Anyone here able to fully enjoy their HT living in a condo/townhouse?

[jtvang125]

I'm looking at moving into a condo or townhouse soon. I currently have a 5.1 consisting of a denon avr, polks all around and a 12" infinity sub. At my old apartment I could pretty much have it as loud as I want and nobody said anything. I fear I won't be able to enjoy it even if I downgraded to 3.0 living in the condo/townhouses I've been looking at. I'm trying to find a house but any decent one is out of my budget.

 

[Chapbass]

HAven't gotten too many complains in my apartment. I'm going to head into a townhouse soon, im hoping things will be fine. The poeple in the townhouse next to me are pretty young, so thatll help.

7.1 Klipsch reference setup here.

 

[Chronoshock]

My townhouse was original a single family home, the other unit was built as an addition a few years ago. As a result, the dividing wall was built as an exterior wall and blocks out sound very well.
I'm using Salk Song series and a Rythmik F12SE for a 5.1 setup. From my testing (playing music then walking outside to see if I can hear anything), there are no problems and my neighbor has never complained.

 

[Modelworks]

It is really going to depend on the place you get.
A lot of variables in how loud one apartment user is to another.
Where I live now is mostly older people 50+. The place was built in the 1970's and I can hear other peoples tv sometimes in the early morning hours when everything in my apartment is quiet. I talked to my neighbors before I started using surround and told them that if it ever got to be a problem for them to please let me know. So far no problems , been here 3 years.

Be reasonable with it and try not to go past 10-11pm with the bass if you can. Most people are okay with some noise as long as you respect the sleeping hours. You will not be able to play it at the same volume you could in a home though no matter where you move to.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'm in a townhouse. No complaints.

As has been said, a lot of this has to do with being responsible about time of day.

EDIT:

For example, I was belting out 12Hz for this video, but it wasn't very late
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPg4UOKGGuU#t=4m

 

[CrimsonWolf]

My last place was a townhouse and I got no complaints. Fortunately though, my living room was on the far end of the building and didn't share a common wall with anyone - single story too. So it was a nice setup. The neighbors in the same building could probably hear the bass when I had it really cranked up, but I only did that during reasonable hours of the day.

 

[Aikouka]

I live in a townhouse and I've had no complaints, but as others have stated, you should try and be courteous about the time of day. My TV is against a common wall, though... I've considered switching it, but the cable jack is also on that wall, so it'd probably be more of a pain (even though I never use it).

I just don't turn the subwoofer up too loud and if I'm watching an awesome movie, just think about inviting the neighbor over. I think he'd be up for a beer and a good movie!

 

[ericlp]

Well, no matter how well your building is constructed with 300 watts and a 12" driver they will hear it. That's why I got a house. Tho I'm selling my house and leaving the HT stuff with it! Anyway, most of the complaints are from bass and one way to quiet it down is to get a butt kicker and put foam underneath the feet of the couch. Then you could get rid of the sub or set it on very low levels.

 

[Modelworks]

Well, no matter how well your building is constructed with 300 watts and a 12" driver they will hear it. That's why I got a house. Tho I'm selling my house and leaving the HT stuff with it! Anyway, most of the complaints are from bass and one way to quiet it down is to get a butt kicker and put foam underneath the feet of the couch. Then you could get rid of the sub or set it on very low levels.

Yep you can get a butt kicker or do what I did and move the subwoofer to where it is right next to listener, then it doesn't need to be so loud to hear and feel the response.

 

[RedCOMET]

My google-fu skills are rusty, but I once read a thread on AVS where a guy demoed part of his condo/townhouse and brought in contractor/firm that soudproofed part of his condo that was a common wall b/c his neighbors were complaining about every little sound from his theater system. I believe the thread made it out to be that he was not try to be a jack ass about the noise.

So, anything is possible.

 

[bobdole369]

Nope. GF's shitty 2.1 logitech speakers garnered a "please keep it down after 10pm" type complaint. Landlord did stress that the complainant is very apologetic. I went and talked to em and sure enough they have the bed right up against the adjoining wall. Granted her set is on the opposite wall but the sub is easily heard. Pointing it downward (so it fires into the carpet) and moving it from the wall solved the problem.

As for the HT - only have stereo bookshelf speakers for that exact reason. Not gonna spend any money on surround stuff without a real system, would rather have awesome sounding 2.0 than a 5.1 I can't use.

 

[Cstefan]

Eh can't enjoy it. I hope to move back into a single family in April when my lease is up.

 

[IGBT]

terms and conditions you agreed to will rule your life and be the noose around your neck. Keep your headphones handy.