Neighbor Complaining...

Is this a rental or condo? I would think no matter where and how you place the system their going to complain. If you just purchased then I would think a little renovation should help like sheet rocking over the wall with another.There was a tread on Audiogon just recently discussing this same issue. When your that close there is really no best solution when you have neighbors top to bottom. And the only best solution would be to buy a private home away from the crowd.

Try talking to your neighbor and find out what hours would be appropriate and at what volumes. Invite him in for some refreshments and to show him your system. Offer to place your system away from the shared wall (which is closer to the rear wave generated by your electrostat). Maybe you can find out what hours you would not be disturbing. Good luck to you.

I had the same problem with my condo, neighbors above, beside, and below! I finally bought a home and had a baby 11 months later!!! I guess I'll never turn up the volume. HA

Toufu writes:
>I moved recently to a new apartment, and my neighbor is already complaining of the noise... :) Right now I have my speakers (Quad 12L2) placed closed to the shared wall, now, would it make a difference if I place the speakers against the other wall (which is not shared), and facing the shared wall?

Talk to your neighbor and see what's a problem. Being somewhat reasonable goes a long way.

Moving the speakers is only going to help a little (unless you have the speakers too close to the wall). The problem is that you're in a reverberant space, and once you get 2-4' from the speakers in a typical room the sound can't drop more than 3dB.

Structure borne vibrations are a big problem. Once sound gets into the structure, it's going to come out.

You want to isolate speakers from the floor instead of coupling them with spikes. You can put the speakers on small platforms hanging from the ceiling with ropes (makes for a great mechanical low-pass filter), use commercial products like the Auraflex SpeakerDude, apply industrial vibration isolators, use a forstner bit or your circle jig to make matching holes in two pieces of your favorite sheet good that will locate racquet balls, etc.

Bass is a big problem because you get more transmission at lower frequencies. With room modes being up to 10dB hotter than the rest of the spectrum, I wonder what applying notch filters does to what your neighbors pickup.

Jamesw20 writes:
>I had the same problem with my condo, neighbors above, beside, and below! I finally bought a home and had a baby 11 months later!!! I guess I'll never turn up the volume. HA

Once you own the property you can have a room (or basement) with double staggered studs, constrained layer damping, , one (or two) exterior doors, separate ventilation (mini split A/C), etc.

You won't be able to hear them and they won't be able to hear you.