Advice on using a subwoofer in an apartment

[Robert D]

Questions about using a sub in an apartment. My daughter and roommate are going to be in an apartment at college. She'll be on the third floor, so neighbors below and to both sides. The 3rd floor is the top. The family room ,where the sub will be, has their two bedrooms next to it and so that side has a two room buffer before sound travels into the next apartment.
I'm hoping to place the sub next to their 2 bedrooms to minimize disturbing the neighbors. Has anyone here ever used a decent sub in an apartment and not had any problems with neighbors as long as volume is reasonable?
They will be using my old Depth i subwoofer. It's three 8 inch woofers.

Has anyone ever used the feature called Audyssey LFC? The containment can be set for between 1 and 7. I'm wondering if it helps and if it's a must have. The apartments are quite nice and upscale, rather new also. Not sure how insulation is. I read that this Audyssey setting cuts way down on lower frequencies, and I'm wondering if it mostly ruins having a sub.
I think just setting the gain level on the sub lower might be better? I want them to have a nice sounding system but not bother anyone else and cause trouble with neighbors. My daughter is well behaved and doesn't play anything very loud, unlike me!
I've never personally used a subwoofer in an apartment, and so I have zero experience with this. Any advice? Should we just forget the sub and just leave it home? The two front mains and center speakers are all old Definitive speakers with 6 inch woofers. The left and right are Dr7 speakers, I forget what the center is but it basically has two of those woofers. The speakers don't go very low. Am I asking for trouble using a sub? DR7s below.

 

[Russr]

Hey Robert

Couple of quick questions/observations:

Is the apartment building timber or concrete construction?

What is the coupling between the main/center speakers & the floor/furniture/stand?

How critical are the listeners, or is this mostly for background music and/or movies?

What amplification are you using (for the mains)?

Russ

 

[Robert D]

Hey Robert

Couple of quick questions/observations:

Is the apartment building timber or concrete construction?

What is the coupling between the main/center speakers & the floor/furniture/stand?

How critical are the listeners, or is this mostly for background music and/or movies?

What amplification are you using (for the mains)?

Russ

I'm guessing it's timber built because the facade is siding and brick.

The center channel will be sitting on the TV console, and the console is on metal wheels. The wheels will be sitting on rubber coasters. The main speakers and rears will be on spikes. The subwoofer will be on feet with rubber coasters under. I believe the floor is that luxury vinyl planking.
Listening isn't real critical. Mostly for viewing tv/movies and light music listening.
They'll be using a Marantz receiver to power the rears and I have an Emotiva 3 channel amp on its way for the 3 front speakers. The front mains amp died on the Marantz.

 

[Robert D]

This amp.

https://emotiva.com/products/basx-a3-three-channel-power-amplifier

 

[ttocs]

Isoacoustics Aperta Sub

I love the Isoacoustics products. After getting their footers for the subs, the window rattle went away - except at more extreme volume levels, but the point is that the mechanical coupling was greatly reduced so most of what's left is airborne.

Another thing that can be done is to use DSP to squelch problematic frequencies, and/or, cut off below a certain frequency altogether.

I installed GAIA footers on my subs. The Aperta Sub series just came out this year.

 

[Robert D]

Isoacoustics Aperta Sub

I love the Isoacoustics products. After getting their footers for the subs, the window rattle went away - except at more extreme volume levels, but the point is that the mechanical coupling was greatly reduced so most of what's left is airborne.

Another thing that can be done is to use DSP to squelch problematic frequencies, and/or, cut off below a certain frequency altogether.

I installed GAIA footers on my subs. The Aperta Sub series just came out this year.

I think the Audyssey LFC setting will help a lot. That's probably what I will do. I presume it's mostly the low frequencies to watch out for.
I'll take a look at the article you linked. I'm hoping this dsp setting varies whst it does relevant to volume level.

 

[Russr]

... and hopefully it's NOT YOU carrying the sub around!

Looks like you're going slightly over-the-top for a "dorm room", but then again, isn't that why we are all here?!

