Soundproofing Hi-Rise Apt?

Montalk:
I'd suggest that you first try to define the magnitude of the "noise" (i.e. for your neighbors) problem. Sometimes it's us getting too carried away with listening levels....
so go to the hallway closethe door and listen from outside to your system playing to see if it really is the bass the problem. If you have a spl see what's the ammount of sound outside and check what's your actual dB level at your listening position maybe just going a little down might save the day. You might get a better idea about how serious the problem is and how complicated or easy you might improve.
Is the system close to the main door? does your listening room have a door ? do you close it while listening?
_Your feedback ....

Hi Montalk,

The easiest and least expensive option is to make sure the seal around your present door is made correctly. There are rubberized sealing sections that you can find at any building supply center like Home Depot that are afixed to the inside of the door jamb and compress when the door is closed which makes a relatively tight seal. You may want to attend to the opening at the bottom of the door as well. If you already have a good seal on your door then you can persue more elaborate options such as full hood or cowl that can be fabricated out of rigid fiberglass and/or closed cell foam that can be placed over your existing door when you are listening.

Best Regards,

Barry Kohan

The first thing might be to find out who is the real complainant. If the sound is getting to them via the building structure, rather than through/around the door, you have few practical solutions. If it is via the door, sealing it helps but a double structure like an additional door, a drape or, at best, building a vestibule around it will be even more effective.

My experience was that sealing the door was an entirely adequate solution except for those times that I intentionally blasted the system. But that was only briefly and at a reasonable hour. OTOH, my listening room abuts no other apartments, except above and below, and my building is solid, reinforced concrete. That really helps (except when you want to do any inwall wiring!).

Have you thought of something like Aura Bass Shakers? Not exactly audiophile but for theater, they would work great instead of a sub. That way only your furniture shakes....

The only way to solve this problem is the staple of problem-fixes. The Party.

You will need at LEAST 4 Kegs of beer, a stocked liquer cabinet, 50 close buddys(one of them must be referred to as "Animal"), a few pounds of coke, a donkey, and a bunch of girls pretending to be strippers so they can infiltrate your party and find out if there guys are fooling around.
Then, make sure you pull plenty of pranks on the complaining resident and management, get them lumped together somehow and be sure to involve the donkey.

After much madness, and drunken confusion, your problems will surely somehow get resolved in the mist of the mayhem.

This is bound to work, just check out all of the national lampoons movies and the Belushi animal house movies. Bachelor Party with tom hanks is also good study material.

Good luck!

-Slappy-