the sub anyway. I've got a set of tannoy sfx5.1's and a Sony STR DH 810 receiver and the sub sits in the middle of the front wall on the carpet with the plastic screw in spikes attached. I was thinking of making a diy subdude with some mdf and accoustic foam and my question is will this make much difference ? and should i sit the sub on the platform with the spikes still attached or remove them ? Maybey i shouldnt even bother, ive never had any complaints (YET) and my receiver has a night mode anyway and its not as if i have it blaring at ridiculous o'clock..... Just wondering if anybody has any tips or is in a similar situation
 
Firstly - BRAVO! So many people don't even think about their neighbours to start with...

I believe that the first thing to do is to ask them if you've disturbed them in the past - If you have then you'll have an idea of the volume threshold, and if you haven't then let them know that they can knock on your door if you do.
If nothing else comes of it at least they will not feel uncomfortable talking to you about it. Also you might find out what times it would be ok to crank it up a bit, although with neighbours up and down, there's probably small chance of an overlap.

With regards to isolating the sub, I think you'll be fighting a losing battle - the things are designed to rattle doors, windows and floors and low frequencies are the ones that travel best through floors and walls... Of course I'm sure that someone else on here will have other ideas ;)

For me, the ultimate solution was to invest in a set of reasonable headphones* and a quality** extension cable for use after about 9pm, maybe 10pm on weekends, even in my terraced house with double walls between. I know this is probably not the answer you really would like to hear, but the fact I absolutely know for sure that I am not disturbing the neighbours means I can relax properly and really get into the film or music that I put on!***

*Sennheiser HD465 - not the best, but good enough for me.
**Cheap ones have crap connections that crackle every time you reach for your beer!
***Obviously not the ideal solution when you have friends over!
 
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Firstly - BRAVO! So many people don't even think about their neighbours to start with...

I believe that the first thing to do is to ask them if you've disturbed them in the past - If you have then you'll have an idea of the volume threshold, and if you haven't then let them know that they can knock on your door if you do.
If nothing else comes of it at least they will not feel uncomfortable talking to you about it. Also you might find out what times it would be ok to crank it up a bit, although with neighbours up and down, there's probably small chance of an overlap.

With regards to isolating the sub, I think you'll be fighting a losing battle - the things are designed to rattle doors, windows and floors and low frequencies are the ones that travel best through floors and walls... Of course I'm sure that someone else on here will have other ideas ;)

For me, the ultimate solution was to invest in a set of reasonable headphones* and a quality** extension cable for use after about 9pm, maybe 10pm on weekends, even in my terraced house with double walls between. I know this is probably not the answer you really would like to hear, but the fact I absolutely know for sure that I am not disturbing the neighbours means I can relax properly and really get into the film or music that I put on!***

*Sennheiser HD465 - not the best, but good enough for me.
**Cheap ones have crap connections that crackle every time you reach for your beer!
***Obviously not the ideal solution when you have friends over!

Excellent advice all round. I have the same situation ( I have a monster Sub, Paradigm DSP 3400. 14" driver) I try not to play at anything but gentle volume after 8:30 (neighbours have young kids) and if I do want to crank it I use headphones Grado SR60I. Neighbours do call me if I get out of hand
 
Cheers guys. The sub is downward firing but from what i would guess it wouldnt make much difference if it was front firing anyway. Ive already got a set of headphones Turtle beach X4 brilliant for the xbox and pretty good with movies aswell, ideal for the weekend battlefield sesh. I'll have a look at the granite slab idea, even if it helps a little it would be worth it.. Nice one guys
 
Cheers guys. The sub is downward firing but from what i would guess it wouldnt make much difference if it was front firing anyway. Ive already got a set of headphones Turtle beach X4 brilliant for the xbox and pretty good with movies aswell, ideal for the weekend battlefield sesh. I'll have a look at the granite slab idea, even if it helps a little it would be worth it.. Nice one guys

I think its more that it gets a hard slab to bounce the sounds off - as well as not passing it onwards into the floor - especially with it being a downwards facing sub. The slabs are only 1cm thick - but even so they weigh a good 4-5kg each. You may be able to get something local - this lot were 2miles from here so I could collect. Even picked up another two for the floorstanding Q500's - more because it matched. Lots of places do 300m square tiles - these were 405mm square - which means about a 2" surround on each side of a 12" sub.
 
