Anyway that i can have bass but not share it with my neighbor?

[timznidar]

I'm planning out my whole HT build in the lower level of my house and putting a IB sub under the stairs. Problem is, my neighbor is decently cool and i don't want to shake the hell out of his house. I also don't want to build an IB sub in my house and then not be able to use it.

SO, my question, what are the options when it comes to limiting bass going to my neighbor's house? I don't care about it going through my house, i like bass :D.

So far i've seen a lot of stuff involving tearing out my drywall. I'd rather not do that if all possible.

My other option is to abandon the IB sub :( and look into smaller subs and bass shakers.

I have heard something somewhere about how IB subs don't travel outside the house as much as ported/sealed configs. Not sure if that's true or not.

Ideas? Comments?

[billfitzmaurice]

I have heard something somewhere about how IB subs don't travel outside the house as much as ported/sealed configs. Not sure if that's true or not.
Not. Stopping transmission of high level bass through walls is a matter of mass and isolation, via double studded walls and ceilings and triple layered sheetrock. Or poured concrete walls. OTOH unless your house, and his, are particularly poorly constructed running a system loud enough to bother the neighbor will likely render yourself deaf in short order.

[timznidar]

Not. Stopping transmission of high level bass through walls is a matter of mass and isolation, via double studded walls and ceilings and triple layered sheetrock. Or poured concrete walls. OTOH unless your house, and his, are particularly poorly constructed running a system loud enough to bother the neighbor will likely render yourself deaf in short order.

The houses are rather close to each other. We both have vinyl siding. I had my pair of athena floor speakers and 6.5" TB sub cranked. He said it was shaking his bedroom wall. Sure does say a lot about those TB subs though :D

Only thing, i had these setup upstairs and pretty much against the wall that faced his house. I move it down stairs and set it up similar as i would when the HT is complete and it didn't sound much different between the houses.

[Dirk]

The houses are rather close to each other. We both have vinyl siding. I had my pair of athena floor speakers and 6.5" TB sub cranked. He said it was shaking his bedroom wall. Sure does say a lot about those TB subs though :D

Only thing, i had these setup upstairs and pretty much against the wall that faced his house. I move it down stairs and set it up similar as i would when the HT is complete and it didn't sound much different between the houses.

Well, there's always tactile transducers. They're generally distasteful for music (laggy, and kind of "one note"), but for home theater, they're GREAT.

[timznidar]

Ok i got an idea i'll run by you guys. Now this room is half underground and half above. I'm not sure, but i'm assuming the part that's underground (I think bottom half of the room is concrete) is as soundproof as it's going to get. I'm assuming the top half is the part i need to worry about. There is a shelf that separates these two sections running along the wall facing the neighbor's house. I was thinking of screwing in shallower "studs" to the existing wall running horizontally (since they won't be load bearing). Then filling in this area with come kind of acoustic dampener and then putting quietrock or similar drywall over this section.

It would bring the wall out a little but i could probably get it to match up with the shelf and the whole wall would look flush. Only thing is my circuit box is on this wall and i'd have to have a hole cut to reach the circuit box.

Is this a decent idea or am i horribly out in left field?



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

[donradick]

Ok i got an idea i'll run by you guys. Now this room is half underground and half above. I'm not sure, but i'm assuming the part that's underground (I think bottom half of the room is concrete) is as soundproof as it's going to get. I'm assuming the top half is the part i need to worry about. There is a shelf that separates these two sections running along the wall facing the neighbor's house. I was thinking of screwing in shallower "studs" to the existing wall running horizontally (since they won't be load bearing). Then filling in this area with come kind of acoustic dampener and then putting quietrock or similar drywall over this section.

It would bring the wall out a little but i could probably get it to match up with the shelf and the whole wall would look flush. Only thing is my circuit box is on this wall and i'd have to have a hole cut to reach the circuit box.

Is this a decent idea or am i horribly out in left field?



