Every so often (ussually when Im trying to sleep…) there somehow exists some weirdo ressonance from nearby airconditioners that causes this loud bass noise that seems to be loudest at the spot my head is placed when trying to sleep. The apartment people cant do anything about it short of turn off the airconditioning at my neighbors, something they probably wouldnt like :).
So… what can I do to block this noise?
As an AVID bass-hater, three suggestions, in order of increasing effort:
Move your bed. This can be surprisingly effective. And it’s cheap.
Consult an expert firm on noise reduction. Start on the Internet. Sound reduction is an amazingly complicated problem. Reducing midrange and high frequencies is less difficult, but reducing bass means getting rid of vibrations with a lot of power behind them. Prepare to spend a few hundred dollars.
Move to a different apartment.
Well, moving your bed is probably a good first step. If that doesn’t help… See if you can’t get your neighbors to let you in or if you can’t somehow or other get access to the AC ducts. If you can, try wedging some acoustical foam anywhere that they connect with the walls or ceiling.
I agree that a really good solution is probably pretty expensive and labor intensive, its probably a matter of the main AC fan unit being acoustically coupled to a good acoustical conductor or resonance chamber like a wooden deck or a plaster wall. Sometimes its as simple as putting damping washers at coupling points, sometimes its some insanely complicated series of resonances and reinforcements that will drive you nuts trying to fix.
Find out if anybody else is complaining, then nag the landlord about getting an acoustical consultant.
You might try to mask it with a white noise generator or just plain music.
All that sounds feasible. If your neighbor is one of those dreaded AYB guys, though, you may have to move.
–Nott
Just saw something about this on TV (g/f had UK Style on).
Use a silicone sealant on any cracks between floorboards/behind skirt.
Create a false side wall (although I suspect you could do a similar thing with by lowering the ceiling, if needed). This takes up 6" of your space, though. I wasn’t paying full attention, but you seem to:
a) put vertical joists in place,
b) put a high-density fibre matting between them,
c) use some sort of metal strips to fix the false wall to (these go horizontally across the joists),
d) attach high density plasterboard to those strips,
e) attach another set of plaster boards to the first. Stagger the joins so that they don’t line up with the previous layer.
Lay acoustical flooring in your flat (if the noise is coming up from below). Do the same in the flat above if the noise is coming from there.
The last 2 options are meant to cut noise by 50% (I suspect that the benefits from the first are much smaller).
I just dropped by because it never occurred to me that that the title was referring to acoustical bass, rather than fish. I was curious to see what the problem was with the largemouths living next door.
I’m really not awake yet I think.
Wasn’t there that singing fish, the “eminating bass”?