I’ve had my system for a little over a year now playing music at reasonable hours of the day (and even sometimes later than 10pm at a lower volume) with not ONE complaint from the people that live next door to me or below me. The apartment above me has been empty for a while. But it looks like people just moved in because starting last week on a Sunday at 530pm was what seemed like really anger filled BANGS on their floor (my ceiling) in response to the music I was playing. This has never happened to me before since I got my system and since I moved in 2015 when I had my Bose cubes (which could get pretty loud too!). It happened again on Tuesday at 830 pm and then again yesterday during the day.
I think this is just ridiculous! I’m not blasting music all hours of the night after 10 pm. I’m not blasting obnoxious heavy metal music or rap music. Its like RCA Living Stereo Classical Music SACD’s, Fleetwood Mac, Pat Metheny, other Jazz music, and Funk music from the late 70s! lol! Give me a break! Suffice to say with each bang I heard it totally took me out of my vibe and filled me with sadness and anger. I am a passionate audiophile who loves music and my system and when I hear those bangs… Damn, it just kills me. Heart starts beating fast and feel like butterflies in my stomach. My wife and a friend have told me to just ignore it and don’t let it get to me but I can’t help it. Now I am going to be anxious as hell everytime I put on music wondering if they will bang or even worse call the cops to complain or come down themselves to complain to me face to face! It’s the worst feeling in the world. It’s such BS not one complaint from one neighbor since 2015 and now these people are upstairs are going nuts over some great sounding music! I can hear every footstep they take in that apartment and heard renovations they were doing and didn’t complain once! I can also hear neighboring apartments tv sound from their sound bars or whatever and its really not that big a deal. Granted I have a Focal Aria 948s but cmon, I’m playing at a volume that has not received one complaint!
Interesting you post this. My wife and I have been looking at downsizing from a single family home to a townhouse. Some of the town homes around us are basically duplexes with only one adjoining wall. There’s also a couple room buffer between the adjoining living spaces: closets, toilets, etc… Still, I’m pretty paranoid about it. I want to be able to play music when I want, how I want. I’m not convinced I won’t have a problem.
Your story doesn’t help. Good luck though. You might have to talk to your neighbor and maybe listen to see it it’s worse than you think.
Time for a high-end headphone rig?
I used to live on the 12th floor of a large high-rise apartment building in NYC. One weekend morning, I heard blasting rock music coming through an air vent in the bedroom. I could make out every instrument and vocal. It was ridiculous. I went walking through the hall on the 12th floor (there were approximately 20 apartments per floor) but couldn’t find the source. Long story short, it was coming from an apartment four flights down on the 8th floor. The blaring sound coming from the other side of that 8th floor apartment door was oppressively loud. I pounded on the door for a couple of minutes. Finally, a middle-aged Wall Street hedge fund-type guy answered the door with a martini glass in his hand. He had clearly been up all night. I told him I could hear his music clearly four flights up though an air vent. He invited me in to talk about it. I noticed that he had a Nakamichi receiver or integrated amp and a Nakamichi CD player. I asked if he was hard of hearing. “Eh?”, he said jokingly, and then he acknowledged that he suffered some hearing loss during his earlier days in the music business. He apologized, turned down the music and I never heard his stereo in my 12th floor apartment again.
My wife and I had thought about moving into a townhouse as well but I decided against because of shared walls. We’re in a rental home now, reasonably large about 3400 sq ft. My 2-channel system is in the living room at the front of the house. My next door neighbor told my son he can hear it in his house when I play it, and that’s with at least 15 ft between houses. He’s a nice guy so I feel kind of bad but when I listen I tend to listen loud. We’ll likely buy a place next year, bigger than this one and hopefully far enough away from the neighbors. It will have to have a room that can work as a dedicated music room where I can basically board up the windows. I think that’s probably where the sound escapes from.
I love mys system these days but I can’t listen very often because I like it loud and won’t play it if my wife and son are home because it’s inconsiderate.
Why not go upstairs and talk with your neighbor? Invite them down to listen to the volume you play it and then see what it sounds like upstairs. It may be much worse than you think or they are unreasonable but if you communicate with them I promise you’ll have a better outcome than ignoring.
I’ve thought about doing exactly that but since they’re the ones complaining I think they should be the ones to knock on my door and talk to me. I did call the apartment management office last week and told them the whole story to get ahead of it. They said they would call them and follow up with me but haven’t called me back yet. I’m saving for a house now and will definitely make sure it has an unfinished basement I can build a listening room in and sound proof the heck out of it! I Can’t wait! But that may be a few years off before I move 
They have made their feelings known. It is your turn.
Keep in mind neither of you is necessarily right or wrong.
thanks for the feedback. illl think about it.
If you do that I highly recommend you tear down the shared wall and sound proof it so there is no way they can hear the music!
-Lots of wisdom in this group. I agree that you should meet and befriend the parties in question. Don’t rely on intermediaries to solve the problem. The situation just might worsen.
