Downward firing speaker port and domestic issues

Living in an apartment has compromises.

But to be helpful, I think a lot more information would be useful to us. What kind of music do you listen to? What equipment do you have. How loud do you listen? What speakers are you considering?

While it is normally regarded that bass is not directional. I doubt many folks have actually tried downward firing woofers (I assume that is what you are talking about) versus others, and went downstairs to verify this assumption. Transmission occurs in two ways, the sound from the cones and the cabinet vibration.

While I have not tried downward firing woofers, it would not surprise me if they would transmit sound downstairs more than forward firing. I would buy forward firing and isolate them from the floor. There are hundreds of brands of speakers… I am sure you could find some you could love that are not downward firing.

Also. You might consider meeting and making friends with your neighbors downstairs and show that you are really trying to be considerate. There may be some times that they have TV time and don’t mind a bit of additional noise. You might have them up to listen to music!  If you wait until they complain, you have pissed them off. Best to head it off and maintain close communications.

actually kenjit you're uninformed as usual there is something that will stop based from going into the floor it's called the Townshend podiums and they stop all vibrations from going into the floor and coming back into the speaker and your equipment and shaking them and vibrating them they isolate down to three Hertz not cheap but boy do they work very well it's like upgrading your electronics the more expensive gear that's how significant the improvement is.

Your dilemma reminds me of an apartment I rented in an 8-plex about 15 years ago. The landlord was cool, but he was pretty intent on filling the place with these bohemian hipster types. Guy downstairs was a drummer. Twice a week he had band practice in his apartment. Electric guitars, amps, stacks, the works. The loud, crappy indie rock was terrible.

Wasn’t such a bad deal tho… nobody could complain about me shaking the walls with EDM blaring through my Pioneer SX-D7000 and Cerwin Vega AT-15’s whenever I felt like it.

So… move in next to some hipsters?

tenant or your own space below: nix to downward firing bass drivers or ports.

nix to wanting a lot of bass when the space below is used, thus tone controls might help when those spaces are occupied, out of circuit when below is unoccupied.

isolation decoupling speakers from floor probably needed. you could start with a set of 2x2 isoblocks. many swear by townsend iso platforms.

I've installed corporate  fitness centers with occupied space below: add separate  'floating' floor on absorbent blocks, small ramp up.

In my experience, it matters not at all where or if there is a port or a passive or if a sealed box.  Bass goes everywhere, if you have it.  Your best bet is to either luck out with an elderly hearing impaired neighbor, or to get a really nice pair of LF challenged compact monitors and a sweet EL84 amp to drive them.  Black Ice F11 for example, with a pair of LS50s or similar.  Keep the volume down and enjoy.