For city apartment dweller audiophiles. Have you ever had neighbors banging on your walls?
I try to be considerate when I play my music but recently I put footers under the spikes of my speakers very highly recommended here. People claiming improvements in sound and a godsend when you need to move them to get behind certain components. I was listening to music and in the middle of a cut I paused my cd transport placed the new footers under the spikes and then I started the player without changing the volume. The music was noticeably louder and I had to turn it down.
Well two days after I was playing music at 8AM no louder than I've been playing it for years and I get banging on my bedroom wall. I listen in my living room so next to it is my bedroom and then the bedroom of my neighbor. The last time it happened was many many years ago and it wasn't music it was a man talking on FM radio. I sensed there was a change in the presence of the music with the new footers but that big of a difference? We have very good sound proofing here and there was a time when I could play Wagner at 5am before work and nobody complained.
Could footers make that much of a difference? I did notice an improvement in presence as well. I do not know this neighbor and she's been living here a few years.
Anybody else have a similar situation when they changed something in their system or maybe you were just playing music too loudly without realizing it?
Are you talking about spikes under your speakers or under an electrical component. If it is an electrical component, I think the complaint is a coincidence. It might be a real phenomenon with spikes under a speaker. Spikes are intended to couple the speaker to the floor and will transmit MORE energy to the structure. Most footers are intended to dissipate that energy and would reduce transmission to the structure. If you somehow, by using both the spikes and footers, created a particular tuning of the resonance of your speaker set up such that the system is resonating at a frequency that is easily transmitted by the structure of the apartment and is particularly loud in the music you are playing, this might be the cause. Try taking off the spikes and going with just the footers. I still think it is somewhat unlikely that the spikes caused such a change that it was a cause of the complaint. It is more likely a coincidence—your music playing happened to annoy your neighbor more than usually (she might have had a rough night trying to sleep and you woke her just as she was getting some shut eye). |
I live in an apartment and my experience with speakers and spikes is that spikes definitely transmit more bass energy through the floor. I have wall-to-wall carpeting and there is a foot of cement between floors, so I've lived here for 33 years and never heard anything from upstairs (except when contact is being made with their floor) or downstairs neighbors or the one wall that borders on another, and nobody has ever asked me to turn it down. |
The spikes supporting the wooden base the speakers sit on. It's a pretty big coincidence because I had been playing music at that level for a few years from when she first moved in, early morning and in the evening, and it never had been a problem. If she had mentioned it to the super I would definitely have received a letter. |
I never lived in any apartment really. I was lucky.😊 But i worked when young in a store... I read books between customers. The neighbour above make some much noise with a rockband... I did not know if it was a real one or playback... I go up banging his door... I only make the sign of cutting a throat...He close the door. I go back and the silence i was used too go back... I only make noise with my speakers when i was 15 years old... No neigbours came for cutting my thoat... After this critical year i never listen window open at 100 decibels and more ...
i am pretty sure that my own isolation coupling decoupling sandwich is better than footers to control vibrations then bass sound level in the floor and ceilings ...
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Completely made mad by noise... 😊 Nothing irritate me more than loud noise... I never go to crowded public concert because of that ... I would certainly kill neighbours making too much noise and i will die in jail...( to not kill someone in a battle you must be in control or hugely dissuasive ) Young i discovered the house for my father who never look for one to buy , his first and last one ...I did that because i hate neighbour noise of any kind... I decided young to buy one as soon as i will marry ...I paid for 5 years a location in my father upper appartment before buying one) Then i never had neighbours making noise in my life and i escape jail ...😊
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I am a condo dweller as well and whether you are going to be "that neighbour" mostly depends on the design of the building and your apartments orientation with regards to your neighbours. My building has solid concrete floors/ceilings and only my bedroom shares a wall with the unit next door. This was partly luck (it was the only unit available) and partly my digging into the original building plans on file with the city. The result is that, even with some reasonably loud listening sessions, I have never had a complaint or someone coming to my door and threatening to cut my throat ;).
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@mahgister Me too. I detest all manner of useless human noise. I’ve a large lot and even then, they love noise. Dogs barking, leafblowers, chainsaws, tree grinders, jet skis, ATVs, guns, backup beepers that go on all day on a construction site, and outside music or radio. Even now, on Memorial Day at 3pm, some fool nearby is cutting something with a mitre saw in his yard. Thankfully, my basement with the sound systems is almost soundproof. |
I’ve been the one banging. I’m the quiet neighbor. Had a couple with three kids upstairs. The pounding, heel-walking cherubs never stopped moving. Had another rental once where the lunatic upstairs would put away laundry at 2am every weekend. She'd walk back and forth the length of the room hundreds of times until 3.30am putting the stuff away.