I think its more that it gets a hard slab to bounce the sounds off - as well as not passing it onwards into the floor - especially with it being a downwards facing sub. The slabs are only 1cm thick - but even so they weigh a good 4-5kg each. You may be able to get something local - this lot were 2miles from here so I could collect. Even picked up another two for the floorstanding Q500's - more because it matched. Lots of places do 300m square tiles - these were 405mm square - which means about a 2" surround on each side of a 12" sub.
Cheers mate
 
I would recommend your DIY subdude actually.

I live in a 1st floor flat with a downward firing sub and I do have a subdude (actually on another gramma platform).

I do not agree about 'designed to rattle ...'etc in the second post; the rattles and floor and wall vibrations are side effects of contact transmission. Do you reallly want to have the original bass sound clouded by having all the surfaces in your room 'singing along' and adding their own sonic contribution?!

The subdude idea is to minimise the latter and allow the sub to vibrate the air (not air and surfaces) which is how it was designed.

The result I noticed was deeper and better defined bass and seemingly louder yet when I went next door the bass was less detectable since the bass was not being transmitted as much through walls and floors all through my flat. Of course some surface vibration will be inevitable but to lesser degree.

Better sound and less transmission to neighbours is a win/win situation. I've asked neighbours above and below and they can't tell (much to my amazement!!).

PS I removed spikes from my REL. I've tried granite/paving slabs which still transmit.
 
I do not agree about 'designed to rattle ...'etc in the second post; the rattles and floor and wall vibrations are side effects of contact transmission. Do you reallly want to have the original bass sound clouded by having all the surfaces in your room 'singing along' and adding their own sonic contribution?!

The ASK 21* was not "designed" to make people throw up. It has the capability to do so with ease, and that is what gives it it's true value...
...If something ain't shaking, then you are a woos with the volume control.


The subdude idea is to minimise the latter and allow the sub to vibrate the air (not air and surfaces) which is how it was designed.

Of course the air is totally isolated from the contacting walls, floors, windows and doors with no coupling at all. Not a sausage. Nowt. Nada. Zilch. I apologise for forgetting that "true" audiophiles live in an isolated universe where the rules of thermodynamics do not apply.

Please accept my humblest apologies for even considering that you might happen to live in the same world as us mere mortals.

I am truly a self deluded twit.

*Google it.
 
I'm sorry if you took offence with my opinion - I did qualify as such and didn't state outright you were wrong!

If you read all my post I did state that the airborne vibrations will still cause some surface vibration too - thermodynamics withstanding.

It seems odd that you refer to someone else having other ideas and then get all upset when they post it.

As long as the OP gets some opinions from people with experience of what he was considering.
 
Calm down lads let's not start a subwoofer beef on my behalf.. Seriously though some good feedback and all duly noted, think I'll do a bit of fit experimenting and see how I get on
 
Thanks for your reply weejinky67.

movie_lover and I both want to help and he was kind enough to contact me and we're fine.

It would be nice to know how you get on. Good luck.
 
I have a front firing sub and its sat on granite.
It backs onto the neighbours wall so i thought the slab might kill some noise.
got it from Morrisons.
 
Firstly - BRAVO! So many people don't even think about their neighbours to start with

I wish my neighbours were that considerate, as im typing this im hearing thumping bass with constant bass tones, probably some sort of dubstep music, whatever it sounds a right racket, whatever happened to nice music you can recognise & think "I know that song"! :p
 

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