Soundproofing a subwoofer for the neighbors below?

[FlyingDragonFan]

Last night I helped my friend hook up her new surround-sound system. After it was all hooked up and I cranked the 311, I noticed that the subwoofer, which has the speaker and tube pointed downwards, probably makes enough noise to bother the neighbor downstairs.

The floor is wood, I'm assuming with a concrete base. Is there a way to keep too much of the bass from transferring through the floor, without muffling the sound for us? Some sort of pad, or even just a piece of carpet? And is it necessary?

Thanks in advance.

[EJRothman]

I just picked up one of these for my sub: SubDude

-Eric

[mbroadus]

I have hardwood floors also and I have my sub on a Subdude: Sudude from Sweetwater with free shipping.

[Jake04Goat]

I'd bought some IsoPads for my center channel and had two left over. Used those for under my sub. They're the same material as the subdude. We've never had a complaint from any neighbor in our building. I've had a couple movies shake the floor but no one's said anything yet. We actually asked our downstairs neighbor if she could hear anything and she said no. The IsoPads didn't make a difference as far as floor-shaking goes.

[cecaa850]

Isolators will decouple your sub from the floor and help reduce the mechanical vibrations of the sub on the floor. The sound waves from the sub however, are so long that they easily travel through walls and floors. An isolator won't help there.

[eya]

I'm looking for anti-vibration stuff for my 2 front speakers (towers)

I found several references for Isopads :

http://www.the-right-stuff.net/wst_page6.html
http://www.euro-reef.com/products-isopads.shtml (cheaper, but more professionnal though not designed for speakers ; but where to buy ?)
http://www.primacoustic.com/isopad.htm (also cheaper, designed for speakers)

Which would you recommend ? Looks like to me it's still expensive for what it's being made of (though cheaper than snake oil spikes ) Isn't there some cheap stuff one can buy at the local Home Depot, that will just work as well ?

BTW, the best way for decoupling/improving the sound of your receiver is to buy... copper scratch sponges ! No kidding, there's a serious french researcher (often cited in "Diapason", the french equivalent of Stereophile) that's been working years on the topic of cables/receivers/... He came up with a lot of patents and a theory on "micro-discharges". He has invented lots of expensive materials/cables, but found that the best improvment 5at least for receivers decoupling, instead of buying 100$/pc spikes) came found those copper sponges. The bad thing is that regular (iron?) or brass one won't work, and copper one are hard to find (I once ran across them in a small counrtiside shop - bought all of them !).

[drunkonjack]

I tell my neighbors just to get use to it . I put up with there **** and don't complain so they can put up with mine

[eya]

Originally Posted by drunkonjack

I tell my neighbors just to get use to it . I put up with there **** and don't complain so they can put up with mine

I'm european, so I have to act more civilized
And moving to a single family/person house is not an option

[monsteraudio]

Originally Posted by eya

I'm european, so I have to act more civilized
And moving to a single family/person house is not an option

what does that mean? try some area rugs with 8 mm cork under them that is a cheap way out there are many sound suppression underlayments, 20/20 hindsight but should be some in between the wood and concrete, that is always ideal

[burdell1]

has there been any other new products for preventing subwoofer noise in other people's apartments? i just installed my receiver and my neighbor already has started banging on the walls.

[psxndc]

Assuming I'd use the the SubDude mentioned above regardless of the answer to the question that follows, will a front-firing sub bother the downstairs neighbors as much as a down-firing sub? I realize LFEs don't sound directional, but the sound waves are still displacing air in a particular direction. It seems logical to me that in a vertical living arrangement, a front-firing sub would be a better fit neighbor acceptance factor-wise (can I coin "NAF"?).

Unfortunately the Hsu VTF-2.3 keeps getting slightly better marks than the front-firing SVS PB-12. I am not trying to start another Hsu vs. SVS flame war, but this is the last piece of my 5.1 set up and this one aspect is holding me back. Can I really scale the VTF-2.3 back enough where it is only moderately loud and won't bother them? For all I know, my neighbors may be cool about it (just out of college kids, keep late hours).

Thanks!

[crackyflipside]

Get the subdude and run at reasonable levels. Maybe even negotiate with your neighbor a reasonable sound that is good for the both of you.

And whenever you want to have a all out theater-loud movie experience, please notify your neighbor about it and most of the time they will not even mind! If you are friendly with your neighbor there is alot less of a chance of him calling the cops on you.

I live in a house but my neighbors next door love to blast their tejano music at full blast from about four cars in their yard. I would say about 85db from my yard! It got to the point where twice a week they would be blasting music until 4am on a Sunday. Now by the time they played the first song the cops have already showed up. If they just had played the damn music in their house none of this would ever happen.