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

Bill Fitzmaurice is the subwoofer guru. He's correct - you need mass.
Having said that, your approach looks good. If you have the space, I'd
suggest a 2x4 false wall as a minimum (2X6 better) - no connection between your false wall and the outside wall, with spaces between the studs
and the outside wall filled with "crammed in" fiberglass insulation.
The QuietRock stuff looks good.

HTH
-Don

[timznidar]

Bill Fitzmaurice is the subwoofer guru. He's correct - you need mass.
Having said that, your approach looks good. If you have the space, I'd
suggest a 2x4 false wall as a minimum (2X6 better) - no connection between your false wall and the outside wall, with spaces between the studs
and the outside wall filled with "crammed in" fiberglass insulation.
The QuietRock stuff looks good.

HTH
-Don

That would be nice but my room is narrow already. 12' wide. I can bring that top half out to the end of the shelf without losing any floorspace though.

Was checking out here http://www.supressproducts.com/drywall.php and it says "Do I have to tear down my existing wall?
No. You can place the panels right on top of existing drywall for even better performance."

If the bottom section is poured concrete like i think it is, maybe triple drywalling the top with this stuff would be all i need.

[Paul O]

Do you have a finished room in the basement yet?

If not you should build one inside the exterior walls with a floating floor and install Roxol safe-n-sound insulation between all the studs and ceiling joists... that means the whole room all 4 sides and the ceiling. Now here's the interesting part, you don't want any drywall inside the room, either use perforated board of some type or an acoustically transparent cloth material. The Roxol product is an outstanding sound barrier, I installed it in the ceiling of my basement before finishing it and it made a massive difference in sound transmission between floors.

http://www.roxul.com/sw47802.asp

[timznidar]

Do you have a finished room in the basement yet?

If not you should build one inside the exterior walls with a floating floor and install Roxol safe-n-sound insulation between all the studs and ceiling joists... that means the whole room all 4 sides and the ceiling. Now here's the interesting part, you don't want any drywall inside the room, either use perforated board of some type or an acoustically transparent cloth material. The Roxol product is an outstanding sound barrier, I installed it in the ceiling of my basement before finishing it and it made a massive difference in sound transmission between floors.

http://www.roxul.com/sw47802.asp

It is already finished :(

[billfitzmaurice]

Was checking out here http://www.supressproducts.com/drywall.php and it says "Do I have to tear down my existing wall?
No. You can place the panels right on top of existing drywall for even better performance."
.But the bass will travel through the studs and excite the wall on the other side, worst case turning it into a sounding board. Mass alone helps, but without isolation the amount of mass required to do the job on its own gets us back to that poured concrete wall.

The Roxol product is an outstanding sound barrierAbove 300 Hz most insulations are. A 50 Hz wave will go though two feet of insulation like a bulldozer through a field of corn.

[bilavideo]

I can relate.

I used to live in a trailer park, where my neighbors were only a carport away and where the walls were paper thin. I had a beautiful old tube-model stereo in a cabinet that created warm, punchy, bass. When I cranked up the bass, I inevitably got knocks on the door about how my neighbors could hear it better than I could.

I found myself in similar trouble when I converted my wife's entertainment system into a pair of towers to hold a set of four 15-inch woofers. What annoyed both me and my wife was the realization that she could hear that bass in the bedroom (while trying to sleep) better than I could hear it in the living room (trying to watch TV).

I considered numerous options until I realized that the fundamentals are basically as follows: If you're exporting bass, that means your acoustics are working against you. You're not maximizing the listening environment (so that you feel the bass you're getting). This forces you to turn up the wattage. If you don't have a way of diverting that bass, you'll be sending it off to your neighbors.

For my situation, it turned out that the back - on both the old stereo cabinet as well as my wife's entertainment system - had a lot to do with the problem. In those old stereo cabinets, the backing had holes in it, presumably for ventilation. The effect was to turn the backs of those old stereos into cannons. Similarly, my wife's entertainment system had a back, but it was paper thin. The manufacturer knew that potential customers cared about the front finish, not the back. So, it also acted as a bass cannon. I fixed that by reinforcing the back with 3/4-inch MDF. It doubled the bass I got and cut my wife's "bass woes" in half.

