Fellow Apartment Dwellers, What is your Audio Setup?

[floydcommatyke]

Hey LTT Forums, 

I’m currently living in an apartment and am looking to find a solution to improve my audio. Currently I am just using the built ins of the tv. Any 5.1 solution is out of the question due to space limitations (my couch is backed up to the wall). I average between 50-60 dBs when watching tv so not loud. With that information I have a few questions for y’all: 

 

A) Is a subwoofer going to be too loud for an apartment? I’m on the first floor but I’m still worried about bass traveling through walls. 
 

B) Is an upgraded solution worth it with volumes at that level? 
 

C) Do y’all have some recommendations for an upgrade? I’m looking at ≈$200 (USD) price range but I could be convinced to go up. 

 

 

[Skipple]

12 minutes ago, floydcommatyke said:

A) Is a subwoofer going to be too loud for an apartment? I’m on the first floor but I’m still worried about bass traveling through walls. 

Bass will travel through walls. It depends on how good your apartment walls are and how much your neighbors like to complain.

 

13 minutes ago, floydcommatyke said:

B) Is an upgraded solution worth it with volumes at that level? 

Over built-in TV audio? Absolutely.

 

14 minutes ago, floydcommatyke said:

C) Do y’all have some recommendations for an upgrade?

Buy used. A 3.0 or 3.1 system sounds perfect for your scenario. Some larger L/R Fronts with large enough woofers could allow you to forgo the sub and not be missing out on too much. The sub-50hz range is what's going to bother your neighbors so you might be better off. 

[Gorgon]

22 minutes ago, floydcommatyke said:

Hey LTT Forums, 

I’m currently living in an apartment and am looking to find a solution to improve my audio. Currently I am just using the built ins of the tv. Any 5.1 solution is out of the question due to space limitations (my couch is backed up to the wall). I average between 50-60 dBs when watching tv so not loud. With that information I have a few questions for y’all: 

 

A) Is a subwoofer going to be too loud for an apartment? I’m on the first floor but I’m still worried about bass traveling through walls. 
 

B) Is an upgraded solution worth it with volumes at that level? 
 

C) Do y’all have some recommendations for an upgrade? I’m looking at ≈$200 (USD) price range but I could be convinced to go up. 

 

 

Decent Headphones? I watch a lot of TV at night after the rest of the FamDamily have gone to bed. I use a 12' 1/8" cable and wired headphones but there are Bluetooth options out there but Bluetooth can be difficult to share amongst multiple headphones.

 

The other suggestion is a half decent Sound Bar. What most people notice going from the built-in speakers to a Sound Bar or 3.1 solution is much clearer dialog.

 

There are many SoundBar Reviews here at LTT.

[cmndr]

In the $300ish range I'd be looking at a pair of Polk ES15 (these can be wall mounted!), KEF Q150 or JBL 530 speakers (on sale or used/refurbished) and an Aiyima A07 amplifier. Plus some cheap speaker wire. 
This is about as cheap as you can get a not bad set up and it'll run circles around similarly priced sound bars. 

(currently $200)
https://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/polkes15-brn/polk-audio-signature-elite-es15-pair-5.25-bookshelf-speakers-brown/1.html

(currently $60 after coupon)

https://www.amazon.com/AIYIMA-A07-TPA3255-Amplifier-Digital/dp/B08CJZGT6H

Be warned your TV would need to have an aux out port for headphones or other audio. I'd have to look into other options that have spdif or similar. 

----

 

My last place was an apartment. I had a garage underneath me. The walls were well-insulated so my roommate next to me didn't hear anything (though you could hear it in the hallway because the door was thinner).

I had
SVS sb-1000 + SVS NSD-12 subwoofers

If I had issues with bass I would've enabled bass management on my AVR. Not every AVR has something like this, though you could do something equivalent with a mini DSP. This is essentially where you filter out/attenuate the lowest frequencies. 

My take, is that if budget isn't a huge issue - two decent sealed subwoofers that are VERY thoughtfully placed and configured (optimize for louder measured sound in your room without any DSP and only phase/placement tweaks)
As a rule of thumb place subwoofers in corners that are FAR from your neighbor(s)/roommate(s) and relatively close to you. Fiddle with phase and time offsets and you're going to be mostly there. 
Then after... filter/attenuate the sub(s). 

For extra points - tactile transducers into your chair. 



----

 

Currently I'm in a house. I had to fiddle with subwoofer location a bit. It was "not bad" for my roommates initially. By fiddling with locations (big subwoofer on a wall adjacent to the hall, small subwoofer in a corner NOT near anyone else's room) I have fairly minimal sound leakage into rooms (the hall can be a bit loud though). 

[floydcommatyke]

2 hours ago, Gorgon said:

Decent Headphones? I watch a lot of TV at night after the rest of the FamDamily have gone to bed. 

I have a pair of 70x ‘s with a Scarlet 2i2 for my PC. Basic I know but I got the headphones used for a good price on FB Marketplace. Headphones in the tv would be a good solution if it was just me, but usually if I’m alone or girlfriend is asleep then I’ll just watch on my PC anyway. TV is more communal so it would definitely have to be speakers. 

