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Noisy Neighbours?

Ruk

Ruk

Registered
Joined
Sep 19, 2016
Messages
87
Location
Manchester UK
Here ya go... and just out of interest cos I am always concerned about my neighbours hearing my bumping and thumping.... (I can't use the 'Ooh Matron' picture twice in an evening so behave ;))

Have any of you veteran pin-geezers ever had it mentioned by your neighbours that they can hear your machine/s clunking away... I say clunking cos the speech and sounds can be turned down or off.

I live in a terraced house and I have self imposed a curfew of 7pm and I don't play after that time. Now, fair do's... I've not long rebuilt my Centaur and I'm possibly a bit more sensitive to the new noises radiating outward through the walls... but I'm close to asking if they've heard anything... but edging back in case it opens the floodgates :eek:

So.... have you ever had any complaints of noise?
 
I have some headphone kits to install soon, they will remove all speaker noise and still let me enjoy them, the unremovable noise is definitely the solenoids clacking as you said. I tried the kit thing from Pinball Centre that's basically lots of small circular pieces of rubber to put on the ends of plungers but it was too much faff. My next experiment is a roll of sound deadening car insulation material that I've bought and plan to try lining the lower cabinet with, as suggested by Phil Dixon @Sven Normanssen in issue one of Pinball Today (I scanned it in recently) and plan to take standardised recordings of before and after and see if it makes any difference. Will report back.


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I was thinking of these acoustic foam sections off ebay just as a trial but not pulled the trigger on them yet... a mate of mine used to work locally where they made the lining for our UK military tanks... I used to get loads of it when needed and lie on it when outside fixing motorcycles then just bin it... it was heavy in kevlar and very high density fire proof foam... dual purpose impact and sound reduction, perfect for lining a cab eh?. Sadly he's no longer there but worse... neither is the factory produced it. Bugger!


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I lived in a small semi and had a Roadshow upstairs. If you were downstairs you could see and hear the light fitting rattling. Neighbours never complained. I reckon their flamin kids made more noise than my pins though .
 
I'm in a terrace and the poor woman next to my games room is bed bound. I pretty much try to keep playing to more civilised hours because of this. There's never been any complaints from her. The previous occupant was also bed bound but had the advantage of being stone deaf so that worked out ok. I don't think she actually gets that bad a deal out of it as I'm rarely in there for more than 30 mins on the average day, so there's no TV noise etc for her for 23.5 hours of the day.

A few years ago though there was an issue with people in the middle flat next door opening a dispute about the kids above them with their housing agency. The woman was a serial complainer and has luckily left since. One of the cited problem was that "she didn't know what the kids were doing but it sounded like a fair ground". Pretty sure she was complaining about the wrong person:oops:
 
Ruk said:
I was thinking of these acoustic foam sections off ebay just as a trial but not pulled the trigger on them yet... a mate of mine used to work locally where they made the lining for our UK military tanks... I used to get loads of it when needed and lie on it when outside fixing motorcycles then just bin it... it was heavy in kevlar and very high density fire proof foam... dual purpose impact and sound reduction, perfect for lining a cab eh?. Sadly he's no longer there but worse... neither is the factory produced it. Bugger!


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I've used that stuff before. It definitely deadened the sound a little bit but not earth shattering amounts.
 
Those foam egg crates are more for sound treatment. Only real way to sound deaden is add weight or decouple.

I guess the best solution for late hight gaming would be a ally track and a couple layers of dB board.

I'm glueing one layer of dB board with acoustic glue to my party wall to try and block the sound of who wants to be a millionaire out. We shall see if it works.
 
There are a couple of useful db meters on the App Store. I suspect the volume isn't the issue it's the type of noise and frequency that's the problem. Modern sterns are quite well insulated compared to williams though.

However I think considering sound proofing the walls might be a better option rather than sound proofing the machines - then you don't need headphones etc. Lots of good ways to do that.

Many years ago I had a horrific run in with some guys who had rented the other half of the semi I lived in at the time - one was a part time DJ and had these huge speakers that no matter what the volume they vibrated the hell out of the house, he was also a complete c-hock, one weekend they had a nonstop party and I go zero sleep despite calling the cops etc, woke up driving to work on the off road under the M4/M25 flyover, luckily still alive - decided that was it.
Looked into my legal rights and those not making the noise are very much in the strong position, council was useless, Bought a load of video and sound measuring gear set it all up to record one month of their freaking twatness - my lawyer took it to the council who he insisted and they finally did serve noise abatement notices on all of the occupants - blissful quiet for 3 weeks, then it started again, council and police came round and took everything in their house that made a noise - including the microwave oven! They moved out the following week and after threatening my former neighbour who had ****ed off to HK for 5 years with work he only rented to nice families after that. Moved away shortly after- will never live in a house close to anyone else again!

