Acoustic treatments and noise control in a rental....practical?

[mustang_steve]

Yeah, I've pretty much decided it's time to consider ways to kill off some noise from my apartment, as well as do some acoustic treatments.

I just need to know if there are any treatments that are easily removable for when I do move out, and how much wall damage has to be inflicted?

For the room, 40hz is as low as I would need to treat for, since I do not have a sub, and only use a single pair of bookshelf speakers.

And what are good ways to quiet down appliance noise without having to "service" them?

For what it's worth, my a/c is in a closet in my kitchen, which is right next to my listening area....this is my primary noisemaker....that blasted fan inside of it.

The refrigerator is the other one...nice and loud when it does fire up, but that's not all that common.

Any ideas?


Thanks!

 

[mtrycrafts]

Yeah, I've pretty much decided it's time to consider ways to kill off some noise from my apartment, as well as do some acoustic treatments.

I just need to know if there are any treatments that are easily removable for when I do move out, and how much wall damage has to be inflicted?

For the room, 40hz is as low as I would need to treat for, since I do not have a sub, and only use a single pair of bookshelf speakers.

And what are good ways to quiet down appliance noise without having to "service" them?

For what it's worth, my a/c is in a closet in my kitchen, which is right next to my listening area....this is my primary noisemaker....that blasted fan inside of it.

The refrigerator is the other one...nice and loud when it does fire up, but that's not all that common.

Any ideas?


Thanks!

Well, to will not be able to isolate the lows from your neighbors.
There are reasonable panels for walls and corner treatments that you can take with you and not cause much wall damage at all.
You should see those treatments advertised here or on the review pages.

There is a message a few down on GIK. Take a look.

 

[Ethan Winer]

Steve,

As MT explained, acoustic treatment does little to improve isolation between your apartment and others. To do that you need construction - stiffer walls, decoupling, etc. But bass traps will definitely improve the sound inside your room, and there are several good brands that don't have to be installed permanently, or can be put on stands, etc.

--Ethan

 

[ScottMayo]

A lot of fan noise is high frequency. If you can stuff the a/c closet with a lot of OC 703, 4" thick on the walls, you will reduce a lot of the fan noise. You won't reduce the compressor noise much of all, though so you'll still get a lot of rumble. Hard to say if it's worth it. It will certainly irritate whoever services the a/c.

There are sound absorbing goops you can paint on the inside of appliances like washing machines. I haven't tried them. I'm skeptical of their ability to do much, though they do make sense in theory. They are basically viscoelastic mass that tries to damp the vibration of the sheet metal that resonates so nicely in most commerical products. If you try this, report back. You can also put washers and dryers up on decoupling platforms - basically, thick, soft rubber feet - so they don't transmit all their vibration right into the floor. This can make a surprising amount of difference.

It's worth treating the walls with traps, but it won't help the neighbors. Traps can be easily installed and removed.

 

[mustang_steve]

Thanks for all the responses guys!

I have another question regarding these panels.

I noticed that many of these panels that I saw when looking at many different panel makers/distributors tend to have about 4,000-6,000hz as the highest they can go. What about if I encounter an issue at say 12-14khz? Is this what the custom panels that some places offer are for?

Sorry if this all seems newbish, but I'm trying to make some sense out of all of this....I'm going to pick up a test CD to go with my rat shack meter soon and will do some room analysis to see what needs ironed out.

 

[David French]

It's not that the panels can't absorb that high; rather, it's that the testing facilities don't provide data that high. All of the panels I know of will provide some useful absorption up there.

 

[mustang_steve]

Scott,

I forgot to reply to your comment about the spray on absorption "goop".

That stuff is pretty common in car audio...viscoelastic polymer. They use it to deaden the doors, roof and body panels mostly...leaving heavy asphalt mat for the firewall and floor. Actually, the stuff is pretty good when compared to the lightweight Dynamat, if not messy to use, and requires a spraygun. I heard there are some in aerosol cans...but I have my doubts on how consistant the spray will be, and consistancy is crucial to this stuff.

Before I was into home audio, I was a big car audio nut, so I saw enough of that stuff. Rockford Fosgate was I think the first to make the stuff availible to the casual joe under the marketing name "Noisekiller Blue".