Your Apt/House Listening Room

I was just curious to know how other hi fi enthusiasts go about enjoying their hobby without disturbing the neighbors, landlord, etc.... Especially if you have large, audiophile loudspeakers and also a large collection of equipment (amps, receivers, tape machines and so forth)--> have you been lucky to find a place that has enough room to set everything up properly without costing a fortune to rent/buy and be able to listen/play music at any hour of the night ??

 

A similar thread was posted a few months ago...so you might want to search the archives for some of the comments of others. For myself, I've lived in apartments for the past 15 years and managed to incorporate my listening lifestyle into apartment living pretty successfully. You do, or should be willing to make compromises however. As far as the size of the listening room vs. the type/size of speakers, you should carefully match the speaker to the room. The "large audiophile" speakers you mention are likely a better match for a larger room. The most important compromise however, IMO, is the compromise you should make out of consideration of your neighbors. No matter how passionate we are about our listening, we have no right to inflict our hobby on others. Unfortunately in an apartment it is difficult to contain the music within the listening room. What is music to your ears is annoying racket to someone nextdoor or down stairs who is being forced to "share" your listening experience. Over the years, and as I've acquired better equipment, I find that I enjoy listening at lower levels.

Before you crank up the loud music in your apartment just do a few preliminary "sound checks". Can you hear your stereo clearly from outside your apartment?...If so, it's probably too loud. Try to put yourself in your neighbor’s shoes. How would you like it if someone with a bigger, badder, louder stereo moved in upstairs to you and flooded your listening room with their music? If you are not willing to make a few compromises with regard to listening volume and times then you should probably either change your hobby or change where you live.

Randy

 

Some speaker-amp combinations really have a knack for sounding great at low levels, and others need a bit of juice before the sound opens up and starts to bloom. The key for an apartment dweller is to seek out the former.

Since one can't crank it out, high powered amps are not required, so one can focus on high-quality low-powered amps (8-16w) and medium sensitivity (94dB) speakers. Production of high SPLs is expensive, and if you cannot go near this because you live in an apartment, you can end up with a very satisfying system that works great at low volume.

Like all "rules", there are a million exceptions.

Regards,
Geoff

 

I live in a nice solid 20's era building. Noise doesn't really travel from room to room on the same floor. If the guy right next to me has his stuff cranked, I hardly hear it.

However, upstairs is another matter. The guy above me has wood floors (mine are carpeted, unfortunatly) and I can here him sneeze. I'm guessing he hears me pretty well too.
Since he's a nice enough fellow and I can here when he's home, I keep my stuff down. I only play loud when I'm sure he's out.

I also follow the landlord's rules. After 10 p.m., the stereo is turned off.

Dan C

 

Well, without boring eveyone with my life story & personal details here, the situation with me is that I live in the house my parents bought in 1970. Back then, the price to buy it was $25,000. Nowadays, the price for these houses in the neighborhood are going for well over $300,000 (not surprising here in the boroughs of New York) . I have all my music stuff set up in the basement, the houses are all attached on the block, but I havent had any problems with sound being heard by the adjoining neighbors. I'm 38, still single. My parents are in their early 80's and retired. They used to travel a lot to visit relatives in Europe and so I was able to be here in the house- look after things while they were gone and of course do my music thing. But at their age now, they arent able to travel as much anymore so they are back here at home and while they certainly arent looking to kick me out, I feel that perhaps 38 is a bit of an advanced age to still be at home with the folks. I have two older brothers, and they already established, one is married in Long Island, the other is in Florida and owns his own home there.

I was trying to figure out what would be the best thing to do. Rent an apartment, see if can buy a house of my own, or continue staying at home (to which some girls you'd date would understand and others wouldnt).

Rental prices here in NY are insane, and finding a place that can accomodate all my music equipment- which include, guitars, books, 30 years worth of Stereo Review, High Fidelity, Audio etc... without consuming my entire monthly paycheck is going to be very difficult if not impossible. I recently went to look at a condo in the neighborhood that was just built and they want $176,000 for something that is the size of a shoebox. No way I could fit my Infinity Renaissance 90 Speakers in there, not to mention my vintage Infinity Quantum 3's. (If its hard enough to find a place to accomodate one large pair of speakers, where do ya find a place that can handle two!?)

