Hi guys, I need some advice. Not sure if this is the right forum to post it in, but it's related to my sub problem so I'm hoping someone can enlighten me..
PREAMBLE:
I have a respectable home studio with 14 different speakers in it, three of which are subs, coming to some 4,000W of power in a regular livingroom sized room.
Gear list:
- 2x Peavey Subcompact 18's
- 2x Hitachi HS-430's (12" 3-ways)
- 2x Technics 10" 3-ways
- 2x Technics 6" 3-ways (bookshelfs)
- 2x KRK Rokit 8's
- 2x nEar 05 by ESI (Powered nearfields)
- 1 Pioneer center speaker (two 8" + tweet)
- 1 Yorkville NX720S 15" powered sub
The attached pic is a little bit older, before I added the 10" Tech 3-way's. The Subcompact's are under the Hitachi 3-ways on either side, and the Yorkie is directly behind my back, it sits right at crotch level under the desk (in fact, the rear legs of the desk aren't even on, the desk is resting on the Yorkie). The Yorkville is sitting on the fireplace ledge and it backs right up to the (no longer in use) fireplace which is covered by a sheet of plywood. It fits squarely in front of the (blocked) fireplace cavity.
I set it up like this because I liked the shape of the room, and I have a LOT of stuff to fit into it (4 guitars, drum set, vocal "area" bass guitar piano organ accordion beer fridge etc).
THE PROBLEM:
With that out of the way.. my problem is this: my neighbor directly across the street has me on speed-dial thanks to my righteous sound system. Nobody else in the neighborhood can hear it (I have a pretty big corner lot, it's a square kilometer in size but it is still a residential suburban neighborhood). It baffled me for a long time, because the speakers are parallel to the street (in the picture, it is directly to my right) so I would expect the neighbors in the next house down to complain, but they've never heard it. Not even with all the big guns turned on.
Here's the thing - I totally expect the phone to ring if I'm blasting everything at peak, but he's come and knocked on my door when I had only the KRK's and the Yorkville turned on down at -20db... it was loud enough that it sounded good but that I could have spoken with someone in the same room without raising my voice.
I don't want to disturb anyone, I live in this huge house without roomates because I know I make a lot of noise.
Could it be that the rear wave coming off the Yorkville is piping up my chimney and turning my whole house into a sub? If so, what am I to do about it without unbalancing the compression in the room? Turn it off and just use the 18's?
Thanks very much in advance.
PREAMBLE:
I have a respectable home studio with 14 different speakers in it, three of which are subs, coming to some 4,000W of power in a regular livingroom sized room.
Gear list:
- 2x Peavey Subcompact 18's
- 2x Hitachi HS-430's (12" 3-ways)
- 2x Technics 10" 3-ways
- 2x Technics 6" 3-ways (bookshelfs)
- 2x KRK Rokit 8's
- 2x nEar 05 by ESI (Powered nearfields)
- 1 Pioneer center speaker (two 8" + tweet)
- 1 Yorkville NX720S 15" powered sub
The attached pic is a little bit older, before I added the 10" Tech 3-way's. The Subcompact's are under the Hitachi 3-ways on either side, and the Yorkie is directly behind my back, it sits right at crotch level under the desk (in fact, the rear legs of the desk aren't even on, the desk is resting on the Yorkie). The Yorkville is sitting on the fireplace ledge and it backs right up to the (no longer in use) fireplace which is covered by a sheet of plywood. It fits squarely in front of the (blocked) fireplace cavity.
I set it up like this because I liked the shape of the room, and I have a LOT of stuff to fit into it (4 guitars, drum set, vocal "area" bass guitar piano organ accordion beer fridge etc).
THE PROBLEM:
With that out of the way.. my problem is this: my neighbor directly across the street has me on speed-dial thanks to my righteous sound system. Nobody else in the neighborhood can hear it (I have a pretty big corner lot, it's a square kilometer in size but it is still a residential suburban neighborhood). It baffled me for a long time, because the speakers are parallel to the street (in the picture, it is directly to my right) so I would expect the neighbors in the next house down to complain, but they've never heard it. Not even with all the big guns turned on.
Here's the thing - I totally expect the phone to ring if I'm blasting everything at peak, but he's come and knocked on my door when I had only the KRK's and the Yorkville turned on down at -20db... it was loud enough that it sounded good but that I could have spoken with someone in the same room without raising my voice.
I don't want to disturb anyone, I live in this huge house without roomates because I know I make a lot of noise.
Could it be that the rear wave coming off the Yorkville is piping up my chimney and turning my whole house into a sub? If so, what am I to do about it without unbalancing the compression in the room? Turn it off and just use the 18's?
Thanks very much in advance.
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@turbodawg .. inb4 OP is a ..
@NEO Dan : I tend to agree, he says it manifests over there as a picture rattling in his daughter's room (and didn't like MY idea of putting some foam tape on the back of the picture). What to do tho?
@NEO Dan : I tend to agree, he says it manifests over there as a picture rattling in his daughter's room (and didn't like MY idea of putting some foam tape on the back of the picture). What to do tho?
Keep the SPL below the legal limit at the edge of your property and give him a roll of foam tape if you like... 😀
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Try and stuff your own chimney and see if it makes a difference?
Open one or several doors in your house?
Open one or several doors in your house?
Starflower,
Bass can go right through any openings, but if your fireplace is open you have a serious heat/cool loss going on, fix it. If you have single pane windows, same thing and they transmit LF sound almost like they are open.
