Loud Music Annoying Neighbours

I've tried to do a variant on what in strategic circles is known as a 'pre-emptive strike' - When I get new neighbours I go round and give the my 'phone number and invite them to ring me if the music gets too loud.

When I asked if I was disturbing them, one neighbour said they could hear the music, but said it wasn't a problem as they thought I had good taste in music and I kept to reasonable hours!

Another started a 'stereo war' by turning up the volume on a Japanese muddy system they had (all lights and fancy plastic mouldings but no substance: I'd seen them move it in!).  However when they tried to compete with 'The Hut of the Baba-Yaga' and 'The Great Gate of Kiev' at something like 100dB+, they lost comprehensively, neither of us had a problem after that!

Most recently I was running frequency sweeps with REW when I thought my neighbours were out, unfortunately I was wrong and one came banging on my door.  I apologised and stopped until they did go out.  We get on really well now.

I think one of the key things is when you play music loud enough that it can be heard.  In the daytime most people will be reasonably tolerant, being too loud at night (between 22:00 and 09:00) is just downright inconsiderate (but do also be aware of people working shift patterns).

Quite right Huge. I really cannot enjoy my music if I think it's bothering my neighbours, although being in a detached old cottage in the sticks means I can turn the wick up pretty loud without issue. I did make a point of telling the neighbours that if my music was too loud to immediately let me know and I'd turn it down. They're all good friends so it's never been a problem.

When we first moved here the cottage was a semi-detached, which we bought with the intention of buying the other bit so we could restore it back to the original Suffolk Long House. The other side was rented to a young malaysian student, who quickly became a very good friend. We've always loved movies & I've had a surround sound system since they first materialised. Playing a film one night, there was a knock on the door & the young chap stood there clasping a bottle of wine. He told us he really liked that film & would we mind if he came in and watched it? In he came...

I have always played music at what many non-enthusiasts consider to be loud, much of the time. These  days I will not buy anything ither than a detached house (i had a major problem with neighbours at the last semi I had, nothing to do with my music because the music room was not on the party wall, but with DIY when renovating the house, whatever the time of day. I was glad to move.) However when I lived in terraced houses or in bedsits I always turned music low late at night. 

Overall I have been very lucky, one terraced house in particular seemed to have superlative sound isolation, with both neighbours saying they never heard my music, despite the lounge that spanned the full width, despite frequent playing at levels that will have had peaks over 100dB, and I only heard one neighbour's TV because they had a tendency to leave windows open (I never play music loud with windows open). But when in terraced houses I always did the same as Huge, on introducing ourselves stating that I did like to play music, sometimes loud, and if it disturbed them please let me know.

I remember when I bought my first house, a mid-terrace Victorian house in Bristol, I was lucky to have extremely tolerant neighbours; I mean extremely!

I was using a Rega a Planar 3, Naim Nait and Rogers LS7 speakers, together with a Yamaha cassette player. Being a young post-grad at the time I enjoyed music played LOUD, so one evening after getting back from the pub I decided it would be fun to play the stereo through my guitar amp. Using a (mono) guitar lead I took the output from the headphone socket on the cassette deck and plugged it into the clean input on my Marshall MV100 guitar amp, which fed a Marshall 4x12 cabinet. I played a couple of albums like that, including The Academy of Ancient Music's version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and (I think) something by Deep Purple.

The neighbours never said a word!

Some old terrace designs were better than others for sound isolation - the first house I bought in mid 1970s  was built in 1818, originally the 2-up-2-down type but with the original two downstars rooms knocked through to make a large lounge. I used to play loud even up,to midnight or so, with full range speakers going deep and full in the bass, lots of rock music with never a complaint from neighbours - no idea if they heard or not. The only sound we heard from either side was the stairs on one side that must bphave been attached to the party wall. 

But I've been in other people's houses of late Victorian construction where it seemed every noise in the neighbouring houses were audible - a girlfriend a college had a bedsit in one such, and it was highly embarrasimg to receive complaints about noises of a different type...! Not conducive to good living, let alone hifi.

Just moved to a semi where it’s only the halls that adjoin. Our last property was a terrace with living room to living room...never felt totally at ease with King Crimson all the way up to eleven!

