# Subwoofer With Tenants Below?



## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

We own a 2 family house and we rent out the downstairs to some old folks. Ever since they moved in I have had my surround sound woofer disconnected because they hear it on even the lowest setting. There has got to be a way to enable it's use on some level, I have a 10' x 11' bedroom the system is in so it's very small...and so is my system. It's a 5.1 KLH 550W (HTA-9906) 8ohm speaker set I bought 10 years ago at Sears for probably $120 give or take, they do the job. Their powered with a Kenwood (VR-715) nothing fancy but I've been using the ProLogicII feature with my coax cable and it is a drastic improvement over the TVs speakers! I just have an 1/8" -to- RCA cable going from the headphone out on my TV to the Video1 RCA stereo input on my receiver. 

The 6.5" subwoofer is self-powered by wall voltage (50w RMS) in a front firing band-pass enclosure with the woofer on the bottom firing at the floor. It has two input options; an RCA low-level input & a push-in prong pass through from the front speakers. I of course use the RCA low-level input so it can work off the receivers crossover:









*Any ideas on what can be done to keep the subwoofer from affecting other rooms and floors other than sound deadening? Special enclosure feet/placement in room/enclosure port modifications/ideas please?*


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## [email protected] (Jun 12, 2008)

Pick it up off the floor. Your loading onto the floor, so if you can elevate that, you will have less going thru the floor. But bass in general will travel through walls and floors well.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

BeatsDownLow said:


> Pick it up off the floor. Your loading onto the floor, so if you can elevate that, you will have less going thru the floor.


What about putting it on side so the driver loads into the room and the port the same...sort of like an L shaped enclosure?


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## breeze612 (Nov 27, 2012)

I'd ditch a direct or floor loading type enclosure (yours is not a bandpass; it's a ported enclosure), and get an actual bandpass sub. I used to have a nifty little Canton 10" bandpass powered sub when I lived in a condo & never got complaints. I also floated it on a cut-to-fit piece of 2" foam so it was in no way coupled with the floor. As Beats said above; nothing will stop the transmission of low frequencies, but my guess is that they're really being bothered by the transmission via the floor rather than just the frequencies.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

I was mistaken, it is not a floor firing enclosure the speaker is not visible on any side only a front port so it must be a bandpass. Looks like all I have is the floating foam approach to try...I just think my satellite speakers lack a lot of low frequencies maybe I can work the subwoofer less and at a higher frequency.


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## lucky (Sep 25, 2009)

Ever consider spike feet?


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## Justin Zazzi (May 28, 2012)

As mentioned already isolate it from the floor using whatever you can. Even sitting on a pile of blankets is better than nothing.

Also, you can reduce the overall volume of the sub by placing it as close to your listening position as possible. If placed directly behind your chairs or under them, you can reduce the volume by a tremendous amount leaving less bass to travel downstairs.

If you want to try a different product, look for something called a Bass Shaker. It is a widget that attaches to your seat/chair that will shake it physically and give you a similar experience to having a sub, except it does not produce sound waves that travel through walls. It might be a compromise that everyone can live with.

This sounds like a tough living arrangement, good luck!


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

This reminds me of when i stayed at apartments (i was on the second floor). One day i hooked up my lp 5002iq to two 12 cerwin strokers inside the apartment. It got really low, atlow volumes you could still feel the bass on the walls and floors.

So some one call the police on me, but lucky for me i put away all the gear (box was hidden, amps and supply put away) so when they knocked on my door i opened it and they said "we got a compliant about loud music, are you having a party?".

I told him "absolutely not, my wife and kids are in here with me". He poked his head inside to see if i had a pay going on or a theater set up, which he didn't see either. He had a dumb look to his face when he didn't see any big woofers or amps inside.


Have you searched "panel diffusers", i know sound panels won't block low fhz but i believe diffusers may. Not sure though.


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

Ha ha

Hi, I want my cake and to eat it to !


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

lucky said:


> Ever consider spike feet?


*No, these are the ones that came on it should I try literally a spiked point? What about springs as feet??*











Jazzi said:


> As mentioned already isolate it from the floor using whatever you can. Even sitting on a pile of blankets is better than nothing.
> 
> Also, you can reduce the overall volume of the sub by placing it as close to your listening position as possible. If placed directly behind your chairs or under them, you can reduce the volume by a tremendous amount leaving less bass to travel downstairs.
> 
> ...


*Only thing about bass shakers is it does not give me the lower mid frequency I am missing which is all I desire right now. 
*


TrickyRicky said:


> This reminds me of when i stayed at apartments (i was on the second floor). One day i hooked up my lp 5002iq to two 12 cerwin strokers inside the apartment. It got really low, atlow volumes you could still feel the bass on the walls and floors.
> 
> So some one call the police on me, but lucky for me i put away all the gear (box was hidden, amps and supply put away) so when they knocked on my door i opened it and they said "we got a compliant about loud music, are you having a party?".
> 
> ...


*I've had my days when I had my own PA system... I used to get the cops called OUTDOORS lol there was no hiding that equipment when they showed up, good times. 

Panel diffusing sounds complicated and expensive not to mention ugly. *


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## lucky (Sep 25, 2009)

Mr.Anonymous said:


> *No, these are the ones that came on it should I try literally a spiked point? What about springs as feet??*


I would only try spike feet or "carpet spikes" if you actually have carpet under that rug. Just throwing out ideas. I would even try suspending/hanging the sub in the air as an experiment to see if its physical contact with the floor thats transmitting most of the noise to your tenants.


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## Mr.Anonymous (Jun 12, 2011)

I don't have carpet I have hardwood floors but I can make a plywood base with nails so the enclosure sits on a bed of nails? 

Suspending the enclosure was a thought...I have an old glass end table metal frame I was going to try hanging the enclosure from it with bungee cords.


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