Tenants - Bass Boom noise reduction
 

OK..so I own a 3 level home.. the basement is rented out to some tenants...they don't have a TV but they watch whatever movies on their computer with some sort of 2.1 system. THe suite is all hardwood floor and I'm pretty sure their 'sub' is sitting on the floor... wife complains that the boom boom of the bass is annoying and can be heard on the 2nd floor and even on the 3rd floor at times.

Soo.. in attempts to diffuse the situation.. would a small square piece of thick carpet put under the sub help with the BOOM BOOM? I know bass is one of the toughest sounds to hide but just wanted to get some thoughts on this.'

NOTE: the tenant has a 2.1 setup whereas he cannot control the bass level of the sub and most likely a down-firing sub.

i would think carpet or some kind of fabric below the sub on which it can sit on would dampen the sound more than anything that is hard and can reflect the sound

What do you mean they can't control the level of the bass? Even if the sound system itself doesn't have control (which is heavily unlikely), the source unit will generally have a bass/treble control and you can always purchase an external attenuator, be it a fixed high-pass filter or a multi-band equalizer, that would go in-line between the source and the subwoofer. Besides, they can always disconnect the system and use the TV's speakers or buy a sound system that isn't a pile of shit.

Carpet will reduce it slightly, but likely not enough to prevent the annoyance unless it's because the sub is physically bouncing while producing sound. In this case, you could just pick up felt feet that you'd normally use on chairs and attach them to the bottom of the sub.

In all likelihood, it's probably the resonant frequency of the walls and/or ceiling that is amplifying the bass coming upstairs coupled with a building design with poor soundproofing. Soundproofing for bass is difficult in an existing building. Applying damping material will reduce vibration and add mass (which reduces the resonant frequency), but depending on the size and scale, will likely be prohibitively expensive. Filtering higher frequency sounds is much easier because they can be absorbed (i.e. egg crate foam on the ceiling), but that will have minimal effect on bass.

This is what I have for my sub.
http://www.auralex.com/sound_isolati...subdude_hd.asp

Dont know if this will help you.


Or you might look at other different equipment.
Auralex Acoustics - Acoustic sound isolation products.

they have the logitech z313

Logitech - Speaker System Z313


doesnt appear to have individual controls for bass... just overall volume. unlike my logitech 2.1, it has a knob on back of sub that can be used to adjust subwoofer level.

Dynamat comes to mind. If it's good for a trunk, im sure it's good for a house.

Not being able to turn down the bass is a super shit excuse. Go to the EQ, turn the lows to the negatives, and the pre-DB to -1, problem solved, no money spent.

Most subs are ported. Placing a piece of carpet underneath won't help anything. Tell him to stick a sock in the port. Should be like half the volume right away.

Blow the sub out when he's not home. :troll:

did you get a chance to actually see behind the sub for a knob to adjust the bass? i find it hard to believe that there is none. even my $30 logitech speakers from 4 years ago have a bass adjustment knob on the sub

Dynamat is a mass loader used to stop vibrations. Will not work in a home situation.

Check what software he is using. VLC has an EQ under the tools tab. Tell him to lower the 60hz and 170 hz slider.