condo owners, how do you appease the neighbors?


Hi everyone,
I just moved into a condo and the neighbor downstairs won't leave me alone. He keeps knocking on my door and asking me to turn down the music. I checked the volume level with my Radio Shack SPL meter, and found the average to be about 72db. Peaks at about 76db. Measured with pop music. For reference, my HVAC runs loud at about 65db. If I turn the music down a little, I can't hear it when the heat turns on. This is not as loud as I'm accustomed to listening, but it is far too loud for my neighbor, apparently. What have you other condo/apartment owners done?
Thanks.

Tom
tfkaudio

Showing 1 response by unclejeff

First, you should try to get yourself invited into their living space to hear for yourself what they are complaining about. Regardless of the outcome this will be very informative. Perhaps it is just the placement of your speakers that could be altered.

Also, you might try a little extra padding between the speakers and the floor. Moving your speakers away from the wall or out of a corner can help. Are your speakers atttached to the wall?

You can also agree that you will use certain settings at agreed-to hours.

Here's a crazy one. I have experience in one housing situation where the ambient background noise is so low that you can hear anything, including a 'power piss'. It might be possible that your music is too loud because the building is so quiet. Buildings near high traffic areas hardly ever get noise issues between residents.

Anyway, try to be 'the nice guy' and you will enjoy your home more. If they turn out to be unreasonable you will have a history of co-operation on your part to rely on should they begin to involve third parties.