Moving into an apartment with wood joist floors - worried about neighbors hearing


Hey all,

So during the pandemic I bought a pair of very Manhattan-unfriendly Egglestonworks Kivas. They sound amazing! 

However I recently decided to move and found an amazing old loft. While signing the lease I saw a bunch of language about noise and playing music loud - and now I’m starting to wonder if I’ve made a huge mistake.

I’ve lived in places with concrete floors the last 15 years, so i didn’t even think about it when taking the place, but this old building has wood joist floors. 

While I don’t listen loud - I’ve always been a low- to medium-volume listener - I’m worried that even then the Kiva’s will have too much bass energy.

The opposite pressure is that the room is huge with high ceilings. So in a vacuum, the Kiva’s would be the perfect speaker for the space.

The way I see it I have two options:

1) Try to move in with the Kiva’s and do everything I can to contain their energy (bass traps / panels / thick rugs / Isoacoustics Gaia pucks - some of which I already have). If there are complaints, then get different speakers or use equalization to lower the bass on my digital sources (not an option for vinyl though)

Or:

2) Get different speakers proactively. If I do this, I could consider a pair of bookshelf speakers with limited LF (SF Amati’s or those WIlson bookshelves?)

Anyone have any experience with this? If I go route #2, what about planar ribbon speakers like Maggie 3.7? Seems like the dispersion on them might solve a lot of the problem here, but not sure if they’ll still resonate the floor.

hudsonhawk

Showing 1 response by richdirector

I live in old Victorian tenement 1880 so high 3.6m ceilings and wooden floors - I use isoacoustic feet under my large tannoys - I don’t want to put anything on ceiling as plastered ceiling rose and high elaborate cornice …. But I have 3x rugs layered on top of each other in front of speakers before listening sofa (about 5/6cm) I also have room treatment on side and rear. Even playing loud and sitting barefoot I feel nothing under feet and neighbours are happy. But I’m friendly with them as well so they can message if I’m a bit loud or late …. And I pre warn if I’m having a party 🎉