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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
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noromance's avatar
noromance
9,454 posts
 

Townshend Seismic Podiums? On a 2' paving slab?

deadhead1000's avatar
deadhead1000
707 posts
 

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.

larryi
3,719 posts
 

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.  

rar1's avatar
rar1
1,746 posts
 

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 

 

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