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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
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
2,686 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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