Noise complaint

My across the street neighbor said they can hear my music when they are outside the house. I can also hear him blast his guitar amp when I am outside my house. Good thing is we can't hear each others inside our house....

But my peak spl typically is 90db. Sometimes will reach 95db+, but rarely would play that loud.

95db average will be very hard to not heard by neighbors. Other than specifically built room, I don't think the sound issue can be resolved easily....

 

I wish there was more people like you.

I live in a house out in the country. I highly suggest it!

 

Get a tube amp for your garage.You won't need to play as loud to enjoy your music.

 

Or at the very least,your neighbor will remark on the improved sound quality.

 

He has a tube amp in the garage.
Tubes forever man.

 

It's not a question of how hard he's driving his amp but rather how much volume/noise is being projected out of the speakers. Whether an amp has tubes or not has no bearing whatsoever on how loud it'll be heard. If he's going for roughly 95db, tube or not won't change that. He likes it LOUD!

 

Try some Mini Maggie's in the garage. Orient the speakers so the skinny edge faces the neighbors. No more neighbor bass problems (and no more bass).

 

I think that @DyersEve726 has made an excellent suggestion. If nothing else, it is an easy and a good way to start.

What I was going to comment on is that garages are not usually insulated as well as the rest of your home would be, problem number one.

Problem number two, is that it is the bass that is bothering him. That is a concern, as bass is very hard to prevent going through walls. I doubt that it would be worth your while to try to go to the trouble and expense that would be necessary to try to prevent bass from going through walls that would be quite transparent at bass frequencies. I would consider the bass traps and see how effective they are and not go any farther.

You have a nice stereo in the house, there is really no good reason the you would have to blast at the SPL's that you have been doing in your garage. The easiest approach is just not to do it.

Why create more unnecessary work for yourself. effectively stopping bass requires very thick dense foam or concrete.

In South Florida, our walls are all concrete block, so bass transmission is less than a problem. You need heavy dense material to stop bass.

 

One further comment: your neighbour may well find that the music sounds very pleasant to him when you invite him into your listening space does not sound at all pleasant from his house. On one occasion I was compelled to go upstairs late at night and knock on someone's door to ask them to turn the volume down or off. When they opened the door and I heard the music with all its frequencies, it was actually quite nice music. when I could only hear the bass, it sounded horrible.

 

Just invite DeWaybe for a drink and listen to some music together...

 

Howdy S & G

We don't have much masinary around these parts but the garage is 2x6 construction with R20 insulation, a standard in most house's here, garages less.
I also have my doubts about how effective the changes I could make will be. But if it means spending a lot of time but hopefully not to much money I think it's worth a try.

 

It’s worth investigating a couple of things.
Can you get in between the garage and his house to listen? Try increasing volume until you can hear it there to see where your safe zone is?
Determine whether it is airborne sound traveling through the wall or physical vibration if the speakers are on a wall mounted shelf?

If your shelf and wall are sympathetic to the bass frequencies being produced, you’re basically turning your outside wall into a big diaphragm, which in turn, could be transmitting a ton of energy across the gap to his wall.

If it is a physical vibration issue, the closer the shelf is to the Center of the wall, the worse the bass issue will be.
Tap a drum skin in the center, you get a fundamental, or lower frequency. Tap it on the edge, you get stronger high end harmonics and less lower fundamental.
Similar issue would happen with a sub in the Center of a room and a downstairs neighbor.

You might get lucky and solve the problem by isolating the speakers from whatever they are sitting on.

Also remember that the sound that is escaping is sound energy you are effectively loosing and not enjoying!

 

Howdy to you too tmsorosk!

I don't think you are gonna get through this thin cheaply. It is very hard to isolate bass frequencies. Without concrete, they pass through construction as you have just described as it it was not even there.

The first thing that you will need to do, is to buy an inexpensive sound meter that has the "C" rating scale, which is sensitive to bass frequencies (down to a point).

Re create the conditions of playing your music loud and go outside between your house and your neighbor's house and see what the SPL meter is telling you. Switch to the "A" scale and see what it would be measuring without the bass frequencies.

What I would do is to buy some dura rock, or equivalent cement board. It comes in heavy sheets the size of sheets of drywall.

Install these on the garage wall on the side of your neighbor's house.

If you need some insulation in the ceiling, try thick Rock Wool or a layer or two of Quiet Batt 30 sound insulation.

That should at least attenuate it down to the point that it will not bother your neighbor.

IMO, it will be the easiest and least expensive of methods to block bass frequencies.

You need really heavy and dense wall board to accomplish this and using cement board will be your best and easiest bet for achieving this.

 

I had a similar issue when I lived in an apartment. I saved my loud listening sessions for when the neighbours were away on holiday. Quite frustrating but it was a way to avoid any potential disputes.

 

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From what I can tell via the sound coming from my neighbors, they're too busy inflicting physical violence upon each other to notice any rumblings coming from my side of the wall.

 

Run some woodworking equipment or work on a Harley in the garage. The neighbor will grow to miss the sound of music by comparison.

95db is pretty hot for the garage but a couple songs at 6pm shouldn’t be a big deal. It’s a world full is sound and noise, no one gets a guarantee of silence. I can hear a train in the middle of the night, who do I get to complain to about that?

 

Noise complaint.. Audiophile kryptonite. Bummer

 

Perhaps but this isn't a couple of songs. The neighbor states he hears loud bass indoors every night. Assuming this is all true, I think he isn't unreasonable to complain. If it were a couple of songs once in a while at 6pm, I agree that it'd be silly to complain about that.

 

"If it's too loud, you're too old."

 

Complain to anyone you want. A train passing by only lasts a minute or so, a neighbor blasting music can go on for hours. A false equivalent technique used in many arguments (rarely as sarcasm).

 

Damn, man. Why you gotta hit me with a false equivalency charge this early in the morning?

 

Now that was funny, laughed my head off

 

That maybe laugh my head off also. You guys are killing me this morning