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Bass boom and neighbours

Hi All:

I have been an average HiFi enthusiast for most of my adult life and have enjoyed the journey and listening to music of all genres. My last “serious” kit was; Rega, Abbingdon CD player, Melody 1688 pre, McIntosh 275 amp and B & W CM10 ser2 speakers. I decided recently that due to hearing loss and consideration of space that I would simplify my system and stream instead. I thought it may be of interest to others to know that I purchased a Cambridge Edge NQ which I play through the Mac via balanced cabling into the CM10s. I use Qobuz streaming service. The result is very satisfying – as far as I can appreciate.

I live in a ground floor flat ( UK ) it has a screeded concrete plank floor above, with battened plasterboard ceiling in my flat, my upstairs neighbour has carpeted floors, he complains when I have even moderate volume levels of bass boom – any thoughts given the equipment I use how I could improve the issue ?


xiang
erik_squires
16,416 posts
 
Sorry for being flippant.

Honest answer, you could go up to their apartment, use something like AudioTool for Android, and figure out what frequencies they are hearing the most of, then EQ that to be lower.

Unfortunately there’s not much you can do to stop transmission in an apartment, but what you CAN do sometimes, if you are lucky, is balance your bass using bass traps and EQ and hope that the same notes that were too much in your apartment are the same that are too much in theirs. Talk to GIK about their soffit traps.  I want to downplay this solution though, it will make your stereo sound better, but it's a matter of trial and error as to how much it will benefit your neighbor.
emailists
923 posts
 
First off, if your speakers are in a corner, move them as far away as practical.

i used to get complaints about my drum monitors, which were small and not loud, but by using my computer’s monitors, which are far out into the room, Genelec 8020’s I think, I have not gotten complaints.   

If the neighbor is really cooperative and motivated, you could speak on the phone while moving the speakers around to see if one position is helpful.  

I used to have tenants living next door with a small system and subwoofer- it really excited the wall between us, but playing my full band with system and going next door I didn’t hear it.  I think some cheap small subs or speakers use a resonant frequency to simulate full sounding bass, and that can be problematic.  
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,687 posts
 
If your sub is boomy, it's not set up correctly or it's a POS.
xiang OP
17 posts
 
Thanks all for your responses ( even the flippant one ) to clarify - there is no tonal balance / equalisation on the Cambridge or the Mac, the speakers - B & W CM10's with the foam plugs fitted in the port tubes are placed 1m from a wall and not in the corners. Using a sound meter app on my tablet the average is about 50dB and peaks at maybe 65 - 70.I think that my neighbour is being unreasonable - he should have bought a detached house, not a flat !
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