I'm in a small dorm room, and every time we turn on the subwoofer, the guy next door comes in to complain that his room is shaking. It's a pretty small sub - I think 30 watts passive (the one that comes with the Sony DAV-S300) - but the walls are really thin and we placed the sub right next to his room. Is there anything I can do either to the sub or to the walls so the sound doesn't go right through them?

Do you want to do something about the guy next door? Or do you want to do something about the sub. Two different problems.

You didn't think about moving the sub, did you?

I was "that guy next door" in college sometimes so let me speak from experience. There are a couple things you can do:

1. Try to befriend the guy if you're not friends already. Invite him over for movies and he'll be a lot more understanding.

2. Give him advanced warning when you know something with lots of bass will be playing. I know this made me totally feel better about the noise since I was mentally and emotionally prepared for it. Most of the time I made sure I had plans for those times.

3. Obviously, move the sub - put it right near where you sit and then you can turn it down and still feel it. And put it on something that will dampen the vibrations. You could even try stuff like hanging a comforter on the common wall to absorb sound. Hope this helps.

What is the best thing I can do to help dampen the sound? Should I put something under it or on the wall? The only part of the wall that I need to cover is the lower part right next to the sub, right?

quote:<HR>Originally posted by peskoe150:
The only part of the wall that I need to cover is the lower part right next to the sub, right?<HR>

The sound waves will probably carry throughout your room, so you'll have to dampen or soundproof the entire room. It would help to move the sub away from the adjoining wall and put something along that wall, but the easiest solution is to either turn off the sub or befriend the neighbor.

I would try to keep the sub as close as possible to the main listening area, and then close it in with furniture on all the sides that are near walls. This is what I did in my room and the furniture managed to deflect a lot of the sound into the room and listening area. Is this a down-firing or front-firing sub?