Do you play your system as loud as you`d like to?

[basshound]

I was just wondering with the amount of cash most of us spend on kit do people get to listen to music at the volumes they`d like?I am in the fortunate position of living in the country with the nearest neighbors being several hundred yards away so I can listen at ear bleeding levels (if I wish to) without complaint(except from my long suffering wife!)Suspect this is not the case for the vast majority of us, so are you frustrated at having to compromise?

I was not always in this position,in the early 80`s I bought a "starter home" i.e. a shoebox with walls to match.My housemate bought a cd system not good quality but it went pretty loud so you can imagine the conflicts this caused with the neighbors.Eventually I got fed up with the hassle and maybe even realised how inconsiderate we were being so invested in a pair of headphones. Anyhow on the way home with my new purchase I got sidetracked and went to my local for a few bevvies,suitably refreshed went home and was in the mood for some loud music. Plugged in my new `phones,cranked up the volume and adopted the classic listening pose of eyes shut,probably singing along etc.Eventually opened my eyes and was met by my neighbors anquished face pressed up against the window mouthing obscenities at me,pulled of the `phones and you`ve guessed it, I`d forgot to press the speaker off button so it was probably louder than it had ever been.Took some while to get her to believe it was a mistake but eventually we were able to laugh about it.
Anyone else got any funny/embarrasing stories?

 

[Anonymous]

Ha Ha Ha! I did pretty much the same thing before!

Got myself, and please don't run away, the "Brotherhood of Man" LP from the shop and because the house was full of people, I put my headphones on and turned it right up. Obviously, forgot to turn off the speakers! Just at the time I started bending my knees and singing "save all your kisses for me", my girlfriend opened the door...

 

[plastic penguin]

Chance would be fine a thing. . .Sadly, a six year old, fiancee and neighbours prevent me fromcranking it up.

 

[Anonymous]

plastic penguin:
Chance would be fine a thing. . .Sadly, a six year old, fiancee and neighbours prevent me fromcranking it up.

Have you ever had just once when all were out at one time and thought "let's see how loud this bad-ass system goes!!!"?

 

[chebby]

plastic penguin:
Chance would be fine a thing. . .Sadly, a six year old, fiancee and neighbours prevent me fromcranking it up.

Please put the word 'a' in front of 'fiancee'. Despite the comma, it still looks really bad if you read it too quickly

 

[matthewpiano]

Yes. My system sounds awesome at low volumes as well as louder ones, so having to be considerate to my neighbours really doesn't bother me. I really enjoy listening at sociable levels because my kit loses NONE of its drive, tonal quality, detail or imaging.

I don't want my ears to bleed. I just want to enjoy the music.

 

[plastic penguin]

chebby:plastic penguin:

Chance would be fine a thing. . .Sadly, a six year old, fiancee and neighbours prevent me fromcranking it up.

Please put the word 'a' in front of 'fiancee'. Despite the comma, it still looks really bad if you read it too quickly

Are you sitting comftybold toosquarely on your botty?

I hope that clears things up. . .

 

[plastic penguin]

Hughes123:plastic penguin:

Chance would be fine a thing. . .Sadly, a six year old, fiancee and neighbours prevent me fromcranking it up.

Have you ever had just once when all were out at one time and thought "let's see how loud this bad-ass system goes!!!"?

Only a few times on a Saturday when they've gone shopping.

 

[chebby]

plastic penguin:chebby:plastic penguin:

Chance would be fine a thing. . .Sadly, a six year old, fiancee and neighbours prevent me fromcranking it up.

Please put the word 'a' in front of 'fiancee'. Despite the comma, it still looks really bad if you read it too quickly

Are you sitting comftybold toosquarely on your botty?

I hope that clears things up. . .

Sorry Professor Stanley Unwin but it still looks like you have a 'six year old fiancee' when it is read fast.

 

[RodhasGibson]

No Chebby not P.P that would be more Hughes123 don"t you think?

 

[the record spot]

Yes, for now. We have a detached place with enough garden around the building to put plenty of distance between me and the neighbours. However, when the little ones are in the house, then the volume goes down. I listen at acceptable levels most of the time.

 

[Anonymous]

No.

I haven't used a SPL meter before but was wondering can it be used to tell me if whatever volume I am listening at is above or below a ("level") acceptable by law ?.

