Rooms & neighbours
How a room shapes what your speakers sound like, and how to judge noise and sound insulation in a flat before you move in.
- Acoustics and sound insulation before you rent: how to judge noise when viewing a flat
How to assess a flat's noise before signing: street, neighbours and building services, walls, floors, windows and doors, simple tests to make during a viewing, the standards new buildings must meet, your options if noise becomes a problem, and what can be improved without building work.
- Hi-fi in a flat: why bass reaches the neighbours, and what actually keeps it in
Why music in an apartment travels through floors and walls as vibration rather than through the air, which fixes reduce it (stands, decoupling, placement away from party walls, controlled bass), which do not (foam on the walls, egg boxes), and how to talk to the neighbours before a complaint.
- Listening-room acoustics at home: reflections, bass and simple treatment
How an ordinary living room changes what your speakers sound like: early reflections, reverberation, room modes and bass, listening and speaker positions, soft furnishings, what acoustic panels can and cannot do, and how to keep the neighbours on side.