Cheers,
Neil
 
I looked into sound proofing my party wall as my neighbours tv noise came through like it was in the room with us. I spoke to an acoustics expert type person who said i could spend thousands on sound proofing the wall only to find out the sound was coming through the ceiling joists. In essence, you need to seal all 4 walls, floor and ceiling. To make it sound proof it effectively needs to be water tight too.
 
I live in a Victorian end terrace. I've never even seen or heard a sound from my nextdoor neighbours. Not once in over two years! I think they must tunnel in and out. I'm actually not sure if they're alive.
 
I've metered my neighbour at a whooping 22db. Which I realise is hardly even a noise. But I can still hear what they're saying on the TV. Worth an experiment.
 
Spandangler said:
Hearing stories about people who don't hear their neighbors are akin to those whose children have slept 14 hours a night since the first week they were born.

They make me sick
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Like I say, I have never seen my nextdoor neighbours ever. I know they are in there because the lights are on and sometimes they have visitors. But not once have I laid eyes on them. Its quite a spooky house too.
The neighbours on the other side of them (nextdoor but two) more than make up for the lack of noise though and I had to report them to the council just before xmas. They have a party in the back garden pretty much every fortnight. They are dickhead hippies with money who think it's fine to put a studio amp in the back garden and crank it up. I actually burst into the back garden once and shut it off. Never seen so many people **** themselves simultaneously.
 
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The problem with noisy neighbours is that your ears automatically tune in on the noise they make, even if it is a nothing noise.
Had problems in two separate terraced houses and vowed to never buy anything else than a detached house for the rest of my life. Best decision ever (if affordable obviously!)
 
I'd love a detached place. Never going to happen in London though..:(

Much as I love the city at home I'm never more than 3 meters away from at least 8 or so people.
 
Yes. If affordable. Anyway all is not great in a detached house either: remember trying to have a game a couple of months back in the evening and 9yr old daughter complained that it was too noisy. Her bedroom is straight above but still. At least she didn't involve the council or police.
 
My neighbours make very little noise, although occasionally the people above us have a party or a shouting argument... and the people directly across from us... yeah, she's a screamer.

Both of these deserve a bit of pinball clatter every now and again just fine methinks.
 
Some good pointers early in the thread about the DB boards which I'll take a look at :thumbs: it all went a bit sideways then... very entertaining non the less :rofl:

On a brighter note... tonight I thought I'd just bung some Deep Purple on... whacked the amp up to 11 and hey presto.... they couldn't hear the pinball machine any more next door, or the door after that, or even the door after that... :eek:
 
PBrookfield said:
My neighbours make very little noise, although occasionally the people above us have a party or a shouting argument... and the people directly across from us... yeah, she's a screamer.

Both of these deserve a bit of pinball clatter every now and again just fine methinks.
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lol, best way to deal with the screamer is to record it and play it back during the day LOL

Neil.
 
Neil McRae said:
lol, best way to deal with the screamer is to record it and play it back during the day LOL

Neil.
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Oh god. That reminds me of the time I lived in an apartment in Manchester city centre. Going at it with the girlfriend at the time, windows open. All of a sudden became aware of someone sarcastically imitating her moans. The central atrium was apparently amplifying the whole caboodle like a massive megaphone. Mortifying.
 
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Had the floorboards up. Used acoustic glue to stick the dB board up. The was a few big holes behind the skirting board that I've filled with cement board.
I've smashed a few holes in the ceiling for ground wire to wall lights that did t have an earth.
Interestingly now the tv sound is coming out the holes in the ceiling. Like somebody is watching it up stairs. Going to board the ceiling with normal 12.5mm board. Will be interesting to see what is like after being skimmed.
 
Is this ###t acceptable every other Saturday? I feel like it isn't.
 
RobZombie said:
Is this ###t acceptable every other Saturday? I feel like it isn't.
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Nope - has your council got a noise team? Call them the minute you hear it and record it like you have done.


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