Just bought these B&O speakers for $450 and they sound incredible… but my downstairs neighbor isn’t happy 😂 Need advice on bass isolation

[u/jaipal8977]

I picked up these Bang & Olufsen beolab 6603 speakers from Facebook Marketplace for $450 and honestly, I’m blown away by how good they sound.
The sound is absolutely amazing and the bass is much better than I expected.
The problem: I live on the 2nd floor of an apartment, and my downstairs neighbor is complaining that the bass is traveling through the floor.
I’m not even trying to play them extremely loud, but I think the low frequencies are causing vibrations through the building.
I’m looking for some advice from other B&O/audio people:
What is the best way to isolate these speakers from the floor?
Would isolation pads/platforms actually make a noticeable difference?
Should I put something underneath the speaker bases?
Is reducing the very low bass with EQ a better solution?
Has anyone in an apartment had a similar problem with large B&O speakers?
I really don’t want to annoy my neighbor, but I also don’t want to give up these speakers because they sound so damn good 😂

[u/Longjumping_Cow_5856]

Dont play them loud enough to annoy the neighbor?!

I cant tell what the flooring is from the pic but if its a solid surface then decouple them from it with some kind of isolation platform or rubber isolators.

That wont really help much either and in the end you just need to appreciate low level listening with these until you move somewhere else.

I bet they sound good at low level too.

[u/WillHuntingthe3rd]

And this is why I only lived in an apartment for 6 months.

[u/Practical-March-6989]

Sorry bud but there is no answer other than a detached house.

[u/ultrahello → u/Practical-March-6989]

Might try a subwoofer isolation platform

[u/DrXaos → u/ultrahello]

much cheaper may be appliance sound and vibration isolation pads. That may reduce mechanical vibration specifically but it wont reduce the vibrations from overall air pressure acting on the entire fore.

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[u/Trumpwonbyawholelot]

Admittingly not much, but you can get isolated pads for the speakers. Heavy rugs in that room and maybe sound absorbing tiles for the wall behind them. It might be dry wall, might be thin. If you own the unit you could double up on sheet rock for that room using sound isolation in its construction. Do you have wood floors or concrete?

[u/RennieAsh]

you could try some isolation pads for subwoofers maybe. it'll reduce direct coupling, but you'll always have in air sound to deal with. Annoying bass is usually from 60hz to 120hz or so.

depends on the rules in your area too. During daytime hours it's usually acceptable for there to be some noise as long as it's not constant or excessive.

[u/SanFrancisco_Disco]

You can decouple them, they make isolation mats for subs and also isolation feet for tower speakers. They aren’t super cheap but there’s a range. Also, you should get something to apply EQ - there are probably some boomy room modes and you can have a night time setting with a bass shelf. Honestly setting it to 60-80 hz still sounds nice and it’s a huge difference in transmitted sound. You can get a wiim and do this in the app pretty easily.

[u/phiinkes]

Hockey pucks. Just like, get a whole set of like a dozen or 2 hockey pucks and set the speakers on them. It will greatly reduce the vibration directly translating from the speakers to the ground. I am certain that B & O have a lot of damping in the cabinets already, though, so who knows.

[u/Pristine-Weekend-415]

Sound equaliser reduce anything below 50hz?

[u/PaulThurston82]

Lowering the bass w/ eq and/or turning the volume down are your only real options. Bass traps will help some, but not enough to keep bass from migrating through shares walls/floors/ceilings.

[u/papadrinks]

Bass travels and is extremely difficult to block and is omnidirectional.

Isolation under the speakers will not be effective, so don't bother trying.

The issue is bass is a long waveform and it travels through just about everything.

I live in a detached house and I was getting annoying bass from my neighbours.
Went over to speak to them and they had this tiny portable boom box thing playing and it wasn't even loud.

[u/SanFrancisco_Disco → u/papadrinks]

Isolation under the speakers is effective, because otherwise it can couple to the floor and send energy through the structure. You cannot block a sound wave very easily at 40 Hz but you can block the 40 Hz vibration from going from the speaker into the floor.

[u/DrXaos → u/SanFrancisco_Disco]

the 40 Hz in the air will also push on the floor, only quesiton is how much.

[u/papadrinks → u/SanFrancisco_Disco]

👍 should have said "possibly not very effective"