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I'm running the Logitech Z313 speakers and the subwoofers are being too effective for my neighbours, even when the volume is at below half. How can I dampen the effect from the subwoofer so it travels less?

The neighbours are downstairs and upstairs.

Vadim Peretokin
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  • Which direction are the neighbors? Is the problem transmitting down through the floor or through walls on the side? – AJ Henderson Nov 03 '17 at 14:09
  • Through the floor and ceiling – Vadim Peretokin Nov 03 '17 at 17:22
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    The Z313's have a really nasty hump between 80 & 150 Hz, though that's not the worst of their issues :/ You would do well to put an equaliser across them to at least smooth them out; then you can just roll off bit in the sub... or rather, not add it, as they already lack badly below 80Hz. Here's a picture of the curve I use on one of the domestic machines here [it was done by ear not by meter, but is definitely close enough for consumer use] https://i.stack.imgur.com/bgg4p.png [below 40 & above 10k is a waste of time on these speakers, so I didn't bother;) – Tetsujin Nov 03 '17 at 20:45
  • Additional note - you have to pull the sub level back a long way at the rear of the unit to be able to get this curve to work well - the sub is at defaults far too enthusiastic for the rest of the system, & will distort at the slightest hint of trouble if you don't. If you tweak it all up properly, they're actually reasonably pleasant to listen to. – Tetsujin Nov 03 '17 at 20:53
  • I couldn't find any controls at the level of the unit, and is there a way to do this without investment in neighbours comfort? – Vadim Peretokin Nov 05 '17 at 17:16
  • There's a volume control on the back of the sub. If you set it to just under half-way, then my EQ curve should work. To get that curve you'll need to find an app that can intercept your audio output. On Mac that would be Audio Hijack, for Windows you'd need to Google. – Tetsujin Nov 12 '17 at 10:23
  • I don't see where the volume control is - are you certain Z313 has it? – Vadim Peretokin Nov 13 '17 at 12:07
  • @Tetsujin Not sure if you're thinking of different speakers, but these don't have any knobs or switches on the sub. Check the picture of the back of the sub here –  Nov 16 '17 at 15:38
  • Yeah, I double-checked... the ones i have here are Z213's – Tetsujin Nov 16 '17 at 15:57

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Low frequency sound is composed of fairly long wavelength pressure waves and can cause noticeable physical vibrations which will also produce the same sound. Your problem is likely that the subwoofer is shaking the floor itself directly which turns your neighbor's ceiling in to a speaker.

If this is the case, your best bet is to provide physical dampening between the floor and your subwoofer so that it can not directly shake the floor. If you can elevate it that would be ideal, but if not, placing soft vibration absorbent materials (like towels, or better yet, thick flexible rubber as frcake suggested) or something similar below it to isolate it from the ground is likely to help considerably.

Updated Note: I was finally able to take a look at a picture of the sub and see it's already reducing it's contact area to four relatively small legs. This means the towel idea is going to be much less effective than rubber stoppers (the more concentrated weight will allow more energy transfer to get through while the rubber stoppers will allow side to side movement) and that it's likely a good portion of the energy is already going through due to air pressure hitting the floor rather than direct rigid transfer. If that's the case, then the dampening may not help that much, but it should still do something.

AJ Henderson
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  • Do you think my comments above could/should be turned into an answer? I didn't start out for it to be one, but I actually have a set of these speakers on one of the non-mission-critical machines here & did manage to get them sounding almost OK with some judicious tweaking. [The difficulty would be 'where do you set the pot on the back of the sub before my curve will work', which is going to be very placement-sensitive.] – Tetsujin Nov 03 '17 at 20:59
  • I really think he'd need so many towels only to find out that it wont help that much. What do you think is the coefficient of a towel(s) when trying to dampen 30hz - 60hz? Really the only thing absorbing the subs energy is the wall/ceiling/floor vibration in the OPs situtation. Towels wont do nothing about frequencies. Also about dampening the subs legs physical vibration , 4 pieces of thick rubber would do the job a million times better than towels / blankets. – frcake Nov 06 '17 at 12:06
  • @Tetsujin , of course you should state it as an answer although targeting a specific model makes it a bit narrow , but using an equalizer is a way to fight the need for a floating room. If the neighbors still find it irritating , it means that the house construction is bad , and there are single walls everywhere, maybe even worse :p. So if the OP wants to listen to his music with a sub , he prolly needs to move , to another place. – frcake Nov 06 '17 at 12:12
  • @AJ Henderson : "Low frequency sound is composed of fairly short wavelength pressure waves" : replace "short" by "long". :-) The longer the length of a wave, the more physical mass is needed to "capture" it. – philburns Nov 09 '17 at 10:46
  • @philburns - thank you for pointing that out. I think I must have been writing it differently and then edited it and missed that part. (I have a writing disability that doesn't show it's head often, but that's how it shows up.) I fixed the wavelength part. As for the dampening mass, I'm not worried about dampening the energy, I'm worried about trying to make sure that it has to go through non-rigid energy transfers, which will have greater energy loss. The rubber suggested by frcake is doing the same thing and would work better, but I was trying to suggest a cheap alternative. – AJ Henderson Nov 09 '17 at 15:07