Sound Insulation- how much can it help?


I am considering moving into a new apartment, but the neighbor's (with yound child) bedroom is right next to my living room. I want to listen to music and watch movies at fairly loud volume late at night. At a volume that was way too low for me, i.e. I need it 3-4 times louder at a minimum), they asked me to turn it down another half. We have concrete walls, and with a fairly large (5 meters long and 5 meters high- vaulted ceiling) shared surface area. Is there any soundproofing method that can work? How much sound can be reduced? At what volume will I be able to play my music any time of day or night?
no_slouch

Showing 2 responses by rives

Well, you have the answer. Someone asked our company what we couldn't do one time. I said "we haven't figured out how to break the laws of physicis." Herman has already pointed out--that's what you're up against. We're about to publish a paper on sound isolation (hopefully I'll finish it this weekend). The basic problem in an apartment is that there are many structures in common. You pointed out one wall, but what about the ceiling? The concrete slab? The may all have the same structural components. You play loudly and the sound travels through this structure to the next room. Is it impossible to isolate these issues? Technically no--it can be done. Practically however is a different question. It would mean doing things pretty crazy like ripping out all carpet, putting up new walls, ceiling--well you can see it's just not at all possible in the real world sense.

Now I am going to digress to something I saw at CES this year. It was a headphone system that used Stax headphones and an infrared head tracking device--bear with me here. Basically the headphones were calibrated with a full 5.1 system. You put microphones in your ears and listened and did things like turned you head in certain directions. All the while the pink noise coming from the system was being recorded. Then you take the mics out and put on the headphones. You could move your head and got the same kind of enveloping feel as you did from the 5.1 system. For comparison you just took the headphone off, they would turn off and the real 5.1 system would come on. With matched volumes this was pretty incredible--I was amazed out how remarkable the processing was and they have only just begun--it will likely improve more. Anyway, if this comes to market it could solve some issues like this.
Well, we can help you with the in room acoustics, and they do differ depending on volume. We've done quite a few jobs in Asia, mostly in Singapore. I don't think we've done one in China yet. I like incorporating the acoustics into Asian designs. We did one room with a really great lattice work on the ceiling, that was all specifically spaced as a diffusion grating.

If you decide to go the DIY route, then I would recommend that you spend some time on our resources page. There are many links to articles and books that can help you. Read as much as you can before you begin. Glad you found a better isolated place.