Who lives in an environment quiet enough that they can play whatever they want?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by 93curr, Nov 10, 2017.

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  1. RZangpo2

    RZangpo2 Forum Know-It-All

    Location:
    New York
    Man you guys are all so lucky. I guess there's still a lot of open space out in the hinterlands. Here where people live on top of each other it's not so easy. Who your neighbors are is really the luck of the draw. Last place I lived, the neighbor downstairs was retired, always home, and very sensitive about bass frequencies coming through his ceiling. A lot of delicate negotiation was required so I could listen at all.

    Now I live in an apartment surrounded by very quiet neighbors. Better yet, after six months there have been no complaints about my music from the neighbors downstairs or next door. I try not to abuse their patience by playing loud music with heavy bass late at night, etc. So far so good, but I know that in some respects I'm at their mercy.
     
    Aftermath likes this.
  2. Agitater

    Agitater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Why are you putting up with it? Call the police. Write to the landlord. Write to the property manager. Phone them all too. As @Carl Swanson posted, nobody should be keeping you out of your own apartment for this sort of reason. Listening to music in a multi-residential building is a privilege, not a right. People who live in multi-residential buildings (whether they’re condos, co-ops or apartment blocks, clustered townhouses or semi-detached houses) sometimes have to be forced to realize that no matter how much they love to turn up the volume, it’s fundamentally uncivilized and brutish to turn it up so loud that neighbors are forced to deal with it too.

    FYI, I love hauling tenants in front of the Residential Tenancy Board hearings in Toronto for loud music/noise issues. The part where the sitting adjudicator tells the offending tenant that he (it’s usually a guy) doesn’t have any enforceable rights in the matter and he has a choice - either turn down the music low enough so that it can’t be heard by any neighbor or move out (or get evicted) - is my favorite. I love it because there are certain tenants whom I just can’t get through to and whom my property managers can’t get through to despite pleading, begging, entreating and cajoling them to turn down their music. They believe that they have rights in the matter. But they don’t. At all.

    To all you apartment dwellers who really don’t get it . . . Want to listen loud? Great! It’s time to buy (or rent) your own house! If you can’t afford to do that, no problem - not everybody can. But then you’re ‘doomed’ to quiet listening through speakers. Too bad for you. Then again, the music will really still be just as good, and you won’t be half deaf by the time you hit forty. Mind you, instead of investing stupid amounts of money in loudspeakers, invest slightly smaller stupid amounts of money in headphone amps and great cans instead. Blast yourself into deafness in six months for all I care. Just don’t disturb my tenants.
     
  3. House de Kris

    House de Kris VVell-known member

    Location:
    Texas
    I live on 80 acres in the middle of nowhere. Very quiet, other than insects. Bought the place to listen to music outdoors. Works pretty good. Life hasn't always been this ideal, though.

    Previous house had a 20 foot backyard, then a 15 foot tall sound wall with a freeway on the other side. I bought it specifically for the freeway noise. I figured it'd drown out my noise from loud music since all my neighbors also had the same noise generator from the freeway masking my music. Never did get any complaints even with the music very loud. The cars only made a constant drone, which is easy enough to compensate for with louder music.

    House before that was at the end of the runway of an international airport. When the jets took off, you could put your ear physically against the speaker of the TV, turn the volume all the way up, and still not hear the TV. Needless to say, not a very good situation for listening to music, either.

    Prior to that, it was quadplexes and apartments. In my opinion, being a hi-fi enthusiast and an apartment dweller at the same time do not mix. I feel the OP's pain. Although, I never had it as bad as he reports. Worst place was above a family with a little girl learning to play the piano. If she were good or talented, I wouldn't have minded. But, she had no gift and it was excruciating to hear. I once lived next door to a woman who practiced the organ a few nights a week. That was actually nice to listen to, but I couldn't hear her singing so well.

    My advice, stop buying stereo gear and music, save all your pennies, and buy a house.
     
  4. timztunz

    timztunz Audioista

    Location:
    Texas
    What, when and how I want.
     