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@roxy1927 Try mag lev under the speakers & ask the neighbour if it's an improvement. |
I go up banging his door... I only make the sign of cutting a throat...He close the door. I live in the Bronx, we will shoot your ass through the peep hole. This is reality, not a movie, you come to my door and threaten me? how about I put a guitar amplifier in my bedroom closet next to your bedroom turn it on 10 and lean the guitar against it so it feeds back all night and leave. Works every time. The police do not respond to noise complaints 99% of the time |
I had a condo on the beach and played music often. I asked 3 different couples who rented the condo next door if they could hear my music and they all said no they couldn't. Then one day I was walking out my door and there was a note on my door saying my music was to loud and some people had to work the next day. I immediately bought headphones with bluetooth connection which did well. It took all the fun out of having the condo and I sold it not to long after that. Headphones will work fine for you but it changes the way you think about where you are staying. |
We dont live on the same planet happily for me . 😊 And 50 years ago people were not transformed into savages yet ... Noise annoying the neighbours was considered impolite at best and an agression at worst ... And here where i lived police was answering these calls 50 years ago... But i am old and i spoke about a time where citizen existed and had right not only written but respected ... Not passive zombies yet ...
Noise is one of the most efficient attack on the health and psyche at the same time. Then noise is not an expression of freedom coming from our neighbours who then take the right to make extreme noise and then take the right to shoot you if you come... This right never existed here.. 😁 In this article they spoke about passive environmental noise merely. Not about deliberate use of noise as an arm by a neighbour which is tenfold worst. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-024-00642-5 «The recognition of noise exposure as a prominent environmental determinant of public health has grown substantially. While recent years have yielded a wealth of evidence linking environmental noise exposure primarily to cardiovascular ailments, our understanding of the detrimental effects of noise on the brain and mental health outcomes remains limited. Despite being a nascent research area, an increasing body of compelling research and conclusive findings confirms that exposure to noise, particularly from sources such as traffic, can potentially impact the central nervous system. These harms of noise increase the susceptibility to mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, suicide, and behavioral problems in children and adolescents. »
When we spoke to our neighbour as if he could be God it could be dangerous because some people take anything to the letter : |
I really feel for appartment/condo dwellers. Been there, done that. Last one was over 30 years ago. However, with my current wife, the problems were the same in our house. She likes to sleep in, I don't. Instead I listen to music and she would always stick her head out of the bedroom and ask: What's the boom, boom, boom I hear? Hence building the house of stereo. I am thankful for it every day. |
@mahgister In some countries, people have an expectation to be free FROM other people’s excess. In the US, people have a perception that they have the right TO make noise and disturb others. In other words, in the US, the ethos is that I can make noise and so can you. We all have noise together. In other countries, I will be as quiet as I can and you will offer me the same courtesy. We all can have quiet together. While not everyone conforms to this alignment, we’re all aware of the common understanding of how loud Americans are when vacationing abroad. Birds sing in England, birds call in America. |
Coop Board President in NYC (Queens) for 14 years. Safe to say, all manner of noise complaints have been brought to me for resolution. Granted, so much depends on the building structure itself. Prewar, wooden floor joist buildings are going to transmit all manner of sounds and vibrations. Sheetrock walls, unlike plaster walls, do not muffle sound. What can you do? Point #1 - Nothing and I repeat nothing (speakers, electronics, speakers, TVs) should share a common wall with a neighbor. All interior to you. In your case, you directly coupled your speakers to the floor. Simple solution ... de-couple them. I would not be very open to whatever arguments regarding your music that you would make. You attached your speakers to a common surface. Point #2 - 8AM is too early to start in with your music. Just is. I am writing this at 9AM on a Tuesday and I would be super PO'd if music were lofting in from above me. In my building, we have seen the proliferation of pianos and children practicing. Parents get their kids started early on weekend mornings. It's awful. Add to this mix ... municipal construction noise, lawn mowing, cars, buses ... you get the idea. You did mention you have good soundproofing in your place, Could be your neighbor just got tired of the morning symphonies? You would think if everyone survived WFH, you would be ok going forward. Maybe they just retired or had a change in work set-up. It had to be loud enough to pass through 2 rooms and elicit a complaint. Still ... you are in a cooperative living situation ... cooperate. I would love to go loud at times with my stereo ... I just don't. If you live with someone, what do they think of the sound level? Rich |
For sure! you are right... In Japan, architecture comes with paper walls traditionally then all culture circle around respect and politeness and low noise level. I am not surprised by Japan big circles of audiophiles among the cities. Noise kill music.Music breath in low DB level slightly under 80 for sure . If not deafness watch for us. I am lucky to live in a place which for the time being resemble more one of this country more than the other ...😊 Noise kill. Period.