Unfettered bliss now though...and a much quieter street.

G

My current house is quite good, mid terrace, built about 1670-1700 (nobody's quite sure exactly when!) from oolitic limestone, random stone with rubble infill, but the party walls are 500mm thick!

GraemeH posted:

Just moved to a semi where it’s only the halls that adjoin. Our last property was a terrace with living room to living room...never felt totally at ease with King Crimson all the way up to eleven!

Unfettered bliss now though...and a much quieter street.

G

Well it was until King Crimson turned up!

Innocent Bystander posted:

Some old terrace designs were better than others for sound isolation - the first house I bought in mid 1970s  was built in 1818, originally the 2-up-2-down type but with the original two downstars rooms knocked through to make a large lounge. I used to play loud even up,to midnight or so, with full range speakers going deep and full in the bass, lots of rock music with never a complaint from neighbours - no idea if they heard or not. The only sound we heard from either side was the stairs on one side that must bphave been attached to the party wall. 

But I've been in other people's houses of late Victorian construction where it seemed every noise in the neighbouring houses were audible - a girlfriend a college had a bedsit in one such, and it was highly embarrasimg to receive complaints about noises of a different type...! Not conducive to good living, let alone hifi.

Ahh, memories...  

Huge posted:

GraemeH posted:

Just moved to a semi where it’s only the halls that adjoin. Our last property was a terrace with living room to living room...never felt totally at ease with King Crimson all the way up to eleven!

Unfettered bliss now though...and a much quieter street.

G

Well it was until King Crimson turned up!

Need my new 'speakers first!

G

I live in a 3 level detached property, with my own exclusive listening Room on the ground floor...Living Room on the first floor.....So volume no issue whatsoever.... ????

Noooooo

SWMBO often comes in to say ' can you please turn that down a little'.... 

I usually respond with 'pardon'....... 

In my experience it is the new houses where the sound travels much more through walls with impunity unless its an upmarket new house with specific sound proofing double partition walls.  With a lot of average new houses one cannot store all kinds of items in the attic because the strengh of the attic floor will not take the full weight so it can be safely assumed the rest of the house such as walls will be of similar quality.  I know this from my own experience and having worked with a known developer of new houses where the NHBC certificate was regarded as markedly different to what it was portrayed to the customer.   This was over 15 years ago so I would imagine the quality of new houses may have improved because of general demand.

I hate being bothered by the 'noise' coming from a neighbour but I equally hate having my noise be heard by others.  With hi-fi and some respect I can generally control my noise pollution during the late night or early morning.  I cannot do anything about my grand piano or a cello.  Hard to adjust the volume on these when you are practicing.  I do hate living next to people for this reason.  I don't want to bother others and I do not want to be heard by others.  This is a problem I'll have for my entire life unless I could afford to build out in the country one day.

I live in a Victorian terraced house I have a neighbour on one side an older gent who lives alone who when I asked him once if the music bothered him told me to enjoy my life and not to worry about him.  We have a single Lady on the other side in her 50's I suppose who grew a huge tree that shaded the late afternoon sun in our garden and when we had a discussion about it her answer was to plant another that shades the early afternoon sun so I dont give a flying **** what she thinks and if I'm particularly annoyed somtimes at the lack of sunshine in my garden in the aftrenoon I'll stick some dub reggae on.

Romi posted:

In my experience it is the new houses where the sound travels much more through walls with impunity unless its an upmarket new house with specific sound proofing double partition walls.  With a lot of average new houses one cannot store all kinds of items in the attic because the strengh of the attic floor will not take the full weight so it can be safely assumed the rest of the house such as walls will be of similar quality.  I know this from my own experience and having worked with a known developer of new houses where the NHBC certificate was regarded as markedly different to what it was portrayed to the customer.   This was over 15 years ago so I would imagine the quality of new houses may have improved because of general demand.

I was shocked when my niece's boyfriend, a manager in a firm of house builders in London, told me tge design life of hoses today is 50 years.

I am in a fully detached home, but prior to living here I was in an apartment, and almost never used my stereo...I only used the SN1 and my KEFs with my cheesy DVD player, because everything else was in storage.

