Woofer shaking walls. HELP!!!

[maddynator]

Hi Folks,
Having a problem with the sub. The problem in not sound or a humming noise. Its the ******* wall shakes. I hooked up my sub and within 30 minutes I had my neighbor complain that their walls are shaking. I recently moved into a new place from which I cannot move out for atleast a couple of years so I am out of luck in that department. So this is what I have done so far and would really appreciate your help.
1) Changed the sub from down-firing to front-firing. It has helped but it still shakes the walls. Not as bad as it was before, but still its there.
2) Moved it away from the corner. Now its next to back wall and 1 meter from side wall.

I was planning to wall mount rear speakers but I think if I do that then they will also shake the wall. So I think I have to settle for speaker stands which I hate.
Is there any trick to this or I am making a false assumption regarding mount the speakers and wall shake?

I read online that putting spikes and changing the phase from 0 to 180 degree helps as well. As a newbie, not sure how much these changes will make a difference but will surely try them out tonight. Also heard of something call Auralex Subdude. Has anyone tried that?

I dont want to turn down the sub as I like deep bass but I also don't want walls to shake and at the same time annoy my neighbor. I will trying moving it to a different location as well if that helps. But can anyone suggest anything else that you may think would be really useful and help me overcome this problem?


Thanks
--maddynator

 

[roberto]

Hola. If you are shaking the walls, you are overlevel. You a listening only to boooooom and not the bass notes where the bass player is. I love deep notes too. I assure you that my walls are not shaking. You can build bass traps, and perhaps these might help to reduce the resonaces and your room boundaries. If you leave your sub firing to the floor, you will get better deep low frequency. Visit this page and you can build this> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyYUpkpL0gw
Hope this can help... happy listening,
Roberto.

 

[repman]

The subdude will definitely help but as Roberto stated it sounds like you have the level set way to hot

 

[FoxMulder]

I agree with the above. Turn it down.

 

[shakham]

Agree with the above Subdude will work wonders. Also put spikes as well.

 

[Gordon Gray]

Maddy,

Not saying you are guilty of this but too many folks set the sub level too high.

Not only does it cause problems with your neighbors, it also adversely affects the overall quality of the entire sound spectrum. Excessive volume and too high a cross over point will negatively impact literally everything one should hopefully want. This includes closing down the dimensionality, an over ripe mid range, which compromises transparency and speed, as well as a soupy top end, which will rob music of its sparkle.

Find yourself a well recorded jazz CD with an acoustic bass as part of the mix. Many Patricia Barber CD's fill this bill quite well. I'd suggest Modern Cool. Tune the acoustic bass so that the mid bass is quick (listen for string snap) and clearly allows you to hear the various bass notes. The lower bass should be full / defined but not boomy. Next, check the voice so that it has presence and dimensionality without being over sibilant and blends tonally with the mid / lower bass.

Oh yes, vibration attenuation will also be helpful as suggested by others.

GG

 

[churchill]

I agree with turning it down and you might try the ASC Sub Trap: http://www.asc-hifi.com/sub-trap.htm

 

[Bernard]

I read somewhere (here?) that the level of the sub should be set such that you don't notice that it's operating until you turn it off, i.e. it should be a subtle addition to your system rather than a dominant part.

 

[roberto]

Hola. 100% agreed with Bernard. His advise is a truly high-end sound recommendation!!!. We should feel the deep lower bass notes, note listen to them...happy listening,
Roberto.:rocker:

 

[JONERVI]

If you have the option, increase the LFE output on your pre/processor and decrease the output level on the sub, you will have success.

Good Luck!

 

[dmusoke]

I'm not comfortable at all setting the bass levels by ear. It would be so dependent on the source used for that test and you;d get incounsistent results if you played other sources. Please get a HD calibration disk such as by AIX or AVIA. Play the MCH test tracks(LPCM) to level match all your speakers, including the sub. Ofcourse this will require a sound pressure level meter, such as the one from radioshack (It is affordable at under $60 or so). In tis way, you will not worry about getting the bass levels right.

David

 

[shakham]

I know this isn't audiophile for me to say this, but sometimes you want to feel the rumble. Point is you want to do this without shaking the walls, loose furniture, etc.

As well as tuning my sub with an SPL meter, I removed loose rattles and extraneous room noises by using a frequency generator app on my iPad. You can set the precise frequency creating a reverb and fix it. I had picture frames where I need foam pad. The door needed a little weather stripping.

Maybe you can run a test with your neighbor. Hand him an SPL meter and find out which frequencies are causing vibrations (this is after isolating your sub from the room) and then go from there.

Education never hurts.

 

[Gordon Gray]

David,

Understand your perspective and you said it accurately. LFE will vary depending on source material, which is why I come to the opposite conclusion.

You should set using your ears with a well recorded piece with mid / low bass energy. For two channel, use something like Patricia Barber, which contains a well recorded acoustic bass. At least you have some type of "real world" instrument that you can use to adjust your system.

Otherwise, it's totally hit and miss.

I assume there's also some type of reference material you can use with 5.1 systems.

Maybe the calibration discs you mention have that exact type of material and my perspective / experience is moot. But even using those discs, my sense is that you will still get uneven results over a broad base of material thereby "getting the bass" right a difficult proposition at best.

GG

 

[User211]

Get a dipole sub. You will find it agitates the room a lot less.

 

[User211]

I thought I'd qualify my last post.

Fact 1: used to run a pair of Ascents. Outside of the room, the sound of the bass cones really travels.

Fact 2: run a pair of full range dipoles that extend to well below 30Hz. Outside of the room, the bass is output is much less apparent.

Fact 3: at a recent hi-fi party, we noted that the little dynamic M&D speakers I have sounded much louder from the garden than the vastly bigger full range dipoles.

Quite why this is, I'm not entirely sure.

 

[Bernard]

Get a dipole sub. You will find it agitates the room a lot less.

Justin, but even with a dipole sub if the level is set way too high (as is obviously the case here - I'm not diplomatic) will you not still have a problem ?

 

[User211]

Justin, but even with a dipole sub if the level is set way too high (as is obviously the case here - I'm not diplomatic) will you not still have a problem ?

Less of one with a dipole sub...

The Descent I have drives the wife crazy and she's usually one floor up and not on top of the room I'm in. The Descent is a bad boy as it fires in a triangular fashion. What's more - it is a concentrated thud from a relatively small surface area with big excursions. Spread it over a much larger area with smaller excursion is probably why panel bass permeates to a much lesser degree. But I still reckon a normal cone dipole bass is less of a bad boy than a sealed box in this regard. That maybe due to cancellation occuring in some way, shape or form, in a manner than is not the same as a sealed box implementation.

People - I am just guessing here - I am not an acoustics expert. I'm just going on what I think I have heard. Take what I am saying at your own risk