jji23 Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Hello TV members, I live with my family (wife and 2 year old son) in a townhouse moo baan in Rangsit. We live at the end of a row of townhouses, every night at around 8pm we begin hearing and feeling low continuos bass vibrations and it's driving us mad. It disrupts our family and relaxation time and also is still going on until midnight possibly later, which keeps me awake and makes me very tired the next day. I've searched around for the source of these vibrations and have found they are loudest on the wall of our bedroom, which has a shared wall with our neighbors bedroom. It's as if he is having a drum and bass rave inside his bedroom every night, at first we thought it must be someone in the village having a party and we inquired with other neighbors who told us they couldn't hear a thing at night in their houses. We previously lived in a different house in this village and never heard anything too. I imagine his sub woofer is on the floor and probably next to the wall where on our side our heads are in our beds. We've been down to talk to him on 3 separate occasions and on the previous occasion my wife told him the next time we won't come to ask him and just call the police. But it just continues! Please help me, what can I do? We rent this house so building another wall isn't really an option and probably expensive. When we try to record the sound as evidence on our phones they can't pick up the vibrations. Is it possible to report this as noise pollution to the local amphur office? Do they have resolutions for these kind of matters? Going down there steaming mad probably isnt a good idea but we've tried reasoning, we get a few times of quiet then back to Friday/Saturday and it's back. Maybe I should get a sub woofer and blare my music at 5am when I usually wake up. Why is there a total disregard for others? What is he thinking when he does this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim armstrong Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 He is probably deaf. As you say getting aggro with him probably won't work, and it's a pity he cant have a powercut just to his condo.I don't know of a cheap soundproofing system except egg cartons, but I think they work in the wrong direction for your needs. Not a good option but maybe its time to think about moving. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cashpower Posted January 19, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted January 19, 2014 http://lifehacker.com/5852903/silence-noisy-neighbors-by-transmitting-signals-through-their-own-speakers 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazygreg44 Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Are you sure this is the result from music or subwoofers ? Let me tell you something. Once in Hua Hin, I wanted to rent a townhouse. A landlady showed us a nice house at the end of the Moo Ban. It has two big disadvantages. The first one was seen right away when approaching : An array of trashcans, which the whole moo ban would use to collect their rubbish. The next , I was in the bedroom in the second floor, which cornered by the streetside. Only because I wear an hearing aid, I suddenly became aware of a steady , deep frequency humming. Or maybe what you would call deep bass subwoofing. You want to know where it came from ? Right across the the bedroom wall, there was a large transisitor/ transformator mounted on a concrete pole. A real big transformer, and my head when sleeping would be just 2,5 meters away, only separated by a wall of tiny red bricks. I suggest you make sure there is no large electric current line / transformer anywhere near your house. If there is, move out. There is nothing you can do, this is Thailand and this is standard. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooo Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Any aircon units mounted outside? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post vtjforyou Posted January 19, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted January 19, 2014 Move ! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mogandave Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Buy three in a row, live in the middle and rent the other two out. Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieH Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Buy some ear plugs or read one of the many many many other threads previously started for more ideas and suggestions, and seemingly repeated every week ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post wym Posted January 19, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted January 19, 2014 Move. Never buy in Thailand, only rent. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBrad Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 If you're sure that it's coming from a speaker system in your neighbor's house--which, according to your post, you don't seem very sure, anyway, supply him with a piece of carpeting or foam mat to cushion his speaker on the bottom as well as on the back side which probably is up against your wall. This remedy will greatly reduce vibrations. He should be agreeable to something like this, and it's a much kinder option that involving the police. The thought about the transformer doesn't sound probable considering the hours that the vibrations are felt or heard. If it were a transformer, it would vibrate all day and all night, most likely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jji23 Posted January 20, 2014 Author Share Posted January 20, 2014 Thanks for the replies and advice. Last night we slept with no air con to test if that was causing it, but the sound was still there. We asked the neighbor if it was him but he informed us that he moved his TV and stereo out of the bedroom (shared wall with our bedroom) and downstairs to his living room. The most striking thing about this is that if I go out onto our balcony this sound cant be heard, only when we're lying in bed or have ear against wall. Testing out ear plugs tonight! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