Exactly what I would do. If you don’t approach them with an eagerness to fix the problem, they’re likely to escalate their hard feelings.
I agree with bootzilla. I live in a townhouse and I know if I want to listen to a volume satisfactory
to me, my neighbours will hear it. They don’t build houses like they used to in the old days. I could
hear my neighbour’s dog barking sometimes. So I directed my upgrade funds towards a high
end headphone rig. I usually don’t have time to listen until later in the night, and I don’t want to be
inconsiderate, my neighbour is a nice family. Headphones solve all problems.
Yes…it is not the same as speakers. And I prefer speakers myself. But under the circumstances,
I can listen late at night when I have time, when the electricity is cleaner, when the family is asleep.
And I do listen every night. I use speakers maybe on the weekend in the afternoon, max 90 minutes
at a loud level. I just feel guilty if I am disturbing others. I lived in house before, back then I cranked it up.
I have a fried who is a superb classical tuba player. He lives in a high-end condo. He negotiated an agreement with his neighbors that he will play only at very specific times. He honors this agreement precisely and everyone is content.
(He also has an excellent audio system, but this has not been the source of any issue, perhaps because the building’s sound proofing is good. On the other hand, an accomplished tubist can pretty much take on a full orchestra and can easily defeat any home audio system.)
Yeah I refuse to use headphones for my home listening. I like speakers way better. The times I have to listen are nights during the week and weekends only. I’ve listened to the system at night after 10 before and it does sound better than during the day so its frustrating I won’t be able to crank it up any more with these new neighbors. One other thing I forgot to point out is that my apartment is quiet and EMPTY 50-60 hours a week due to us working full time! Even on the weekends I’m not listening to music non stop all day. Sometimes we have plans and we are out or are watching TV. Ugh! I’ll think about going up there to talk nicely to them but just thinking about it gives me major anxiety and nervousness that my emotions will get the better of me and end up in an argument with them!
I feel your pain.
I am in 100% agreement with Brett66. An excellent suggestion.
In my misguided youth, I was playing music way too loud way too late when the apartment below banged on the ceiling three times. As if on cue, my after closing time guests jumped up and down three times, and the party continued. The next day I felt bad about the incident and wanted to apologize to my neighbor. From that day on he never made eye contact with me and went the other way when he saw me in the hallway. I really felt bad about that one.
After that, when I moved I made it a point of meeting my neighbors, letting them know I enjoyed music and gave them my number and insisted they call or knock if it was ever too loud. Never had an incident again. Most likely because of the above event, I made it a point to be a better neighbor.
I think meeting him/her/them and inviting them down to find an agreeable solution is the way too go. If nothing else, I’ll bet it will diffuse any possible hostilities.
And I still remember, it was Axis: Bold as Love on at 3 A.M. so many years ago.
A decent neighbor would have talked to you, let you know, it is bothering them. If you can hear their footsteps, they can hear your music.
Now if you ignored their concerns, than the pounding might make sense. I hate to say it, but they are going to be a problem.
I had a neighbor above me, and I got to know her schedule. Maybe you could find out when they are out.
In my city, Milwaukee, rent is often more than a monthly mortgage, including taxes, and homeowners insurance. It might be worth looking at your budget, and homes you would be happy living in.
Two places ago, and more than 30 years ago, we had a couple living upstairs, they would have some loud arguments. We were never sure if it got physical, if we had I would have called the police. One night it got bad enough that I put on the Beatles “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” loud. After that we never heard them again.
That place assured me that the walls were noise blocking, they weren’t.
Good luck!
A good idea might be to research how the noise statutes are enforced, and what your landlords position is.
If you can’t resolve the situation with mutual cooperation, a ceiling mounted subwoofer might be in order (up to and until 10 pm). Are these apartments (lease) or townhomes (own).
It is a Co-Op Apartment building in Brooklyn, NY. A Co Op apartment stands for Cooperative. They are popular in NYC and north of NYC. For a co op apartment you own the shares (like stock) to the apartment building not the physical apartment it self (they are still worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars apartments go for in NYC). And there is a board you have to go through in order to get approved to buy or rent the apartment. We currently rent from a land lord that owns the building (we have the option to buy). I’m not sure if the people upstairs are shareholders or rent like me. There was definitely a handbook we were given when we got the apartment and I’m pretty sure the noise statute said after 10 pm is no bueno! Also it is required that your apartment is 80 percent covered with rugs. Based on the footsteps I hear so clearly it sounds like these people have NO rugs down to dampen the sound which may be why they’re hearing my music so clearly maybe? I got rugs and sound dampening pads underneath in the living room where my system is! They need to get some rugs down up there!
Oh yes… My wife and I are currently saving for a down payment for a house. It may take a year more or two but the plan is to definitely get a single family house with an unfinished basement and make sure I have the proper budget to build out a home theater/listening room with its own AC Line like Paul talks about all the time and sound proofing out the wazoo so I could play as loud as I want when I want that my wife upstairs wouldn’t even be able to hear it! That is my ultimate goal now.