[floydcommatyke]

1 hour ago, cmndr said:

Polk ES15 
(currently $200)
https://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/polkes15-brn/polk-audio-signature-elite-es15-pair-5.25-bookshelf-speakers-brown/1.html

Wow, that’s a pretty pair of speakers! 
 

 

1 hour ago, cmndr said:

(currently $60 after coupon)

https://www.amazon.com/AIYIMA-A07-TPA3255-Amplifier-Digital/dp/B08CJZGT6H

Would you recommend upgrading from the Aiyima A07 to the Pro for the Bluetooth? (https://a.co/d/bAuAGWx) Or is there better amp options at 100?

 

[cmndr]

26 minutes ago, floydcommatyke said:

Wow, that’s a pretty pair of speakers! 
 

 

Would you recommend upgrading from the Aiyima A07 to the Pro for the Bluetooth? (https://a.co/d/bAuAGWx) Or is there better amp options at 100?

 

Yep. That's why I got my ex a white pair of ES15s. High WAF. 
She has a love hate relationship with them (she likes the sound, she thinks they're OK looking, but her living room doesn't look like furniture store showroom anymore - partially because there's 5 speakers and a large subwoofer)

 

There's several finishes, get the one that works for you. And as stated, you can mount it to the wall with a single screw. Be sure to hang it so that the tweeter is at or slightly above at ear level and have it pointed sorta near your ears. Being off on the left/right axis is OK. 
 

The audiophile purists will say that bluetooth degrades audio quality. It's kind of a "whatever" thing in my view, not a big hit. 
The most important thing is to ensure that you can hook it up to your TV. Does your TV have aux out or RCA out?
You might be able to get away with an HDMI extractor but at some point it becomes kind of janky and you're likely better off with a used AVR (even though that's clunkier). 

Here's a review of the ES20 - https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/polk-signature-elite-es20-review-bookshelf-speaker.33834/

Here's a review of the S15 - https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/polk-audio-signature-s15-speaker-review.15437/

The ES15 will be somewhere between the two (bass will be between the two, mids and highs will be very similar to the ES20).

Overall this is a "not bad" speaker that goes relatively low on bass, looks good and is very sensibly priced. It checks a lot of boxes. As a warning, the ES20 does NOT have an easy way to mount against wall and its main advantage is more bass - if you needed more bass you really would want to look into a subwoofer and/or a tactile transducer. GOOD used subwoofers start at around $300. 

[Blue4130]

I am an apartment dweller, concrete walls. I went with presonus e4.5 set up on the tv. Works quite well. Decent enough bass that doesn't anger the neighbors. I also use bt headphones with aptx low latency mode for whe and the wife is sleeping.

[cmndr]

I'd be cautious about presonus' entry level products. 

https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/presonus_eris_e3_5/

[Blue4130]

4 hours ago, cmndr said:

I'd be cautious about presonus' entry level products. 

https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/presonus_eris_e3_5/

One middling review in a sea of generally positive reviews... (and this review isn't even that negative)

 

Be cautious of ANY purchase. Do your research and choose what works best for the situation.

[cmndr]

20 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

One middling review in a sea of generally positive reviews... (and this review isn't even that negative)

 

Be cautious of ANY purchase. Do your research and choose what works best for the situation.

A lot of it is "normalized" against the price. It's hard to do great speakers at $100. It's even harder when it's limited to small speakers (the smaller the speaker the worse the bass distortion at a given level of bass output). 

I don't think Erin does THAT many negative reviews outside of maybe lambasting the Sony SS-CS5. 

These aren't AMAZING speakers (I'm referring to the powered version, not the passive) but if you can find them on sale for like $120-130ish... 
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/revisited-neumi-bs5p-powered-bookshelf-speaker.23522/

 

One of the things about speakers is that it's hard to get good new speakers below $200ish (plus a budget amp) even on sale, but it's often not THAT hard to find things sold dirt cheap used. If money is an issue it's REALLY a case where used should be considered, these things last 15-50 years in many cases. 

[The Hope]

On 6/29/2023 at 7:21 PM, floydcommatyke said:

Do y’all have some recommendations for an upgrade? I’m looking at ≈$200 (USD) price range but I could be convinced to go up. 

Infinity produced some of the best speakers on the market, loved by audiophiles and casual listeners alike. I recently went to a Hi-Fi specialist with acquaintances and after listening to the most expensive Bowers & Wilkins, Klipsch and Bang & Olufsen speakers, I found that my Infinity Alpha5 HCS II & FreeBSD setup sounded both more detailed and correct. Here is a sound demo of this setup (made with a 13-year-old Sony DSC-H55).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JMQ3KSVPhD6ZRWvJ5S4-9Ubqnnlupm2f/view?usp=sharing

My opinion is that you are going to be able to produce better sound by buying a second-hand Infinity set, than a new system, since Infinity was better (more correct and more detailed) than anything on the market now.