My neighbor upstairs told me she could here me playing my (acoustic) guitar and singing. She was not complaining one iota (in fact even intimated that she liked it), but the thought of someone hearing me sing left me horrified.

At a prior apartment I was studying fro hours on a Sunday and at about 1 PM decided to blow off steam - played one song twice really loud with electric guitar play along - lasted maybe 15 minutes. Went back to studying...dead quiet. Twenty minutes later a knock on the door - it was the police that my neighbors called - didn't even have the class to come over and say anything, and by the time he got there he was wondering why he was there. Fortunately he was totally cool about it, and I just knew that my neighbors were a-holes form that day forward.

In a 60s end terrace for 39 years, the original neighbours were happy as long as we were quiet after children's bedtime.

The next couple had parties until three or four in the morning, Ultravox "Vienna" was pretty good as I made sandwiches for work the next morning.

The current couple like to know we are home, actually "moaned" when we moved my daughter's piano away from the party wall.

Now, it is me that gets irritated, I cannot hear their 60 inch telly through the wall, but it makes the lounge window vibrate, about the same level and as irritating as my tinnitus!

Surely if the law says no noise before 6AM and after 11PM and everyone sticks to that, civilisation would be fine? There is the problem about being friends with ones neighbours.

I had a next door neighbour about 12 years ago come round SCREAMING. I so wished I kissed him on his nose!!

Consciousmess posted:

Surely if the law says no noise before 6AM and after 11PM and everyone sticks to that, civilisation would be fine?

Which countries have that law?

I live in a sub development of individual homes with acre lots and my nearest neighbor is a good 200-feet away so I can play with impunity at all hours. I do make the effort to close my windows when listening during warm weather, but really don't listen loud (about 70 dB peak). Never had a complaint nor do I ever hear the neighbors. Maybe one of the nice things about living in America - plenty of personal space still available for those who seek it. I am glad ....

I am happy to live in a single house so the volume knob is just a factor for me personal. I only have to watch in summer time, my neighbors are a bit picky if they can hear some nice piano music in their garden.

When I was young my father was always blaming me when I was in my study and had the radio too loud. Headphones and mobile systems like now, where not so common at that point in time (the start of the Walkman).

Those times when I have a listening session in the wee hours - after midnight - I will always go for those albums that don't have big woomphing bass.     Often the more frothy side of my collection.

It is against the law to use a vacuum cleaner or a lawnmower between 22.00 and 06.00.

We have a detached house, and my study (where the hifi/AV lives) is on the top floor furthest from any of the neighbours.  I do play it loud, but turn the volume down after 11pm, and NEVER play it loud with the window open.  Never had any complaints, even when I plug a guitar into my Marshall and 'let it rip'.

However ... I wish that 2 of my neighbours didn't seem to have an obsession with leaf blowers which I've known them to use for more than an hour at a time.  They make so much noise that I have to turn up my volume!  Their gardens are not large (neither is ours), and god knows why they need the blowers.  Would be quicker to get a rake and do it manually, IMO.   Haven't bothered to complain to them about it, though.

TOBYJUG posted:

It is against the law to use a vacuum cleaner or a lawnmower between 22.00 and 06.00.

Totally correct, Tobyjog. But Id like to add that a law only should be needed if people can't settle in a frendly manner each others 'livingspace'.

When I lived in the city, there were frequently parties in my street. If they send a friendly message to us in advance of the party, that was ok for me. We could stay at my parents or so or decide to hit the noise. I once had a party closed at 2 am in the night by police because they did not notice anyone.

Dungassin posted:

 

However ... I wish that 2 of my neighbours didn't seem to have an obsession with leaf blowers which I've known them to use for more than an hour at a time.  They make so much noise that I have to turn up my volume! 

Everyday at 9:30 - or a few minutes before - my retired neighbour starts whilst I'm coding java. His kids promised to the guy that they will blow away the leaves before his coffin gets moved to its final place. A procession of leaf blowers. In what place am I living??!

Most young families in my street vanish their garden by putting all stone in it.

Turnup the volume!