If such a ("level") actualy exists what would that be. So if/when complaints may arise I have some kind of defense.

 

[Big Chris]

We only moved into our house in Feb. We had a big picture window and sliding patio doors replaced with bi-fold doors. We had the doors open (it was Summer) and I was watching 'Transformers' on DVD.

The doorbell goes, it's the neighbour from over the back (Our garden is only 40-or-so foot long), come to complain about the noise (more specifically, the bass). He wasn't ranting (in fact, he kept apollogising for complaining!), and I invited him in. He said he'd been hearing "odd rumbling" and music for the last few weeks. I think I'd been playing Guitar Hero 3 at 'enthusiastic' volumes too.

Turns out, I hadn't realised just how loud we'd had it playing with the doors open.

He came in, we chatted for a while, he liked all my kit and left wanting to buy a new telly!

Now when I want to crank it, I make sure the doors are all shut (not hard at this time of year anyway, let's see if I can keep him on side next Summer!)

The elderly lady who lives next door has never mentioned noise, and I've spoken to her loads of times, but I keep my eye open for when her car isn't there before I go silly. Apparently, the other neighbours I talk to have said she's a bit hard of hearing....Fine by me!

My dream home would be one that's a mile or so from the nearest neighbours. I could use my acoustic drum-kit at home then too!

;-)

 

[Drummerdave]

Big Chris:

My dream home would be one that's a mile or so from the nearest neighbours. I could use my acoustic drum-kit at home then too!

;-)

Aaaah Chris, the joys of having a drumkit set up in the house. My last house was detached with the garage converted into a room where I had my kit set up - it was brilliant to come home from work and have a ten minute blast to wind down. Good for jam sessions too - never had any complaints (from the neighbours anyway)

We moved to an old victorian semi and I have no room to have a kit permanently set up.

My new neighbour is my wife's best friend and has never complained about the volume I play my hifi - this is probably because she is out with the missus during the times I'm playing it loud - which with 175 wpc can be very loud.

I remember when I was in my teens placing my stereo speakers out the front of my mum's house on a bright sunny day, having a few beers and playing Big Balls by ACDC at high volume - just as my gran & mum returned home.

 

[Anonymous]

Drummerdave:
I remember when I was in my teens placing my stereo speakers out the front of my mum's house on a bright sunny day, having a few beers and playing Big Balls by ACDC at high volume - just as my gran & mum returned home.

What speakers were they?

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, i had the opportunity this summer. I live in an end terrace flat kinda in the roof space. The flat below me had moved out and the shop below that was closed. I was doing some house work, opened all the windows on a sunny say and boomed out pendulum at very anti-social levels through my then technics pre power combo with acoustic energy neo3's with AE neo sub attatched. Unfortunately the electric meter ran out a few tracks in so i left for the shop to put some more on. There were people sitting outside listening and one even asked if it was going back on! LOL

 

[Anonymous]

JonAJon:Yep, i had the opportunity this summer. I live in an end terrace flat kinda in the roof space. The flat below me had moved out and the shop below that was closed. I was doing some house work, opened all the windows on a sunny say and boomed out pendulum at very anti-social levels through my then technics pre power combo with acoustic energy neo3's with AE neo sub attatched. Unfortunately the electric meter ran out a few tracks in so i left for the shop to put some more on. There were people sitting outside listening and one even asked if it was going back on! LOL

Sounds awsome!

Had to have been Propane Nightmares, yeah? If anyone was playing Propane Nightmares on AE Neo3s that loud, I'm sure the local DJs would have been out of buisness!

 

[JamesOK]

This post has really made me think. And the outcome is somewhat depressing. I have an Arcam pre/power setup and I dont think I have ever taken it much past volume level 30 more than a couple of times. This is due to always having lived in semi detached houses!

Well I just had a look out of the window and my neighbour is out. Time for a serious crank up!

 

[Drummerdave]

Hughes123:Drummerdave:
I remember when I was in my teens placing my stereo speakers out the front of my mum's house on a bright sunny day, having a few beers and playing Big Balls by ACDC at high volume - just as my gran & mum returned home.

What speakers were they?

Nothing special, it was a long time ago, in the days of music centres and long before I had any interest in hifi. Sounded good that day though.