circusman Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Are you sure this is the result from music or subwoofers ? Let me tell you something. Once in Hua Hin, I wanted to rent a townhouse. A landlady showed us a nice house at the end of the Moo Ban. It has two big disadvantages. The first one was seen right away when approaching : An array of trashcans, which the whole moo ban would use to collect their rubbish. The next , I was in the bedroom in the second floor, which cornered by the streetside. Only because I wear an hearing aid, I suddenly became aware of a steady , deep frequency humming. Or maybe what you would call deep bass subwoofing. You want to know where it came from ? Right across the the bedroom wall, there was a large transisitor/ transformator mounted on a concrete pole. A real big transformer, and my head when sleeping would be just 2,5 meters away, only separated by a wall of tiny red bricks. I suggest you make sure there is no large electric current line / transformer anywhere near your house. If there is, move out. There is nothing you can do, this is Thailand and this is standard. Read the op's post. He said he talked to the man and it was quiet for awhile until the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackr Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 What is he thinking when he does this? Thinking? I feel for you. One of the, perhaps the, biggest factors in determining whether you have a nice life here is who you end up with as a neighbour. It is the luck of the draw out here, even if you're in the best moobaan in the land, and if you're out of it (luck), you're screwed. If it's a sub-woofer connected to TV/stereo/bass guitar, it wouldn't matter where it's placed in the house as low end frequencies travel well through concrete, and if he's a bass freak then all the worse. Pick up a bit of foam and ask him to plonk his woofers on there and also ask him to flatten off the EQ. Bass traps won't do much as it's likely through the speakers being physically on the ground. Something like this: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post tingtongteesood Posted January 20, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted January 20, 2014 Sadly it is the Thai way to not give a crap about anyone else as long as you are either having a good time or making money. Not Thai bashing, a sad fact for a great many people... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kolah Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 jackr hit the nail on the head. Bass is low frequency and as such it travels through just about anything. Even ear plugs won't help. I once lived two blocks away from an illegal nightclub in Honolulu. Friday and Saturday nights would drive me nuts because this club stayed open until 6am. The only thing that helped was when the police finally were able to shut it down. Even if your neighbor puts his subwoofer on foam or sand or whatever, it will still generate bass sound waves. These low frequency sounds travel so well and so far that elephants use low frequency sound (below the range of human hearing) to communicate over several kilometers. (http://medienportal.univie.ac.at/presse/aktuelle-pressemeldungen/detailansicht/artikel/mystery-of-elephant-infrasounds-revealed/) If the neighbor won't stop creating these low frequency noises, your only option may be to move. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thhMan Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Talk to the neighbor or move... duh! Why even bother to ask TV what to do? Sometimes it appears that people are so useless they use TV like mommy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jji23 Posted January 20, 2014 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 20, 2014 Talk to the neighbor or move... duh! Why even bother to ask TV what to do? Sometimes it appears that people are so useless they use TV like mommy... I bothered to ask as maybe others have been in this situation and may have found a resolution that I hadn't thought of. This is an open forum where I can jolly well ask what I like. Sometimes it appears that people are so bored and rude they use TV to troll and be negative...Sad. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gazwa Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Rangsit has many moo baans with freestanding homes, both large and small for rent. No shared walls = no noise. I have a very peaceful life in this area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam sen Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 when i return to the UK i live in a small village, it is absolutely quiet at night, so quiet that as i lie in bed at night i hear this slight hum in my ears, i think its either the sound of my own body or maybe the water moving in the pipes in the house. i stop hearing it after a few nights. absolute quiet is one of the great pleasures in my life. not much help to the OP though... sorry. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suradit69 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Sadly it is the Thai way to not give a crap about anyone else as long as you are either having a good time or making money. Not Thai bashing, a sad fact for a great many people... Odd. I live in a condo with a lot of Thai people about. The only people who've caused me any aggro from inconsiderate late night noise were farangs in rented units while here on holiday. Only happened a couple of times and the Thai manager sorted them out when I complained. Not farang bashing, but sadly it is the farang way not to give a crap about others and to make some self-serving generalities about 66 million people. Well only a few farangs are like that, but it's comforting to pretend that the behavior of a few idiots is representative of whole populations of people that I'm eager to bash at the moment. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post NoshowJones Posted January 20, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted January 20, 2014 Talk to the neighbor or move... duh! Why even bother to ask TV what to do? Sometimes it appears that people are so useless they use TV like mommy... If that's the way you feel, why bother being a member. That's the beauty of TV, members give advice to other members, and long may it continue. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gopis108 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 I totally understand and we had a similar problem with the neighbours playing their music very loudly, so one day I had the brilliant idea of blasting my boom boom box back at them and it worked perfectly-they immediately got the message and turned the music down and now they do keep the volume down and we are all happy.. