LOUD music: how do you keep your neighbors happy?

[kenratboy]

To put it mildly, my Chorus II's and their 150 watts per channel (real power, not peak) are capable of, shall we say, raising the dead or summoning the police.

I know a lot of you guys listen to loud music and movies. How do you keep your neighbors happy?

Does sound just not carry well? Are you a lucky person who has a lot of land and can do ANYTHING you want? Do you know the cops in your town on a first name basis?

I know there are tons of variables, but how does it work for you?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

[lipinski]

helps to have a well insulated house on one acre.

[J.4knee]

Take them out for an evening to a place they are very unfamiliar with. Get them realy drunk and leave em there!

[Rdmarsiii]

Every once in a while when I get in the mood to crank it, I put on some Dream Theater or Pink Floyd or something. It's a good 110 db in the house, peaking at 117. It can get louder, but I dont like to because it makes my insides feel really uncomfortable. Sometimes my gramma asks me a few days after I do that, she says "David, what was that song you were listening to the other day? I really liked it." I laughed my *** off the first time she asked because I didnt know it was that loud. She said that on the more bassy songs, her pictures rattled and the glassware in the cabnets shook. I couldn't believe it. Oh, she lives next door, for those who dont know.

[Professor.Ham.Slap]

I've been very fortunate. I live in a college housing complex and as you can imagine, a 5.3 system with Heritage across the front can get plenty loud. Luckily, I only have adjoining neighbors below me and fortunately for me, they also have a reletively large system (although pale in comparison to mine ) that they crank on a semi-regular basis (both movies and music). I think we all just have a sort of understanding for one another and therefore don't call the cops on each other. We'll see how it goes next year when I live on the second floor of a different apartment though with new neighbors.

[colterphoto1]

Well, for 8 years, when I lived on one of our family farms (130 acres), the neighbor down the road was about a mile away and elderly, so couldn't hear a thing, and the Amish across the road didn't have a phone to call the sheriff! That whole episode of life ended ugly when the AMish started up a buggy shop with a diesel motor that ran outdoors all day. I tried zoning injunction, etc. Nothing worked. No noise ordinance in the country, they say, yet the Sheriff did hassle me a few times.

Now I'm smack in the middle of Indy, with 4000 ft2 STONE house on 2 acres. NOBODY messes with me. Plus I'm the craziest SOB around here, let everyone know from the outset! All ya gotta do is the Ozzy walk out to the mailbox a few times and it really gets them talking!LOL

Double pane windows, brick or stone. Seems like mass and distance are the best insulators. Plus some background traffic noise and an idiot neighbor who runs a leaf blower 8 hours a day on Sunday- let him complain once and I'll stuff that gadget, well, you get the idea...

Michael

[customsteve01]

Living on 10 acres helps, cause I know the house I live in isn't very sound proof. The wife comes home and says she can hear it the second she opens the truck door.

[jacksonbart]

Insulated walls and an acre lot does the trick, so not worried about the neighbors, but we know all the adjoining ones very well.

Since we finished the basement and added the insulation, the theater is directly below the master bedroom(there is the family room in between) and actually as long as you keep it below 95dBs for the bass my wife can sleep through it.

Michael - Thought it was just Pennsylvania and Wisconsin with the large Amish populations? So they think you are a crazy SOB, why? Is because your up at all times of the night on your PC logged on the Klipsch forum? 2 acres in the of the city, nice.

[sivadselim]

cash

[krustyoldsarge]

Make sure that your adjacent neighbors are young filipina ladies (I'm in S. Korea) that like your music. Let them come up to your apartment and crank your system up louder than you ever had it yourself!

Later they can sit around drinking "Jack and Coke's" watching movies on your Chorus HT system.

"Daddy, your hand naughty!"

Let the other, less accomadating neighbors vacate.

[Myhamish]

Put on the 78th Frasers "Down Under in Australia" at concert level and your neighbours will respect you forever. (and good to hear from you, krustyoldsarge - you take care over there) Hamish

[Fish]

Its all about location,when I lived in Dallas I had to keep it reasonable.I now live in IN,on four acres in the woods w/trees on three sides and a field across the road that goes straight to a lake.Volume is no issue,inside or out.

[colterphoto1]

Jackson,

There's a bunch o dem hillbilies in Ohio and Indiana too. Whenever a group of them doesn't like the rules of their sect, they splinter off and make their own rules up. It's a crazy cult. They actually drove me from my farm which had been owned by my great-grandparents. Two counties away from Indy, couldn't believe that kind of activity could go on. Rush Co Indiana, home of Meth labs and hilljacks!

Michael

[Piranha]

I move frequently

[SteelerFan]

I never get any complaints. Maybe the neighbors enjoy a quality system as much as I do.

[yaffstone]

45 acres in the woods.

[garymd]

All it takes is a single family home with a little space between the houses. You don't need major acreage although it helps. I have about 2/3 of an acre with asbestos/brick siding. When cranked up as loud as I can take you can barely hear it outside.

[Scp53]

i don't own klipsch heritage yet so it never gets REAL loud(just have synergy and ref bookshelfsg). in my basement sometimes i hit 107-110(at 8-10feet away) but thats it. not really that impressive.

scp53

[lynnm]

I rarely crank my dear old horns enough to bother anybody but one night a couple of years ago the Mrs. and I got into the vino and were listening to some Leonard Cohen (Democracy) and sat out on the front verandah.

As we sat there I heard some guitar lines that I didn't recognise ( good but unfamiliar ). A neighbour a block away was playing along with ol' Lenny!!

Oops!! I went in and cranked it down considerably and went back to the porch.A moment later I heard a far-off voice yelling, "Turn it back up!I think I've almost got it!"

On another occasion SWMBO was away and I decided to crank it up while getting ready for work (5:00 AM).It was mid-winter and all windows and doors were closed.Paulette Carlson was wailing through Loving on the Side when the phone rang.It was my next door neighbour ( our houses are rather close together ) asking that I turn down my stereo.I apologised profusely and put them and Paulette back to sleep immediately.

A few days later I encountered them at the local liquor store and once again apologised for disturbing them.He laughed and said, "The music was fine!It was the racket from our window panes rattling in their frames that got on my nerves!"I laughed and promised no more early morning concerts and he said with a grin,"I'm serious! The windows in our bedroom were actually rattling!"

Embarrasment aside,It is truly amasing to consider how loudly a pair of Klipsch speakers will play with a 30 watt/channel amplifier!

[Joe Shmoe]

When I had my KLF-30's upstairs in the summer with the doors & windows open, my neighbor 3 houses down & across the street said he could hear them, I thought that was pretty cool.

Since moving everything downstairs I have no problems, my next-door neighbors say they can once in a while hear them in their basement, usually only if I'm playing something with alot of bass.

We had a Mexican family move in behind us & they like to have loud pool parties in the summer, that last well into the night. Made me think about getting another pair of 30's and setting them on my deck