 

[Anonymous]

I always play my system as loud as I'd like to. Sometimes loud, sometimes quiet. Sometimes people come around to my flat and play my system even louder than I'd like to.

When I was in student halls a (friend) of mine went away for the week, when I returned to the halls it became apparent he had left Britney Spears "Hit me baby one more time" playing full blast on repeat. He still found it funny to learn it was playing for 8 hours before someone complained and security had time to get in. Not really relevant, but my only volume story.

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Octopo:
I always play my system as loud as I'd like to. Sometimes loud, sometimes quiet. Sometimes people come around to my flat and play my system even louder than I'd like to.

When I was in student halls a (friend) of mine went away for the week, when I returned to the halls it became apparent he had left Britney Spears "Hit me baby one more time" playing full blast on repeat. He still found it funny to learn it was playing for 8 hours before someone complained and security had time to get in. Not really relevant, but my only volume story.

ÿ

lol,
I had complaints once on a weekend in halls from the security office on the other side of the campus because they could hear gunshots and groans, we were playing Gears of War co-op on a projector in my tiny room. The volume was so loud we had to shout across the room to hear each other, we were only 2m's away. Those were the days.

 

[Anonymous]

During the day when next doors are out at work i can get away with cranking the volume up.

On a evening i have to knock it down a few clicks to keep the peace.

I do like a good dollop of Base too so i look forward to my days off during the week when i can let it rip between 9am till 3pm.

 

[Naxos]

We've lived in our semi for over twenty years now, and I was so concerned not to annoy neighbours that I insisted we looked for houses with outside lounges (not that easy), but we've never had any complaints. We also have concrete floors, which probably helps with the bass. I work from home a lot, so I might just sneek in the odd rev-up, but like matthewpiano a lot of my music listening is classical so I'm not looking for out and out volume, and my system is good enough to give good resolution and sound-staging at quite low volume.

Movie watching can be more of a problem in the summer, when I generally aim to close all windows (I think I must be so considerate it hurts, particularly as we have neighbours with barking dogs to whom we never complain!), and I'm a bit worried about upgrading my surround amp to take advantage of even more bass on Blu ray Dolby TrueHD soundtracks - I'm sure I'll be constantly dialling it down. For me, a house in the country is the ultimate goal to retire to...

As for drums, I have a Roland TD12 with some awesomely realistic Expressions packs: virtually no stick noise on mesh heads, and everything as loud as I like through headphones.

 

[Anonymous]

Nah, i was the hold your colour album and in particulay " tarantula" and track 5 ( the weird willy wonka one). Looking forward to net summer now to put my cyrus amp and cd6 thru its paces with the smaller AE aelite 2 book shelf's, still good bass on them tho.

 

[jase fox]

basshound:I was just wondering with the amount of cash most of us spend on kit do people get to listen to music at the volumes they`d like?I am in the fortunate position of living in the country with the nearest neighbors being several hundred yards away so I can listen at ear bleeding levels (if I wish to) without complaint(except from my long suffering wife!)Suspect this is not the case for the vast majority of us, so are you frustrated at having to compromise?

I was not always in this position,in the early 80`s I bought a "starter home" i.e. a shoebox with walls to match.My housemate bought a cd system not good quality but it went pretty loud so you can imagine the conflicts this caused with the neighbors.Eventually I got fed up with the hassle and maybe even realised how inconsiderate we were being so invested in a pair of headphones. Anyhow on the way home with my new purchase I got sidetracked and went to my local for a few bevvies,suitably refreshed went home and was in the mood for some loud music. Plugged in my new `phones,cranked up the volume and adopted the classic listening pose of eyes shut,probably singing along etc.Eventually opened my eyes and was met by my neighbors anquished face pressed up against the window mouthing obscenities at me,pulled of the `phones and you`ve guessed it, I`d forgot to press the speaker off button so it was probably louder than it had ever been.Took some while to get her to believe it was a mistake but eventually we were able to laugh about it.
Anyone else got any funny/embarrasing stories?Im lucky as the house next door to me (on the right) is derelict & the neighbours on the otherside are in to the same music as me & they sometimes do ask me to turn it up ! ha Every AV / HIFI enthusiasts dream neighbours that ask you to turn it up ! lol & for the record the other neighbours didnt move out because of my music (so i think they didnt) ha