  5. Bill Hart

    Bill Hart Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin
    We are on 1/3 acre, adjoining another 1/2 acre that is jointly designated as a natural preserve, apart from the historic structures, right in the midst of Austin, a few blocks from everything. The insulation in this old house was so well (re)done, you cannot hear someone from one room to the next. I was listening the other night at 3 am, no issues.
     
    Aftermath and timztunz like this.
  6. I live in a typical inner suburb sub-division home and I absolutely dread certain times of the year during weekdays. Virtually every surrounding home on the block uses this local lawn service with those giant, industrial mowers that make as much noise pollution as you can imagine. If I happen to be home during a summer day, they can absolutely ruin the listening experience.

    I actually welcome the frigid winter because it means the end of lawnmower season for my neighbors.
     
    William Bryant and Dennis0675 like this.
  7. I live in a crappy apartment, with thin walls. I can hardly enjoy a movie or music without hearing a neighbors tv, stereo, or child in the background.
     
  8. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    It's my family who limits my volume, not my neighbors. I live on a 9 acre wooded lot and can only see one house from mine.
     
    Old Rusty, bluesaddict and pdxway like this.
  9. qm1ceveb

    qm1ceveb Forum fanatic

    Location:
    Fort lauderdale
    Certainly not me!
     
  10. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    For the first time in my life, I live in a bungalow which I had the basement renovated with enough soundproofing material that it allows me to blast it without any of my neighbors hearing any of it.

    When my wife goes to visit friends or family, I stay behind and crank it even 'til the wee hours of the morning. ;)
     
    eddiel, Agitater and Dennis0675 like this.
  11. Dennis0675

    Dennis0675 Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Ohio
    Exactly, unless you live alone, there is going to be some restriction. I can be in the basement and drown out a tv on the second floor. Getting the house to ones self is key. Not only for volume but also for the lack of distraction and content.
     
  12. Aftermath

    Aftermath Senior Member

    Have my own detached home, so I crank it whenever I want. The limiting factor is my tinnitus.
     
    Gavinyl likes this.
  13. Standoffish

    Standoffish Smarter than a turkey

    Location:
    North Carolina
    I don't mind the lawnmowers so much, it's those infernal leaf blowers. I'm able to hear high frequencies, and those loud, evil machines make me want to put stakes in my ears.

    As for listening to music, I live in a typical suburb. I'd have to really blast my music indoors to bother my neighbors. If I play something outdoors, I just keep it down out of respect to my neighbors.
     
    PhantomStranger and Fiddlefye like this.
  14. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    When the wife and kids are gone, yes!
     
    Erik Tracy likes this.
  15. rebellovw

    rebellovw Forum Resident

    Location:
    hell
    White noise can help blur out the other noise. Find a good ocean set of tracks and play loud enough to cover. I find longer real ocean tracks are better as you can start to memorize it when they are too short, fake and once that happens it no longer works.
     
  16. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    We've got thick walls on one side and nothing to worry about on the other. We're in a cottage in the middle of nowhere and about thirty cows across the road.
     
  17. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    Sounds like udder paradise . . .
     
    Brother_Rael likes this.
  18. Fiddlefye

    Fiddlefye Forum Resident

    I have a neighbour who insists on running a power leaf blower and other assorted small-engined power tools on Sunday mornings. Grrr.... The only other time I have real issues with noise intruding on my listening (or sleeping for that matter) is when there are big shows at Hart Plaza and other venues in downtown Detroit. Sometimes they rattle the windows here in Windsor nearly two miles away across the river. I can feel the bass shaking the floors even in the back room of the house. Amazing, actually. Ohm that and when they redid our street/water/sewer last summer. Huge earth moving machines shaking the house all day for weeks.
     
  19. John Storey

    John Storey Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Hamilton, ON
    I listen with headphones 90% of the time as a result of my poor situation for truly enjoying music through speakers at a volume that is what I feel is enough to properly listen critically to. But when I’m the only one home, I ensure I crank the hi-fi and seize the opportunity.
     
  20. Seafinch

    Seafinch Preferred Patron

    Location:
    United States
    I have a renovated detached garage. Nothing bothers me, and I’m pretty sure I don’t bother anyone.
     
