A love of movies + HT system + townhouse = fail

[CRXican]

This reminds me, I need some more movies with great sound. I got the Vizio sound bar with wireless sub and it's pretty badass for what it is. Love the bass!

 

[HannibalX]

but if you choose to live in an apartment/condo/townhouse, then you need to show some common courtesy and respect and NOT buy a home theather system...

Can you read?

 

[bobdole369]

Sigh guess I'll have to unhook the subwoofer

Considered just turning it down? Using the EQ function to rid of the sub-45hz bass? Moving the sub to the other side of the room (away from any adjoining walls or any walls at all)

Soundproofing that particular wall might be a chore, but could be as easy as building a false wall thats portable. Could be done for less than $500. What you would do is add an anti-resonance layer to the existing wall - in the center 30% or so (your typical foil on tar aka dynamat) - then build out a foot or so with wood on a frame, layer the space with first a butyl layer (rubber floor mat material), then fill with CC foam. The final layer is new drywall. Optionally you can add butyl on the opposite side but I've never found that crucial. It's a lifesaver when you can clearly hear neighbors.

Probably isn't nearly as effective as just moving the sub and turning it down though. Like stick it under the couch or next to it or behind it. It takes a couple dozen feet or so to fully develop the sound wave in a bass note. Anything within that will shake horribly if the SPL is high enough.

 

[NFS4]

When you live in a townhouse/apartment, you're at the mercy of those living right next to you or above you.

That's what I love about living in a house. I can blast my music/movies as loud as I want and they can't hear shit. If I crank it up, you can hear it a bit outside, but the neighbors wouldn't be able to hear it inside their own house.

 

[JS80]

5) arrested for filing false police report.

404 police report not found

 

[Locut0s]

Well looks like we might be moving to headphones. It worked for a while but she's starting to complain again. It's not so much that she complains (I understand and agree with not wanting to upset neighbours with loud noise). It's the fact that she's a stuck up prissy little bitch about it. She left a rude note on our door step. She told my father over the phone quote "Oh it's OK for people to watch movies so long as they know not to bother their neighbours" like she was lecturing him, He's 62, she's like 19!. And we have done a LOT to try to work with them about it to the point where it's hard to believe that they can hear much any more (sub-woofer off and speakers turned down).

 

[KillerCharlie]

We are entitled to try to enjoy our own lives in our house as well though

You do NOT live in a house. You live in a townhouse. You don't actually own the property. You have to respect your neighbors with reasonable noise levels. Move to a house if you don't like it.

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

Too bad OP. I'm in the market to buy a house and many of my friends have been talking townhouse, duplex, or even condo. I say hell no. I'll pay a premium to have my own house with neighbors a good distance away.

 

[Locut0s]

You do NOT live in a house. You live in a townhouse. You don't actually own the property. You have to respect your neighbors with reasonable noise levels. Move to a house if you don't like it.

I actually agree with you. If I didn't we wouldn't be moving to headphones. We tried to accommodate them in many other ways before doing this which is the only source of frustration. That and the fact that she IS a spoiled brat. But like I said I mostly DO agree with you.

 

[Kadarin]

I haven't read the whole thread, but aren't you perfectly in the clear as long as you're not making noise too early in the morning or too late at night?

 

[Locut0s]

I haven't read the whole thread, but aren't you perfectly in the clear as long as you're not making noise too early in the morning or too late at night?

You mean legally? Perhaps but I don't actually want to be a douche about it. If she really can hear us then we'll move to headphones. I just wish she wasn't an ass about it.

 

[zinfamous]

had the subwoofer disconnected all last year.

still turned down at the new place--sharing a wall still, somewhat separated though. will slowly start turning it up--the main problem, is actually the live-in GF!

I miss the man cave that I had for 8 months...it was incredibly awesome.

 

[zinfamous]

Bullshit.

nope, totally agree. subwoofer's have no business in an apartment.

it's like complaining about dudes for cranking the sub in their cars, spending all their money on rims and shit, when they should be worrying about a house, or their kids...

if you want to enjoy the sub, then dedicate yourself to getting a detached place, or single shared wall with good separation and sound-proofing.

no reason to be an uber dick about your sound.

 

[oogabooga]

I was learning how to play drums in high school and my family lived in a townhouse. Yea I got a lot of cops called on me. Oddly my direct neighbors would be fine with it, but other houses down the street would call. Not even drop by to say something, just call the police during the day. Passive aggressive bitches.

 

[RearAdmiral]

Man that sucks. Thank gosh I live in the country. Screw stupid neighbors.

 

[Raduque]

Mount the subwoofers on the ceiling. Then they'll have something to complain about!

Oh yea, and have your 62-year old father go all "I'm OLD and ENTITLED, you young whippersnapper, GET OFF MY LAWN!" on her.

You could also try a subwoofer isolator. They make stone slabs that go under your subwoofer to keep the vibrations from going through the floor - you get clean bass you can hear and feel, but the rooms don't get shook.

 

[Gibson486]

You sound like my upstairs neighbor. I can't enjoy a weekend home in peace due to his subwoofer.

