Sonos Sub In a Tenement Flat

  • 15 March 2019
  • 6 replies
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Hi,

I currently have a Playbase and several play 1’s. I was considering buying the sub to pair and make 5.1.
I live in a ground floor tenement flat (old hardwood floors) and was wondering if it is worth my while? Is it going to cause to much noise for my neighbours? Is there anything I can do to limit the travel of bass such as a mat?

Any help would be appreciated!

Danny

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6 replies

I'm not an expert, and other will have better advice than me, but in my opinion...being on the ground floor should help a lot. It should also help if you do not place the sub along a common wall with one of your neighbors. Sonos will also allow you to control the volume of the sub, relative to the playbase, through settings. and yes, there are sound dampening mats out there that you can get.

I don't think it would be much of a problem personally, but I would try and try and be conscientious of what time of day you are using the sub, and possibly ask neighbors to feel free to tell you if it's disturbing them.
Userlevel 7
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The mat will help if you are getting sound conduction from your floor to a neighbor. You can test that out by simply picking the Sub up off the floor and see if the sound level in their flat changes.
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The mat will help if you are getting sound conduction from your floor to a neighbor. You can test that out by simply picking the Sub up off the floor and see if the sound level in their flat changes.

Will need to give it a try, I may just use Sonos to get their 100 day returns policy and check if it is worthwhile or not. Dont want to shell out that kind of money and not get the use out of it!

Thanks

Danny
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I'n in exactly the same boat apart from I have a beam and x2 play1:s. I have ordered the sub but I'm wondering how I might upset the neighbours as I live in a semi detached house.

I'm looking forward to getting it hooked up to see what it sounds like but we'll have to see how loud it actually is and what the level can be set to for a good overall happy balance.

Will need to give it a try, I may just use Sonos to get their 100 day returns policy and check if it is worthwhile or not.

That is the best approach.

The Sub will work differently for movies and for music. In case of music, it works just as well at low volume levels, where it adds back the richness of sound that goes missing otherwise at low volume levels, - without troubling neighbours, obviously.

But I suspect it will be more one dimensional in the case of movies if the Sub works like the usual Home Theatre Subs do, by only playing the effects channel - the .1 in the 5.1 set up. For movies that are effects heavy like the usual disaster stuff, playing the set up at levels that the dialog can be easily heard may well result in effects noises intruding on neighbours. And if your movie preference is for movies that don't do the loud sound effects and have little content in the .1 channel, there isn't much value in a Sub.
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Will need to give it a try, I may just use Sonos to get their 100 day returns policy and check if it is worthwhile or not.

That is the best approach.

The Sub will work differently for movies and for music. In case of music, it works just as well at low volume levels, where it adds back the richness of sound that goes missing otherwise at low volume levels, - without troubling neighbours, obviously.

But I suspect it will be more one dimensional in the case of movies if the Sub works like the usual Home Theatre Subs do, by only playing the effects channel - the .1 in the 5.1 set up. For movies that are effects heavy like the usual disaster stuff, playing the set up at levels that the dialog can be easily heard may well result in effects noises intruding on neighbours. And if your movie preference is for movies that don't do the loud sound effects and have little content in the .1 channel, there isn't much value in a Sub.


This. It's all relatively civilised for TV, music, games and most movies. I find some 5.1 sources, Blu Ray transcoded on PS4 for example, are very sub heavy. You can control the level though, and there's always night mode.