  21. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    Folks, Carl's here all week...!
     
  22. 56GoldTop

    56GoldTop Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nowhere, Ok
    We added a bonus room, split in half (listening & office/den), to the back of the house when it was built. Behind that is 30 feet of backyard then another 30 feet of woods or so before hitting the back fence. Our neighbors' garages are the closest thing to us on both sides. We also live in the middle of a cul de sac; so, the plots fan out. Before I converted it into a listening room, I used it to record guitar parts (Marshall half stack, not at concert volume, but still plenty loud) for an album using only minimal noise damping. I would often track at night between 11pm and 3 am. Never woke anyone up and had to use headphones in the office (control room) to hear what I was playing. After converting it into a listening room, I stayed up many nights til the sun came up listening at comfortable levels. (It becomes a psychological thing. I found myself hesitant to turn up the volume louder for no other reason than the clock saying it was the middle of the night.) My 3rd child put an end to that room several years ago. My 1st child moved in.

    During this displacement, I had to move all my gear and records to the living room. During the day we turn it up as loud as we want to. Even cranked, you have to be standing on my porch to hear it (with the windows closed, of course). While the interaction has been great (dancing like fools with the kids), all critical listening has been done when the rest of the family is out or at night and mostly through open-back planar headphones. I was very used to the extreme quiet of the listening room. There are distinct advantages to turning down the world as opposed to turning up the volume to drown out the world. I quickly began to identify noise sources. I went as far as to pull the doorbell transformer out of the wall. In the still of the night, I could hear the 60-cycle hum as if it were a freight train. Ceiling fans had to be turned off. I replaced the HDD in the master recorder with an SSD. And, lately, I installed a power conditioner in the system. In the middle of the night, you can hear a pin drop.

    My eldest daughter wants to live on campus starting next fall. Sooooo.... I'm about to get my room back!!! I was contemplating adding a room behind the garage or converting the garage itself. That was going to be expensive. Thankfully, I won't have to do that, now, which means more funds for music and gear and music!! There is a part of me that will miss all the fun we had when the gear was in the living room. However, with two kids in college now, the family dynamic has changed, once again. Maybe the third child will frequent the listening room and become as enamored as I am with music and gear. Who knows.

    And, no, it wasn't always like this. We spent six months in an apartment with a little girl below us desperately trying to become a country music singing sensation. We spent less than six months in a duplex where the neighboring spinster threw a hissy fit whenever the stereo, or TV, was turned on, at any volume. We also spent six months in a drafty townhouse where it was so cold in the winter that the idea of sitting downstairs listening to music was just not appealing. We feel blessed to be where we are now and acknowledge that. It's also the type of music friendly environment that I grew up in. Full circle.

    I agree with those who've said go for a house (with some space between neighbors) in a residential neighborhood, if at all possible. It's worth the getting there, IMHO.
     
  23. stuwee

    stuwee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson AZ
    Hehe, mine as well, they love my music and system, the weather here in Tucson is in the 80's now during the day, I can leave the front door open. I love my house (actually it's a triplex) my unit is in front, the other two are behind around the courtyard. It was built in 1947, 1 foot thick adobe walls, very dead. When I moved in I did the clap hands test all around the main room...superb! Got the Summit's well off the back wall and over 15 feet from the side walls, all is good at casa de la stuwee :evil:

    I have 500+ watts to drive the panels, if someone complained I couldn't hear them :pineapple:. I mostly play in the 100 to 150 watt range (probably twice that with the low ohm load on the amp), headroom is your friend and nice to have around.

    I'm not a jerk about it, I will tell the neighbors if I'm having friends over for blow out!
     
    Aftermath and pdxway like this.
  24. CrimsonPiper

    CrimsonPiper Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I feel for you 93, I hope you'll be able to find a solution. I've been blessed to live in rural neighborhood since 2007, where houses have some good space between them. The fact that it's a rural neighborhood also means no street noise which I love. I do turn it down or move to headphones when it gets late and the wife and kids are asleep. Also having my listening room at a lower floor helps with volume inside the house.
     
  25. I live in the middle of nowhere! No issues for me!!
     
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