If you have a properly designed "home studio", sound ingress/egress should be around 20 dB (or hopefully far more) at low frequencies, to rattle pictures across the street means your "home studio" is more like a barn with a door open.
Have you ever used a dB meter, checked inside and then and walked across the street while your system is playing to see what the SPL level is?
Art
I thought of that before installation, it's packed with old pillows 😛 Bass can go through ten feet of cement tho, so I doubt if the pillows do anything besides squelching the mids and highs.
Great idea 🙂
LOL ya well actually I've researched the municipal bylaw (after enforcement showed up at my door and said "DUDE!"). It actually states that ANY noise which inhibits the quiet enjoyment of their property, regardless of time.
Anyway, it's a nice neighborhood and I like to be a good neighbor, I just want to be able to loudly enjoy my own property sometimes 😀
LOL ya well actually I've researched the municipal bylaw (after enforcement showed up at my door and said "DUDE!"). It actually states that ANY noise which inhibits the quiet enjoyment of their property, regardless of time.
Anyway, it's a nice neighborhood and I like to be a good neighbor, I just want to be able to loudly enjoy my own property sometimes 😀
Fireplace is stuffed with old pillows and then capped with a 3/4" plywood. As well, the window has been stuffed with 8" high density foam.. the problem's not with the mids and highs its the LOW LOW that the 18"'s and 15" make (in particular the 15" because even with the 18"'s off it disturbs him, which is why I suspect the position of it, backing right into the fireplace. Even if it's stuffed, that bass is just firing straight into it.
My studio is not "properly designed" I haven't had any acoustic engineers out here, I've just set it up so it sounds amazing when you're sitting at the sweet spot, right in front of the console. That's why I'm asking for help 😛 I can't read sheet music either but I can play about 15 instruments and have recorded hundreds of songs.
My guess would be rather than a port, what you have is a lever. I forget what such a radiator is called, but I suspect that when your sub shakes the fireplace, the length of the chimney amplifies the motion.
That's assuming the chimney is the culprit, and you're not simply dealing with ground conduction and sympathetic resonances between your cellar hole and his.
That's assuming the chimney is the culprit, and you're not simply dealing with ground conduction and sympathetic resonances between your cellar hole and his.
Gee, I have foam tape on all my pictures, a pad pushing on the back of my china cabinet, and nick-Knacks held in place with blu-tac.
I do slow sweeps with an old analog signal generator to find everything that shakes, then fix it one at a time. The strangest one was my center channel. When listening to music, I detected an oddity. Something was not right in the bass. Search and search. It was acting like a Helmholtz resonator trap right at 75 Hz. Huge dip. Tossed the center as we sit pretty much in front of the TV anyway. The one thing I can't fix is one of my windows, the internal grid resonates. Only one of 4 windows does it.
I do slow sweeps with an old analog signal generator to find everything that shakes, then fix it one at a time. The strangest one was my center channel. When listening to music, I detected an oddity. Something was not right in the bass. Search and search. It was acting like a Helmholtz resonator trap right at 75 Hz. Huge dip. Tossed the center as we sit pretty much in front of the TV anyway. The one thing I can't fix is one of my windows, the internal grid resonates. Only one of 4 windows does it.
Old pillows and a "capped" plywood may not put the cap on the woof.
Have no idea where & how the 8" high density foam is applied, but again, would suggest you check the problem from the outside with a dB meter if you really want to be a "good neighbor".
LF caries at the true inverse distance law (6 dB reduction for doubling distance), if you are doing 120 dB inside your house, and your house only has 10 dB reduction ( it might have exterior amplification at some specific frequency due to the chimney duct or window resonance or something else), at 16 meters (52 feet, about the usual "across the street" distance) from your house you have 80 dB there at the house across the street.
As NEO Dan said, that could still easily result in a picture rattling due to that house's resonating.
I am glad nobody lives within 200 feet of me..
my father had a home studio in his 30s house. The sub support was housed in the redundant fireplace. It seemed like a good space saving idea. I honestly have no idea if the flue was sealed or open, but if it were open then he couldve had the same issue himself. Sadly he passed before i got the chance to ask. In answer to your question id say it was likely the chimney is doing something. The ply covering the hearth could be acting like a diaphragm and resonating. This could be coupling to the column of air in the chimney. Alternatively, if your floor is sprung and not solid concrete it could be thd sub placement exciting the floorboards.
I don't have a soundmeter but I do have a soundmeter app for my android... close enough?
The house is a split level entry, so you come in the front door and go either down or up the next ten stairs, putting the studio (in the basement) partially below ground level, with the floor being concrete slab covered with carpet. This also means that the first 4 feet of wall on the exterior side is concrete.
Do you think punching a hole in the drywall and filling it with sand would help?
The window in the room is about 6' long by 2' high; they are old windows, I just pushed the curtains flush against the glass and then squished the foam into it (friction fit).
That's a very good point, actually, that plywood could be a diaphragm...
I think what I need to do is talk to him and get his permission to take some readings from around his house and do some experimenting to see what works and what doesn't without ripping everything out and rearranging it in the hopes that it works..
ah! You have a suspended concrete floor! I once lived in an apartment with a 'hung' concrete floor, which had a pronounced resonance at around 25hz, im guessing again but this could be happening in your case too. Measurement with a SPL app would be a neat idea.
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