How far does Sub Sound Carry?

Following up on my other post, about my 200 Watt sub bothering the person in the apartment below, I was wondering if anyone could venture, if the sound from it does carry underneath & cause the ceiling below to vibrate & whatever, about how many feet does it actually carry? IE, if its in my living room could the sub sound & vibrations carry into another room say 12-15 feet away, 20 feet away? Any guesses?

How far sound carries is a function of several variables - the wavelength of the frequeny, the intensity, and the amount and kind of material the sound hits.
A 30Hz wave is 37 ft, a 20 Hz wave is 55 ft.
When all the air in your room is vibrating, that energy will transfer into all the walls around it. The weakes point (your ceiling or floor) will take let the most through. A lot of the soun will be lost, but some of the frequencies will travel through the floor/ceiling with a lot of the original intensity still present.

When I lived in an apartment I would test my annoying neighbor quotient by turning up my system to the loudest volume that I would normally listen at, and then I'd go for a little walk. Obviously, you can't be in the neighbors apartment, but if you're hearing your system down the hall or through an exterior wall, you can bet that they are hearing it too. The average interior wall is amazingly ineffective at stopping bass (or anything else for that matter).

My reciever has a "night-mode" setting that cuts out a lot of the bass. I used to use that after 9:00pm or so. It's amazing how much one can here when laying in bed at night, you could probably here a sub two or three floors away, if not more.

To answer your question about studios in the previous thread, most specifically designed studios are built in locations that avoid sound, especially low frequency sounds like trains and truck brakes (these types of sounds travel miles, not meters). They are often built on isolated concrete slabs, and the walls are reinforced, have sound blocking material in them, and use some method of decoupling. In less ideal situations a studio is typically a room within a room (with sound blocking and decoupling material between the two sets of walls, the cieling and the floor).

Don't even bother trying to keep sound in or out of your apartment, it would be much less expensive to turn down the bass or move.

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Originally Posted by bacchanal

When I lived in an apartment I would test my annoying neighbor quotient by turning up my system to the loudest volume that I would normally listen at, and then I'd go for a little walk. Obviously, you can't be in the neighbors apartment, but if you're hearing your system down the hall or through an exterior wall, you can bet that they are hearing it too. The average interior wall is amazingly ineffective at stopping bass (or anything else for that matter).

My reciever has a "night-mode" setting that cuts out a lot of the bass. I used to use that after 9:00pm or so. It's amazing how much one can here when laying in bed at night, you could probably here a sub two or three floors away, if not more.

To answer your question about studios in the previous thread, most specifically designed studios are built in locations that avoid sound, especially low frequency sounds like trains and truck brakes (these types of sounds travel miles, not meters). They are often built on isolated concrete slabs, and the walls are reinforced, have sound blocking material in them, and use some method of decoupling. In less ideal situations a studio is typically a room within a room (with sound blocking and decoupling material between the two sets of walls, the cieling and the floor).

Don't even bother trying to keep sound in or out of your apartment, it would be much less expensive to turn down the bass or move.

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Need we say more?

I only have a 100-watt sub and my downstairs neighbor has come up several times. I am seriously considering moving into a house.

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Originally Posted by caniac

I only have a 100-watt sub and my downstairs neighbor has come up several times. I am seriously considering moving into a house.

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If I had the bread I would. I still think you'd be safe in a first floor apartment or townhouse. My problem is, the nrighbor down below is my apartment manager & his wife & its not like I could at least blast my system in the afternoon- I'm on early retirement.