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Familyonthemove Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Thais can be very polite and considerate about most things - except noise. They tend to think us falangs are just uptight. As has been said - low frequency noise will travel some distance - it may not be your immediate neighbor. But if it's the guy next door then insulating the base driver with foam and keeping it away from the dividing wall will help. The trouble is - once you become 'sensitized' to an annoying sound it will bother you unless it goes completely. It's like an allergy that causes stress because you know someone is being an ar$se.. Stopping all vibration will be impossible - and now it has caused annoyance you will hear it even if the volume is reduced. I used to work in the anti-noise team at a local authority - and I realized that once someone has caused a nuisance and wound another person up - one party often has to move to cure it as sound proofing and turning it down will not help. I've seen people try to kill their neighbors as a result of noise issues - one ran over his neighbor with his car then got out of the car and tried to finish him off with a steering lock! So as you are in a rented place - move to something detached is my advice ..... and use the foam insulation method to reduce the issues for now (or get a steering lock ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickmanchester2 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 are you pickin up any good vibrations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travel Dude Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 If the neighbor is under 25 yeas old you could buy a so called mosquito. It's a speaker emitting very high sound and for sure he is the one who will move. It is used in the west to get hanging youth away from spots and parks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travel Dude Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 If the neighbor is under 25 yeas old you could buy a so called mosquito. It's a speaker emitting very high sound and for sure he is the one who will move. It is used in the west to get hanging youth away from spots and parks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackflash Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 (edited) jji23, You have my sympathy. There's nothing worse than thumping Bass when you are trying to sleep. As already mentioned, bass can travel for miles and is little attenuated by walls, etc. A sound system which sounds great up-close can be a nightmare of thumping bass at a distance. If I had my way, all sub-woofer owners would be shot. Unfortunately exaggerated bass seems to appeal to the brain-dead. The suggestion about sitting the speakers on rubber (if possible) is a good one. The bass vibrations are often carried by the building structure and a sheet of rubber will greatly lessen this. It has been mentioned that earplugs don't help. This is not strictly true. The common foam earplugs are not very effective, but the wax earplugs which you mold to fit your ears are incredibly effective. I'm not sure about the transformer problem that crazygreg44 describes. It almost sounds like his hearing aid is picking up the transformer's magnetic field in it's induction pick-up loop. This is often used by the hard of hearing to assist with telephone calls, and for broadcasting sound-tracks in movie houses. He should be able to switch off the loop. But here's something else to think about: At one time I was hired to track down complaints of Bass Hum. It turned out that the hum it was impossible to measure, even with custom microphones and recording gear. We came to the conclusion that the sound was internal. The sufferers eventually realised that the hum they were hearing was actually the turbulence caused by blood flow in the inner ear. It's a type of Tinnitus, but low frequency rather than high pitched. According to the audiologist we consulted, it is rather common. But note that this sound is a continuous hum. not the rhythmic thumping of amplified music. The problem however is largely physiological. It is very hard for the sufferer to accept that this blood turbulence it is not a "real" sound. It is very real to them. A useful test is if other people can hear it, and also if good earplugs work or not. Also turning the head, or yawning (clearing the ears) can make it come and go if it is internal. Another trick is to put a glass of water on the bedside table and watch the ripples on the surface to see if they coincide with the bass thumping. Please note that I'm not saying that blood turbulence is your problem. I merely offer it as one more possibility to consider. Edited January 20, 2014 by jackflash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackflash Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 (edited) > If the neighbor is under 25 yeas old you could buy a so called mosquito. A so called "mosquito" won't work through a solid wall, and when he has his music on he won't hear it anyway. Edited January 20, 2014 by jackflash 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunPer Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Problem with low frequency sound/vibration is, that it can travel long way and be amplified through constructions picking up the resonance; can be cement, wood, steel, walls and room size/shape. May be very hard to suggest solutions, when the source is unknown – especially as you mention it’s only inside the bedroom, and not on the balcony. How about ground floor, the wall just under your bedroom? Suggestions of transformer, aircon or other sources are relevant, but the source can be further away than just few meters. Some kind of sound isolation or acoustic damping (that’s what the egg cartons can do), preferably as so-called bass traps, may help; but most important is to find the source of the vibrations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bifftastic Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 Sadly it is the Thai way to not give a crap about anyone else as long as you are either having a good time or making money. Not Thai bashing, a sad fact for a great many people... I'm not sure if you've read the thread or just jumped to the assumption that the neighbour doesn't 'give a crap'. He's moved his speakers away from the wall after the OP has spoken to him about it, so he is listening to their concerns. Anyway, back to the OP. As others have pointed out, bass will travel through the actual structure itself, so unless it can be isolated it will still travel through to your bedroom. You might try (with the neighbour's help) adjusting the low-end frequency so that it doesn't resonate quite so much within the walls. That might help a bit. Other than that, you'll have to try and negotiate a cut-off time that allows you a decent amount of sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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