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@noromance ... Speaking about Germany. It has the most intolerant neighbors and police will "straighten out" the noisy ones if complained. Nearly same for Poland! They even have daylight regulations of calmness and quietness. In US people are more tolerant rather than having deliberate perception and cops do right thing not paying attention to such minor issue
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@roxy1927 you don’t know your immediate next door neighbor after several years? |
@czarivey Sounds like a dream. Imagine quietness and contemplation instead of leaveblowers, OSHA beepers, and piped muzak? |
Music is a nuisance noise when played overly loud and others are forced to endure it. It's not like the person in control of the VC, got a knock on the door requesting the Volume is Cranked Up. It's more likely the second bottle of Red, has just about laid all inhibitions and concerns for oneself in a community environment to bed. As for Banging on Walls, one Couple we had as neighbours would end up Banging their Beads Head Board ferociously against the party wall shortly after I started playing my Barry White Albums 🎵🎶, someone was making sweet music 😍. |
I've been on both sides of this one. I do believe a little tolerance is in order on Friday and Saturday nights, but on school/work nights, best to be respectful of others' desire for quiet. We actually got our neighbors kicked out of our apartment building...but it was more than music...50 twenty-somethings having all night dance parties with cigarette smoke penetrating the floor...ugh! |
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The exact same scenario happened to long ago in a Condo I owned. I had Snell Type A2 Speakers sitting on thin carpet, just the cabinet, no footers or feet. The floor under the carpet was concrete. This was in 1978 and the only product out was Tiptoes which looked like a Hershey Kiss, only pointy. I tried using them but the point wasn’t pointy enough and they were unstable. |
Uhm, yeah, sure! Decades ago, I had a sociopathic neighbor who got angry with our Seven Days Magazine neighbors downstairs from us whose staff worked at all hours of the morning to meet publishing deadlines. One night, they are at it again, he grabs a 2 x 4, breaks down the fire exit door, and starts swinging. One guy had to be sent to the hospital. The landlord owned the magazine and told his lawyers to spend whatever was necessary to get him out of the building by any means necessary. He was gone within a month. I managed to avoid my neighbors wrath: I let him know that I had a girlfriend who carried a gun all the time for self protection and that she’s the nervous type. 😬 🫨 |
In the late-80’s my woman and I moved into a nice building one block off Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks (the street upon which one could indeed see vampires---Goth high school kids---walking west, as reported by Tom Petty in "Free Falling"). The apartment had a nice big living room and a cement foundation, so I was expecting to be able to achieve good sound. I got everything set up (VPI HW-19/Rega RB300 rewired with Cardas by Brooks Berdan, and a Decca Super Gold pickup, Van Alstine-modified Dynaco PAS2, Bedini 25/25 power amp, QUAD ESL’s with KEF B139 woofers in transmission-line enclosures), and late one morning put on the first LP. The first song had not ended before the phone rang. It was the apartment building owner, informing me that he had received a complaint from the old woman who lived in an apartment in the other "wing" of the property (one of those horse-shaped buildings common in the 1940’s and 50’s). My apartment and hers were not attached in any way except through the ground. And by-the-way, she permanently installed a pair of men’s work boots right beside her front door, to scare away would-be burglars. Koo-koo. I already knew there was gonna be trouble because on the first night in the initial apartment we took in the building (directly above hers), when we turned on the TV the first night she banged on her ceiling. The TV was not turned up loud. Luckily another apartment became available immediately, and we got away from the old bag. Apparently not far enough. That phone call was the first, but far from the last. In fact, each and every time I played music she called the owner. There was no choice, we had to move. We got lucky and found a 2-bedroom house in Burbank, and the rent was the same as the apartment. We lived there for ten years, with not a single increase in rent. 800 bucks; them were the days. 😊 |
I have the opposite problem in my condo in Philadelphia. I’m surrounded by old deaf people but a fellow moved in upstairs whose child stomps around like a maniac and is prone to fits of screaming. So I blast him with my Genelec system that includes a sub. When the child starts in I turn the system on full blast so the windows and walls shake. I habitually rise at 5 AM so I let loose then to interrupt their sleep. Guess what? No more problems. You can try to be nice but that doesn’t work. This method does. Colombian and Mexican narco rap or Uzbek traditional music works great! |
Things are not perfect in my world, but a post like this makes me so thankful that I do not live in an apartment or a condo. |
+1 very grateful I was able to move on from apartment living, putting up with neighbor noise and over crowded shared laundry rooms. Wishing the best for audiophiles who have to endure people noise and compromises on audio volume. |
