Audiophiles and apartments: Oil and water?

I have had some recent experience here. I lived in an apartment (3 flat) where everyone blasted away and the agreement was simple. You can blast away. I can blast away. End of story. Very nice. Then I bought a condo and the downstairs neighbor called the cops the day I moved in. I was playing folk music at about 70 db. Not a good situation. I turned it down and bided my time. He eventually moved, and I can play louder now. I still don't blast like I did before, but that's ok. I found out 2 important things during this experience: renters are generally young and flexible. Owners are generally older and uptight. You can't change that, so you have to deal with it, or buy a single family home. Not easy if you live in Manhattan, though. :) I live in Chicago, and I may upgrade to a single family home someday, although I'd prefer to make it work in the condo.

Don't be the bad guy. That's my advice. If you want to crank it up, do it at reasonable hours. Then, if they complain, turn it down and ask what hours work best for them. And mention that you ARE being considerate by not cranking it up at 2 AM, even though you'd like to...

Cheers

I've had very little experience with apartments, except for a short period during grad school. I've often wondered if those very large and expensive apartments with a view of the park are sound proofed. You often see photos of grand pianos in them.

Practical advice would be to develop a love of baroque music -- I especially enjoy Corelli, and develop a preference for Mozart over Mahler. That is, avoid music with large dynamic range and lots of low frequencies.

db

I was lucky enough to find an apartment that was of steel and concrete construction and they advertised it as such. I still didn't go absolutely nuts but I never received a call in the three years I lived there.

I was fortunate to visit Mitch4t's downtown LA artist's loft last Sunday. Artists are a very forgiving group of people. They'd have to be with Mitch's FOUR Pass Labs X600 monoblocks and Velodyne DD18.