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

I already have the Isoacoustics Gaia I feet - I assume those should work the same as Townshend to mechanically decouple the speakers from the floor? The speakers have outriggers so I’d need a huge platform and I’d be worried about the added height.

Was then thinking of mass loaded vinyl like Acoustimac under both the speakers and whatever large wool rug I end up with.

I also already have plugs that Eggelstonworks provided for the ports that I use.

Great idea on doing a sound test with the neighbors - will at least give them my contact info and maybe doing a test where i find the volume setting on my stereo that becomes the new “max”. I’m a pretty low-volume listener - my system is designed around that principle from when I was married and my then-wife was sleeping on the other side of the wall behind the speakers.

All good suggestions about isolation etc. I really like the idea of meeting the neighbors and see if you can do a sound test. That way you will know how loud you can go and not constantly be wondering if you are pissing them off 😃. 

Heavy wool rug and townshend platforms will help a lot.  You need to totally decouple from the floor and springs are decouplers.  spikes are couplers.  Feet are in between.

A good system sounds great at low volume. Sometimes people are just used to listening at higher volumes and dont realize their system sounds good low.

Jerry

Start shopping for headphones.

@hudsonhawk 

It would suck to have to get rid of speakers that you really like. One thing I would do is to introduce yourself to your neighbors and explain your passion for audio and your intention of not offending them with the sound. This might go a long way in trying to be a good neighbor!

Nearfield listening for evenings, active XO and/or headphones, small maggies + sub

It will become more a question of at what days and what time(s) of the day you do your listening.  Your choice of music will also figure into this.    

If you are listening at 2PM on a Wednesday, it is not going to matter all that much.  It gets much dicier in the evenings, late at night, and weekends, especially weekend mornings.

I was a coop board president for 14 years in Queens.  72 units; 6 floors.  It is a wooden floor affair.  You would swear that folks can hear mice whizzing on wool.  It's not just stereos that bother other tenants, it's all sorts of noise...  older refrigerators, large screen TVs, conversations, and (in neighborhoods with budding Asian child prodigies) pianos.  

Tenants are very very aware of everyone else's noise, but not their own.  Tenants can be unreasonable, uncaring jerks.  

Be reasonable, obey the building's ground rules, and you will be ok.  People LOVE to complain about EVERYTHING.  Just don't be a jerk and you will be ok.  

I would always inspect the noise complaints on my own and on my own time to determine the validity of the claim.  Most of the complaints were not justified.

As for myself, two systems ... one with floor standers, one with monitors.  The monitors are on top of bookcases, more for the cats than noise travel.  Carpets on the floor, drapes on the windows, equipment placement on the not shared walls ... that helps.  I don't play music very loud at all; above background levels, but below dancing levels.

Rich 

The whole floor will act as a sounding board so it is necessary to damp the floor throughout much of the room, not just directly under the speaker.  Ideally you would get wall to wall carpeting with a very thick and dense pad.  If you can only manage area rugs, again, the thickest and densest rug covering as much as you can of the floor would help.  
 

The speakers should the be placed on vibration damping devices—specislty feet or s platform.  

Try springs under the sub. Much better then other forms of pucks, etc. You can find decent ones on eBay (Preffair is the brand I have), although you can also find "High Quality" ones for 10 times more money. 

I used them under my Velodyne and now under a JL Audio sub and it not only improved the sound, but the springs don't vibrate my wood floor as much. A cheap and a quick fix, and not much is lost if they don't work for you.

Townshend Seismic Podiums? On a 2' paving slab?

Got a buddy who lives in a nearly 100 year old building with wood floors.  He is very careful about sound because it is so easy to disturb the unit below. He uses bookshelf speakers.

If it were me I would set up first and contact the people in the lower unit and run a test. See what they can hear. 

I got a good deal on a Velodyne sub from a person who moved into and apartment where it could no longer be tolerated.