Same here, except it's his manly steps with his loud 5.1 speaker system as well as the neighbor to the left of me who owns some bad ass sound system that plays garbage. I live in a corner unit, so you think the right of me would be nice. Nope. Every morning, these white vans back up and beep very loud while doing so. LIving in the burbs suck if you rent.

 

[Juddog]

I have the same problem as the OP. My final solution was basically to unplug the subwoofer and leave it off.

Movies no longer have that thundering epic feel to them, since my HT was setup to channel all 60 Hz and lower to the sub. I found the switch to allow the 60 Hz and under to channel to my speakers but it doesn't have even close to the same booming sound of the powered sub. On the positive side the neighbors have never complained once I unplugged the sub.

 

[swanysto]

You can do what I did to my apartment and layer all the walls and ceilings in that room with QuietRock. It is pretty simple. Just use drywall glue to put it over the top or your current walls and ceiling. Then use compound to tape the seems and screw holes. Sand it down and paint. You now have a quiet room.

http://www.quietsolution.com/html/quietrock.html

 

[Juddog]

You can do what I did to my apartment and layer all the walls and ceilings in that room with QuietRock. It is pretty simple. Just use drywall glue to put it over the top or your current walls and ceiling. Then use compound to tape the seems and screw holes. Sand it down and paint. You now have a quiet room.

http://www.quietsolution.com/html/quietrock.html

How much did that cost per room?

 

[Dubb]

There is sound absorption drywall you know. It's roughly 8x quieter than regular sheet rock. Here's a product called "QuietRock." You can thank me later.

quietrock is a marketing gimmick. It does very little for the cost. for the same price you can do alot better.

You can do what I did to my apartment and layer all the walls and ceilings in that room with QuietRock. It is pretty simple. Just use drywall glue to put it over the top or your current walls and ceiling. Then use compound to tape the seems and screw holes. Sand it down and paint. You now have a quiet room.

http://www.quietsolution.com/html/quietrock.html

what's helping here is that it's another layer of sheetrock, not the fact that it's quietrock. Also certain glues work better than others for soundproofing, and you have to be careful applying it. Doing something similar is probably op's most practical improvement, unless he's willing to tear out the existing sheetrock and hang genie clips / hat channel.

There are a several things you can do to minimize noise. The biggest thing is to replace your sheet rock walls with quiet rock and replace your insulation with denser insulation made to absorb sound. This makes a huge difference. You also need to insulate around all the electric outlets, switches, HVAC vents and door frames. There are special products for this, check out Home Depot. It doesn’t matter if you have carpet, tile or wood floors you need a decent pad underneath – the thicker the pad the better the sound absorption.

The "soundproofing" products for outlets, etc, are also overpriced gimmicks. standard firestop pads work just as well and are cheaper. block the air movement, block the sound. It's not rocket science.

I haven't read the whole thread, but aren't you perfectly in the clear as long as you're not making noise too early in the morning or too late at night?

different areas have different noise ordinances. Some are definitive about the nighttime thing, most aren't. Mostly it's left up to the judgment of a responding officer to determine whether something is causing a disturbance.



Here's really the big thing: most modern townhomes/condos are designed to code minimum, if that. Plans examiners generally don't look at sound transmission properties, so wrong designs will usually get through, and on top of that, even if designed to code, it rarely gets built that way. In practice you can generally take the STC of a designed wall and subtract 5-10 DB (A weighted)

...until someone gets sued. It's the #1 lawsuit issue for developers, architects, and contracts who do multifamily construction, primarily because it's sort of a subjective thing, and because it seems to be std. practice to not follow building codes (or best practices) when it comes to sound. Realtors and marketing people like to talk up sound privacy to potential buyers, and almost always wind up making unrealistic promises, given the above.

That's not to say that you can't do quiet shared walls. It's flat wrong to say you can't. It's fairly easy for a small to moderate cost increase, but it requires knowledgeable designers and good contractors (with lots of double checking). A double wall is generally the practical best (with thick gyp-crete on the floors), but in practice most people are happy with genie clips on at least one side of the walls, using firestop products on switches/outlets, and a moderate gyp-crete thickness on the floor. Pretty easy and works very well.

 

[totalnoob]

screw them..As long as you are playing at reasonable hours (before 10PM), they have no right to complain.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

quietrock is a marketing gimmick. It does very little for the cost. for the same price you can do alot better.

Tell me again how these studies are a marketing gimmick.

 

[Dubb]

Tell me again how these studies are a marketing gimmick.

maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but I don't see anything that compares quietrock to standard type x g.w.b., both used in the same assembly design and measured in the same conditions. It appears to simply show the expected differences in different assembly types. In short, it looks like a very selective overwash of STC data, with little to evaluate in comparison.

My point was that quietrock does little over standard g.w.b., and given its ridiculous cost, there are usually far better ways to spend the money. This has been my anecdotal experience, and has been affirmed by every acoustic consultant I've ever worked with.

Also of note, STC ratings usually have a fairly high margin of error, and you need a solid difference of 5+ or so for most people to tell one from another. The data you linked shows that that level of difference is quite easy to do with different assemblies, but there isn't anything that suggests the same is possible using quietrock over the regular stuff in any given assembly.

 

[Tiamat]

Green Glue + double up the sheetrock on the surfaces that are shared with the neighbor.