I was thinking maybe a good idea would be to see about buying my own house... with the help of my parents, as I dont have anywhere near enough $$ saved to come up with a 20% down payment. The parents are thinking that I would live in this house after they have passed but I dont know how that would work out- as I have to take into account my two brothers who are entitled to their 1/3 of the house's worth. Even so, I dont know if I would be happy to live here, as I am pretty much out of room in the basement. The basement is about 16' wide and 30' long but the stairs, the wash machine, the heater, bathroom/shower, closet full of books etc all take portions of the space. Ceiling is very low- barely 6' 4". I really dont see how setting up any music equipment upstairs would work- as thats where the kitchen is and the dining room- and I dont think any diningroom would look good at all for music purposes. The layout of the living room upstairs also doesnt really seem to lend itself to music either and neither do the 3 bedrooms on the upper floor. And even if I could put musical equipement up there, I am sure bothering the neighbors might be more of a problem as the houses are attached but atleast down in the basement there is a thick concrete wall to contain sound.
So, basically, the house I'm in now, as I'm sure most houses are, are designed to be family homes- the typical wife & kids layout, not designed for the audiophile bachelor. I was thinking maybe I could just stop in at a local Realtor's office, explain my situation and obtain some consultation on what the best plan would be for me. That is if I dont get laughed or kicked out of the place after I mention the hi fi quipement situation and my requirements for finding a place that has enough space. If there was a possibility I could go the home-buying route, I would have to be extra careful in what I would buy, as unfortunately, I know next to nothing about the structure of a house or have any handy skills to do much home improvement work. Some people might suggest Renting for now- but to me thats like throwing money away for nothing- thousands of dollars over the months that could instead go toward a down payment on a home. With the high cost of rent, there would not be much left that I could save towards a house anyway. And to me, if I have to pay like $1200/month and yet I have to be restricted to when I can play/listen to music... well, I dont think I'd like that very much. I can understand in a way the opposing pt of view, but still, what good is paying that kind of Rent to be independent from mother/father only to feel like the Lanlord's prisoner? I am trying to motivate myself to resolve this situation Now rather than to procrastinate and wait. If I were 23 again, I wouldnt feel pressed for time, but the big 4-0 will be here soon enough and I realize how fast the time goes by now- Geez- it only felt like yesterday that I was 30, and that was back only in 1994! And my parents wont be around forever either, so I 'd rather take care of matters now instead of waiting till theyre gone and then be forced into doing something whether I am ready or not.

If there are any Members on this site who work in the Real Estate business, as well as Lawyers, or Home Construction people- who might be able to advise me- please feel free to email me. Lawyers & Realtors in that I would like to learn more about all the contractual matters that would be involved here- to finance and buy a home (in simple language), or to advise on the best way to handle my parents home when they arent around anymore, so that me/ my brothers avoid losing any money to paying Taxes because we (or I) didnt know anything about such Rules when a house is sold or passed onto family. Home Construction refers to my interest in learning what types of houses (types of walls, floors, etc) are best at containing sound so as to not disturb neighbors. Or what would be involved to do work on a home to make it more audiophile friendly.

Thanks for reading, Sincerely, B/F.

 

Beatle Fred,you might want to look for a small single family house w/ a basement in one of the suburbs around NYC.A two bedroom will be cheaper.Brick looks better longer.It might take a lot of legwork but it possible to turn up something nice.The older suburbs usually have nicer downtown areas and good train and highway access.A good home inspector will let you know what kind of shape your house is in.Then,get ready to visit Home Depot.Good luck.

 

My wife was offered a job in NYC a few years ago. When we went house hunting the sticker shock nearly caused major heart damage. $3000 a month for a decent apt WOW!
My brother lives in a building in Seattle and he put some sort of soundproof foam on the floors and walls. That seems to hold the sound in fairly well.