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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 waytoomuchstuff

waytoomuchstuff's avatar
waytoomuchstuff
1,002 posts
 

Several things come to mind here:

Very good tips on sound isolation/absorption.  Keep in mind that powerful low frequency sound waves are very long and can penetrate feet (yes, FEET) of sound absorption.  But,every bit helps.

If you love your Kivas, rolling off the bass via tone controls/EQ will accomplish the same goals as a bookshelf speaker in bass reduction without changing speakers.  Yes, you will not get the performance you paid for, but you'll get 90+ percent of it.

Using a meter to measure sound in your neighbor's space may get you technically, and legally(?) there, but sound pollution is a 'thing" and it's not cool.  Your neighbors have made an investment in their spaces and desire a living environment that is theirs -- not yours. A rule of thumb: if your neighbors can hear your system, it's too loud.  Sorry to be heavy-handed here, but I have first-hand experience with this on the "receiving" end.  Simple reading, polite conversation, and enjoying one's own personal music is compromised. 

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