Kvålsvoll Design Audio Forum

EnglishEnglish text EN    NorskNorsk text NO
Please or Register to create posts and topics.

How to reduce sound outside the listening room

This is a big problem for many audiophiles - how to not disturb neighbors or other household members with our music.

Here are 3 tips that actually works for improving this situation:

1. Good sound at very low volume

The most effective action to reduce sound outside is to turn down the volume. Simple and it works.

The problem is of course that the experience is not the same anymore. You start to loose essential elements of the presentation when volume gets too low to hear everything properly.

But some speakers sound better at low volume. Like you hear everything, even at very quiet volume. Surprisingly, large speakers that can play very loud, often are the ones who also excel at low volume.

There are technical explanations for this. Some speakers are actually better for low volume listening. New speakers can make a difference here.

One thing to try, is to move the speakers closer to the listening position. Then they will often sound better at low volume, and since they are closer, you put out less sound into the room for same sound level where you listen.

2. Better bass

Improving bass response by removing bass resonances will reduce loud booOOOooom! and thus reduce the sound that is most annoying outside your listening room. And you also get much better sound quality.

This is done by processing the sound in a DSP - digital sound processor. A good sound system will have such a device somewhere in the chain, ready to be set up and programmed for your listening room. You can do this yourself - it is not very difficult, or a professional installer can do it for you.

3. Better loudspeakers with controlled sound radiation

Imagine if you could focus the sound to the listening position, so that there is less total sound energy in the room - then there should also be a reduction in sound outside.

That is exactly what the new speakers with controlled radiation does. And it works very well.

While this will not let you have a live concert and no sound in other rooms, those actions combined can make the difference that lets you enjoy your music, and keep your neighbors happy.

Moving speakers closer to the listening position allows for reduced total sound output while maintaining sound level where you listen.

How close you can have the speakers positioned depends on the speakers. A large, multi-way horn system requires larger distance than the F205 - as this audiophile experienced, when trying the F205:

https://www.kvalsvoll.com/blog/kvalsvoll-design-audio-forum/topic/test-av-f205/#postid-208

The F205 work fine down to 2m distance - closer than many large speakers, and this allows you to turn down the volume a little, while sound pressure remains the same at the closer listening position.