Considering Filing a Harassment Claim
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So last night at 9:45 I had a hard knock on my door. Now at that hour, there are really only two people it could be. Your buddy really drunk, which was unlikely, or the police. It was the latter. I was told they'd gotten a call that I'd been playing loud music and this guy was sent out to address it. I told him I hadn't been playing music and my volume wasn't that loud. He looked at me, let out a sigh, and said he was just sent out to address it. It was obvious he didn't see any issue.
This was the second time I've had, I believe, the lady above me call the cops on me. She has also been nagging the property manager about me, I guess sending emails as frequently as daily. The property manager was going to sit us down together and try to get this worked out, and she said she'd reach out to me again, but never did. Just getting really frustrated. My subwoofer is turned down, the volume is kept at a reasonable level, and no matter what I do this lady isn't happy. I'm not going to go to straight headphones, because I refuse to be held hostage in my own apartment. Besides, I don't like using headphones if I don't have to.
Just trying to get some advice here. I'm not trying to cause unnecessary trouble, but this is getting ridiculous.
Thanks,
A.J. -
In much of NY, if a neighbour can hear you, you are too loud. That does not include creaky floors, of course. But a stereo, no matter how reasonable, is to be audible only within your private space. Thin walls can make that extremely difficult in an apartment setting. No doubt your neighbour is extremely sensitive and rude, but being your first apartment it's possible that you have a very skewed view of what acceptable audio is.
Even in my own house I worry about playing classical music, while I sleep and the house is silent, at a volume where I can consistently hear the music because it would be sometimes audible in the neighbour's house.
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When I was younger, we always had bookshelves and tapestries on the walls. And bean bags, lots of bean bags. Things made it so much quieter.
In my first rented house, we set up the basement with carpeted walls after my dad did that at his house. Carpet on the walls looks cool and sounds great. The amount of noise that it adsorbs is crazy.
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Before I moved in, the people who lived in the next apartment over called the landlord on us once. Of course, this was 6am and we were drinking and had music playing, so in all fairness they were not out of line. It was the first and only time though.
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@Hubtech , the thing I'd need to soundproot would be the ceiling, and I don't have the equipment or money to do it right now. Besides, because Texas seems to love the popcorn ceilings, and don't just use textured ceilings, or ceilings with sand paint, like they do in the North, it makes attaching anything to them even more difficult.
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@scottalanmiller said:
In much of NY, if a neighbour can hear you, you are too loud. That does not include creaky floors, of course. But a stereo, no matter how reasonable, is to be audible only within your private space. Thin walls can make that extremely difficult in an apartment setting. No doubt your neighbour is extremely sensitive and rude, but being your first apartment it's possible that you have a very skewed view of what acceptable audio is.
Even in my own house I worry about playing classical music, while I sleep and the house is silent, at a volume where I can consistently hear the music because it would be sometimes audible in the neighbour's house.
There isn't much I can do. If I bring the volume down very much, I'm going to have trouble hearing it comfortably.
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@thanksaj said:
@Hubtech , the thing I'd need to soundproot would be the ceiling, and I don't have the equipment or money to do it right now. Besides, because Texas seems to love the popcorn ceilings, and don't just use textured ceilings, or ceilings with sand paint, like they do in the North, it makes attaching anything to them even more difficult.
It's because..... it helps to soundproof cheaply
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thanksaj said:
@Hubtech , the thing I'd need to soundproot would be the ceiling, and I don't have the equipment or money to do it right now. Besides, because Texas seems to love the popcorn ceilings, and don't just use textured ceilings, or ceilings with sand paint, like they do in the North, it makes attaching anything to them even more difficult.
It's because..... it helps to soundproof cheaply
I fail to see how but okay...
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@thanksaj said:
There isn't much I can do. If I bring the volume down very much, I'm going to have trouble hearing it comfortably.
Um... that's how apartment living is. It should be uncomfortable to hear it. That doesn't qualify as "not much you can do." Living in an apartment generally means that things like stereos are out. There is just no way to use them without affecting other people. That you feel you can comfortably hear everything means that you are likely much louder than you think.
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@thanksaj said:
It's because..... it helps to soundproof cheaply
I fail to see how but okay...
Flat surfaces make sound bounce and echo and transfer a lot straight through the medium. Textured surfaces absorb sound while diffusing any reflection. There is a reason that sound deadening material is always highly textured.
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You're probably not in any danger of being kicked out. We had an upstairs neighbor who blared music all the time, because she was partially deaf. Kept complaining & calling the police and nothing ever came of it.
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A good set of headphones would solve this issue. I know they can be a pain but I became a headphone lover as soon as I got my first noise complaint in school. Granted... playing Halo with the bass at max on a 7.1 system in an apartment probably wasn't the best idea.
The worst part about it was that the neighbor who complained regularly had parties on friday/Saturday nights which went into all hours of the morning... not fun when you have to be at work at 6am the next day.
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@coliver said:
A good set of headphones would solve this issue. I know they can be a pain but I became a headphone lover as soon as I got my first noise complaint in school. Granted... playing Halo with the bass at max on a 7.1 system in an apartment probably wasn't the best idea.
The worst part about it was that the neighbor who complained regularly had parties on friday/Saturday nights which went into all hours of the morning... not fun when you have to be at work at 6am the next day.
Yeah, Mine is a 5.1 with a kick-ass bass but I keep it all down pretty far. If I ever do blast my music, which is rare, it's during the middle of the day when most people are at work or generally out-and-about.
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If you can hear it more than 4 ft from the speakers it's too loud. Sorry. It's just how it is in apartment living.
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@thanksaj said:
@coliver said:
A good set of headphones would solve this issue. I know they can be a pain but I became a headphone lover as soon as I got my first noise complaint in school. Granted... playing Halo with the bass at max on a 7.1 system in an apartment probably wasn't the best idea.
The worst part about it was that the neighbor who complained regularly had parties on friday/Saturday nights which went into all hours of the morning... not fun when you have to be at work at 6am the next day.
Yeah, Mine is a 5.1 with a kick-ass bass but I keep it all down pretty far. If I ever do blast my music, which is rare, it's during the middle of the day when most people are at work or generally out-and-about.
Ah, you will notice even with these system really low (and the base down all the way) the low end will still carry through thin walls, especially if they are just lightweight sheetrock.
One of the things that you can try to do is re-arrange it so that the sub is next to something that absorbs sound. I've noticed some mattresses do a great job for bass, although not so much for sounds on the higher end.
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@Minion-Queen said:
If you can hear it more than 4 ft from the speakers it's too loud. Sorry. It's just how it is in apartment living.
That seems extreme. However, my kitchen is right next to my desk, and it's barely audiable from my kitchen when it's not the normal volume I have it on.
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@thanksaj said:
That seems extreme. However, my kitchen is right next to my desk, and it's barely audiable from my kitchen when it's not the normal volume I have it on.
It should. The volume at which you have to keep audio in an apartment is extremely low. If you feel that it is a comfortable level, it's probably too high. It sucks, but this is how apartments are. You have to be careful how loud you talk and stuff.
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You're probably better off just going with wireless headphones so that you can wander around with the music at the level you like. Many modern apartments are shit for noise insulation, so even if it doesn't sound too loud to you, it might even be louder where they are.
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@scottalanmiller said:
That you feel you can comfortably hear everything means that you are likely much louder than you think.
This is definitely my wife's opinion, I do suffer some hearing loss, so I always want the TV louder.. she's constantly complaining... But the of wearing headphones is even worse.
