Subwoofer isolation, apartment life.

[davidscott]

I live in a first floor (of 2 floors) condo unit and have resisted buying a sub. My floor standing Infinitys have pretty good bass and I don't ever crank them up anyway.

 

[TankTop5]

Just ordered my 2nd PB1000 (at the upcoming sale price) and ran my idea of some type of a heavy slab with isolation pads on it and he said I should save myself a bunch of money and just order Auralex Subdude.

Again sole purpose is to isolate the subwoofer from the building

SubDude-HT™ Subwoofer Isolation Pad

The SubDude-HT™ Subwoofer Isolation Pad is a larger, lower-profile version of our classic SubDude™. The SubDude-HT is designed to work with most large-format home theater and hi-fi system subwoofers.

auralex.com

 

[lovinthehd]

You can diy something equivalent to a subdude for less $....and still wouldn't be surprised if it made little difference to the neighbor....

 

[shadyJ]

Just ordered my 2nd PB1000 (at the upcoming sale price) and ran my idea of some type of a heavy slab with isolation pads on it and he said I should save myself a bunch of money and just order Auralex Subdude.

Again sole purpose is to isolate the subwoofer from the building

SubDude-HT™ Subwoofer Isolation Pad

The SubDude-HT™ Subwoofer Isolation Pad is a larger, lower-profile version of our classic SubDude™. The SubDude-HT is designed to work with most large-format home theater and hi-fi system subwoofers.

auralex.com

There are a lot of things you can use for that. A thick wool pad. A pad of polyurethane sponge foam. Auralex is just an expensive pad of foam.

 

[TankTop5]

There are a lot of things you can use for that. A thick wool pad. A pad of polyurethane sponge foam. Auralex is just an expensive pad of foam.

Ok, I’m going to DIY some thing then

 

[Hetfield]

I ordered the SVS sound path isolation feet for the PB-2000 Pro. They are being delivered tomorrow. I have them on my PB-1000 now. I'm curious to see what difference these make.
God do I love this sub or these subs working together. It's a pleasure every day to listen to them.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I have a question!
If the cabinet is inert. How can it transfer anything through the feet?
And how if you can place a glass of water on the cabinet, and the water doesn’t vibrate, why would the sub transfer through the floor?
FWIW, I think all of the sound transferring to other apartments is directly from the driver and port. IOW, I think you should save your money.

 

[little wing]

I would contact your neighbor by phone, and while they are on the phone, turn up the bass and ask them to tell you at what point they can hear it. Make a note of the volume level, and now you know where the limit is for being a considerate neighbor.

That is an excellent idea.

 

[TankTop5]

I have a question!
If the cabinet is inert. How can it transfer anything through the feet?
And how if you can place a glass of water on the cabinet, and the water doesn’t vibrate, why would the sub transfer through the floor?
FWIW, I think all of the sound transferring to other apartments is directly from the driver and port. IOW, I think you should save your money.

The PB1000 isn’t quite that inert.

 

[highfigh]

Before or after the apartment building was condemned due to structural damage?

You might be surprised by the subtlety of extremely large drivers.

 

[highfigh]

I have a question!
If the cabinet is inert. How can it transfer anything through the feet?
And how if you can place a glass of water on the cabinet, and the water doesn’t vibrate, why would the sub transfer through the floor?
FWIW, I think all of the sound transferring to other apartments is directly from the driver and port. IOW, I think you should save your money.

The energy would transfer from the air to the structure, which could cause the materials that can be affected most to radiate the sound. It's less a structure-borne problem and more a case of the air pressurization not being mitigated. Windows act like they're not even there when it comes to bass and if any door has a gap around it, that may as well be wide open.

I heard a rap car on Sunday night while I was watching TV. It was a 'one note wonder' and it was annoying as hell. I moved around the house to determine the location and it was definitely louder in the living room, so I went outside. Bass isn't totally omni-directional and since I have worked with audio for listening tests, setup, etc, it wasn't hard to hear that it was coming from the South of my location. With the placement of homes in this area, I guessed that it was due South because of the open space to the West that would skew my perception. I called the PD and they sent a car to find out if it could be heard. They would have heard it if the siren had been blaring and I checked my police scanner app- it was due South, two blocks away. There's nothing that will stop strong bass.

 

[ryanosaur]

I agree and said as much earlier: the wavefronts cannot be dampened in any appreciable way.
My Outlaws are in some pretty solid, well built cabinets. Since my floor is so springy, it acted as my “accelerometer,” so to speak. At low to mid volumes with little-to-no infrasonic content, I was able to eliminate the vibrations n the floor.
The concrete pad by itself, the sound path feet by themselves; neither solved that problem alone. Even the concrete pad directly on carpet with the sound path feet still allowed some manner of vibration through.
Once I had the pads coupled directly to the floor board most of that stopped.
Until you get to the soundwaves themselves. When the bass frequencies and SPL are just right, no amount of effort to “isolate” will matter.