There is some solid advise given, and some a bit drastic or too much too soon.
I had a loft studio space in an old textile building in MA years ago, so I have some experience. Keep your speakers, do all the normal furnishings you are thinking: rugs, plants, things to break up the directed sound waves, and a couple ACTUAL bass traps to start. Like other mentioned, go introduce yourself to your neighbors, take some cookies or something from a great local place. DO NOT MENTION YOUR SPEAKERS AT FIRST VISIT. I had issues with one neighbor that I realized all started because I began my introductions with them by saying "let me know if you can hear my system": within a week, I was getting constant calls and door bangs for just the TV being on LOW volume in the background. SO -say hi, maybe see how they have their spaces set up, maybe one of them has a great sound system too! You can likely tell their personalities and possible issues from that first visit.
In my current home (1920 old dimensional wood floors, very close neighbors) I actually measured and found the best spot for my sub-woofer (now using great larger bookshelf speakers, not floor standers): I used a web site that will calculate what each speakers pressure is and best placement spots, as well as dead or excited points in your space. The bookshelfs are on awesome custom narrow box tube stands with slate slabs on top of the stand, under the speaker, and they are placed on top of the floor joists (spikes). Then I put the subwoofer on a slate stone hunk as well with cut in half racket balls under the slab, also carefully placed on top of floor joist but a bit further from a wall barrier than usual. The outcome was compromising some on extension/depth output, but things are much more articulate and accurate, and the sound doesn't extend into the basement or beyond the walls like when I first moved in.
Townsend platforms I bet would be the best bang for your buck, then the traps and all. I really hope you can keep the speakers. Would love to see how your space turns out!
Moving into an apartment with wood joist floors - worried about neighbors hearing
Hey all,
So during the pandemic I bought a pair of very Manhattan-unfriendly Egglestonworks Kivas. They sound amazing!
However I recently decided to move and found an amazing old loft. While signing the lease I saw a bunch of language about noise and playing music loud - and now I’m starting to wonder if I’ve made a huge mistake.
I’ve lived in places with concrete floors the last 15 years, so i didn’t even think about it when taking the place, but this old building has wood joist floors.
While I don’t listen loud - I’ve always been a low- to medium-volume listener - I’m worried that even then the Kiva’s will have too much bass energy.
The opposite pressure is that the room is huge with high ceilings. So in a vacuum, the Kiva’s would be the perfect speaker for the space.
The way I see it I have two options:
1) Try to move in with the Kiva’s and do everything I can to contain their energy (bass traps / panels / thick rugs / Isoacoustics Gaia pucks - some of which I already have). If there are complaints, then get different speakers or use equalization to lower the bass on my digital sources (not an option for vinyl though)
Or:
2) Get different speakers proactively. If I do this, I could consider a pair of bookshelf speakers with limited LF (SF Amati’s or those WIlson bookshelves?)
Anyone have any experience with this? If I go route #2, what about planar ribbon speakers like Maggie 3.7? Seems like the dispersion on them might solve a lot of the problem here, but not sure if they’ll still resonate the floor.