Seriously, tho' I would probably have put the speakers & the Marantz in, and waited for complaints from the kids. THEN consider putting sub & LCR amp in. Asides frm everything else, having a sub takes the probability of neighbours complaining from "likely" to "Definite"! I'm assuming that you have spoiled them rotten with great sounding audio & kick-a$$ movie soundtracks, so they might have higher expectations than most MP3-goblling kids these days...

Then again, I got a 15 yr old VW golf as my first car, and my first sound system in college was an Aiwa tape deck & Sennheiser 410's that I bought using my stereo-store-gofer income!

In any case, I hope they enjoy their system, and YOU good Sir, don't overdo things health-wise!

 

[Robert D]

... and hopefully it's NOT YOU carrying the sub around!

Looks like you're going slightly over-the-top for a "dorm room", but then again, isn't that why we are all here?!

Seriously, tho' I would probably have put the speakers & the Marantz in, and waited for complaints from the kids. THEN consider putting sub & LCR amp in. Asides frm everything else, having a sub takes the probability of neighbours complaining from "likely" to "Definite"! I'm assuming that you have spoiled them rotten with great sounding audio & kick-a$$ movie soundtracks, so they might have higher expectations than most MP3-goblling kids these days...

Then again, I got a 15 yr old VW golf as my first car, and my first sound system in college was an Aiwa tape deck & Sennheiser 410's that I bought using my stereo-store-gofer income!

In any case, I hope they enjoy their system, and YOU good Sir, don't overdo things health-wise!

This is actually a true apartment, not run by the university. The university housing department is lousy and screwed us over. We had to demand our $$ back.
I'm probably just going to use that LFC setting to neuter the low bass. It's supposed to limit bass waves from transferring into the walls and floor. If that's not enough, they can turn down the gain on the sub.
I'm just not sure how much an apartment like this can handle. I'm hoping to get some first hand experience here. I think we have some members that live in apartments.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

I actually have 4 12" subs stacked up in the corner of my 1 bedroom apartment lol. When I used to run just a single subwoofer I found that decoupling it from the floor with some nice big rubber feet cut down the vibrations down a lot.

I used these with really good results, definitely recommend.

 

[Robert D]

I ordered this on Amazon. Looks like it works well.

 

[amey01]

Just common sense / common courtesy when you’re sharing a building with other people. Keep it down to a reasonable level, and make sure it’s all off when reasonable people are sleeping.

I’d be more impressed if they actually use it. I’d imagine they’ll just end using a Sony or Bose Bluetooth speaker! So report back, haha.

 

[Robert D]

Just common sense / common courtesy when you’re sharing a building with other people. Keep it down to a reasonable level, and make sure it’s all off when reasonable people are sleeping.

I’d be more impressed if they actually use it. I’d imagine they’ll just end using a Sony or Bose Bluetooth speaker! So report back, haha.

Theyll probably primarily use it for tv/ movies (home theater). I imgaine they might stream some apple music through it, but theyll probably use primarily headphones with their phones for that I bet. She does use my big setup here to listen on occasion. Music will probably be limited mostly to background stuff while doing things around the apartment. They arent party people, so no late night disturbances.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Just common sense / common courtesy when you’re sharing a building with other people. Keep it down to a reasonable level, and make sure it’s all off when reasonable people are sleeping.

I’d be more impressed if they actually use it. I’d imagine they’ll just end using a Sony or Bose Bluetooth speaker! So report back, haha.

This is probably the most important but right here. Just be respectful of those around you during the later hours of the evening and I'd imagine you'll be fine. Even in my cement tomb of a building I make sure to knock it off before 10PM.

 

[Robert D]

This is probably the most important but right here. Just be respectful of those around you during the later hours of the evening and I'd imagine you'll be fine. Even in my cement tomb of a building I make sure to knock it off before 10PM.

Are you able to watch movies after 10 pm without bothering anyone, or is it pretty much tv off at 10? I imagine you can just turn the volume down, keep noise no more than 60 dB or so?

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Oh for sure, I just turn the volume down a bit. I almost never turn the subwoofer amp off and so far I've never had a complaint.

Sometimes I play some music at a higher volume and go take the garbage out to see if I can still hear it in the hallway. Typically after I'm a few feet down the hallway the noise all but disappears.

 

[Nuri58]

You surely could profit from using night mode. If it's the dynamo in the app, otherwise i trust the amp.