There are lots of common-sense measures that can maximize the receptivity of the listening room while containing sound loss to other areas. Bottom line: The more bass you feel in your face, the less wattage you will need and the less ammo you will spend firing your guns in the wrong direction.

[envisionelec]

I'm planning out my whole HT build in the lower level of my house and putting a IB sub under the stairs. Problem is, my neighbor is decently cool and i don't want to shake the hell out of his house. I also don't want to build an IB sub in my house and then not be able to use it.

SO, my question, what are the options when it comes to limiting bass going to my neighbor's house? I don't care about it going through my house, i like bass :D.

So far i've seen a lot of stuff involving tearing out my drywall. I'd rather not do that if all possible.

My other option is to abandon the IB sub :( and look into smaller subs and bass shakers.

I have heard something somewhere about how IB subs don't travel outside the house as much as ported/sealed configs. Not sure if that's true or not.

Ideas? Comments?

I used to build amplifiers in an apartment, and part of the reliability requirement was to drive a 12" speaker at 35-40Hz at maximum power for hours on end. The first time I did this, I got an angry third-shift neighbor knocking on my door. I devised a way to attach several Aura Professional bass shakers to the adjoining wall - out of phase with the original signal and running on a separate amplifier so I could adjust the cancellation level without producing a new problem. I had to call him on the phone to set it up, but he never had a problem after that.

[timznidar]

I used to build amplifiers in an apartment, and part of the reliability requirement was to drive a 12" speaker at 35-40Hz at maximum power for hours on end. The first time I did this, I got an angry third-shift neighbor knocking on my door. I devised a way to attach several Aura Professional bass shakers to the adjoining wall - out of phase with the original signal and running on a separate amplifier so I could adjust the cancellation level without producing a new problem. I had to call him on the phone to set it up, but he never had a problem after that.

WHAT!! :eek: So you make a "noise canceling wall". That gets classified under the "crazy enough to work" folder. I'm curious on details.

[envisionelec]

WHAT!! :eek: So you make a "noise canceling wall". That gets classified under the "crazy enough to work" folder. I'm curious on details.

Did I leave out the details? :rolleyes:

Aura Pro Bass Shakers - Check.
Dedicated Amplifier - Check.
Called Neighbor on Phone to set levels - Check.

Nope, those are the details.

[timznidar]

Did I leave out the details? :rolleyes:

Aura Pro Bass Shakers - Check.
Dedicated Amplifier - Check.
Called Neighbor on Phone to set levels - Check.

Nope, those are the details.

How many did you use? How big of wall? I was thinking getting 2.

[egoaudio]

Did I leave out the details? :rolleyes:

Aura Pro Bass Shakers - Check.
Dedicated Amplifier - Check.
Called Neighbor on Phone to set levels - Check.

Nope, those are the details.

That’s a pretty cool idea. Would you consider doing this for a critical listening environment and not just a testing one? I would think that in a home audio environment the cancelation might degrade the sound quality/output and be counterproductive. But then again, sufficient delay might be the solution….

Looks cheap enough to try out and not leave the wallet too thin.

Maybe I’ll just try it out.

EGO

[timznidar]

I was thinking i'd try it out with my current sub. If it doesn't work to my satisfaction, i'd just use the bass shakers on the couch and proceed with a smaller sub setup. I'll try it out after turkey day.

[egoaudio]

Would you mind posting results? I'd appreciate it.

EGO

[timznidar]

Would you mind posting results? I'd appreciate it.

EGO

Sure. I don't have any measuring equipment but i'll see what i can pull off.

[envisionelec]

How many did you use? How big of wall? I was thinking getting 2.


I used four of them. The wall was standard 2x4 and drywall. I used a 250W PE subwoofer amp and wired the shakers in series/parallel to get an 8 ohm load. I just screwed them to the wall in a square pattern about 2' x2'. These were flimsy apartment walls, so it seemed ideal. It wasn't very good at higher frequencies and the response wasn't too linear. As I recall, I couldn't use a wide range of test frequencies or change the amplitude too much without having to realign the system. I guess it's worth a shot, but I can't make any guarantees. ;)