What is the simplist way to cancel out, or zero balance a neighbors bass which is invading my space…short of shooting them?
Is there any product on the market or technique that actually can zero balance the negative effect of these low rumbling sound waves?
You’d have to produce similar wave forms - only, out-of-phase in relationship to the original signal to even begin to similate the effect. But, you’d in turn be causing just as much racket.
There are noise canceling headphones that maybe able to do this.
What you’re looking for is “anti-sound” (no, I am not making this up).
Sennheiser make sound cancelling headphones, The technology was developed for use in aircraft. You’ll be stuck with headphones though, I don’t think cancelling out sound throughout a whole room would be feasible.
All things considered, the answer is: move.
Use the property of acoustic reciprocity to cancel the bass noise.
To do this, you must have an identical copy of the music coming through the walls, perhaps by recording it through the walls yourself.
Then, when the music finally stops, feed the exact same music back through the wall the way it has come, for precisely the same duration. This need not begin immediately, indeed it is most effective at around 6:30 in the morning.
After the walls have been “trained” in this manner a few times, the bass noise will henceforth be cancelled.
I actually tried SentientMeat’s idea. But retaliated with the music of Conlon Nancarrow* though a guitar amp (which is way louder than a stereo).
I don’t know if the training was effective in the long term as I moved out soon after - I wasn’t taking Carnac’s approach I was moving anyway.
*not possible to describe (go’n’Google) but Frank Zappa was a fan so you can probably guess.
I’d still be interested to know if there’s any way of reducing bass noise, our neighbour has recently bought a new hi-fi and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know how it sounds in our flat. We’ve told him on two occations to turn it down but I’m pretty sure it will happen again.
Since we get along with him I’d rather not do the ‘wall training’ and also, I usually prefer quiet.
Short of soundproofing, what can be done?
Nothing too much but I do have a soundproofing option that seemed to work for me. If it’s coming through a wall hang a nice tapestry there. Decorative rugs work well for this purpose, they look good, and if you purchase a thick one, dampen out a good majority of the noise. I did this in my apartment along with wall training and it still didn’t work. As I was unable to move and my numerous complaints didn’t do any good, I finally resorted to simply turning off the offending apartment’s power manually outside. You can do this by locating the powerpanel that is labeled with a corresponding apt number, and switching off all the breakers. You’ll probably have to unscrew the cover etc, and it’s probably illegal, but it only took three repeats of this to get the noise to cease. I might add that this tactic is most effective AFTER the maintenence men have gone home for the day and won’t be called back for something as minor as no power. Make sure that you put the cover back on with all the screws etc. It will really give them a puzzler to figure out. The panels are usally located near the water/power/gas meters stuck on the side of the building. Of course I’m posting this for entertainment purposes only and noone should EVER break any laws or play with hot panels.
Cheers!
I have this problem with my downstairs neighbors. They play their music so loud that it occasionally rattles my glass/metal end tables. At apx 3 in the afternoon. Given that we’re both 3rd shifters, we’ve repetedly gone downstairs and said, “Yo, this is our nighttime. Could you please keep it down?” “Sure sure, sorry.”
Did this every day for 2 weeks.
Gave up.
Next step, jumping up and down above their chandalier until they got the message.
Two weeks.
Gave up.
Now, I just send it right back to them, at MY 3 in the afternoon (usually around 3 am).
Luckily, we don’t have any next door neighbors, at all (complex has been thinning out), so the only folks I annoy are the ones below me.
If they wake me up at 3pm, I wait until 3am, and turn my TV or radio up niiice and loud as I go about my daily activities. Dishes (including sink grinder), showeing (we have loud pipes), laundry (they live next to the laundry room), and I’ve actually vacuumed around 4am before.
Oddly enough, this has made them quiet down.
If they don’t disturb me during the day, I’m quiet as I go about my business.
Fridays and Saturdays, tho, they can have their music as loud as they want, and I won’t complain. Sun-Thurs, tho . . .
When I was young, my Grandpa showed me a machine - I thought it was called a ‘Rumkopf Coil’ or similar, I’ve not found any mention of such a thing on the internet. It might be a motorised Wimshurst Machine…
ANYWAY, it was like a static electricity generator. He plugged it into the mains, it had two metal spheres about the size of golf balls set about an inch apart and when it got going it discharged bright sparks between them like lightning.
His neighbour’s son bought a wireless one year (many years ago, so long ago that it was called a wireless and not a radio) and played it loudly.
Grandpa turned on his machine whenever it got on his nerves. Everytime the coil built up enough charge, the radio would let off a loud pop. One day the guy came around, knowing that Grandpa was a bit of an electric nut - told him that his radio was playing up. So he took the guy’s radio in, said he’d check it out and see if he can fix it. Opened up the radio, scored a gap in the contact so it wouldn’t play louder than half way and gave it back to the guy saying ‘Well, I fixed it, however it only half as loud now.’ The neighbour was happy that the irritating pops had gone and Grandpa lived in peace.
I guess it’s a little like an EMP machine. These days I would worry about setting it off near my HD - but it might be worth a try.
You could always get your hands on a Fenton Silencer
Link is to a chapter from the book Tales From the White Hart by ArThur C. Clarke.
I suggest that you read the link, and then buy the book.
If you get along with him, then what’s the problem with going over and asking him to not do it?
Oh, I missed the part about having talked to him about it.
Um… try once more, and if that doesn’t work, talk to the landlord.