Beginners Guide - Home Theater in Condos, Apartments, Townhouse etc.

Shared walls & Home Theater Possible?

Space - if you share a wall with neighbors, try to pick a room the furthest distance from the shared wall as possible.

Many times, in properties with shared walls, this isn’t an option but it’s still worth mentioning.

Speaker Positioning - Again, not always optional for properties/units with shared walls, due to the nature of these types of layouts and size restrictions.

But if you can do some planning, try to angle the speakers away from the. Shared wall, not firing towards.

Also, try to get the speakers as close to the main listening position as possible, so the sound has a direct shot to your ears. This will greatly help you cut down from having to crank it up.

Room Treatment - chops a room with carpet if at all possible. If your on hardwood floors, add a rug! Adding a rug, especially in the area you listen, cover up as much of the hard surface as possible.

Acoustic panels will also greatly down on reflections and clean up the sound, so you again, won’t have to crank the volume up as much.

Room treatment can be expensive but it doesn’t have to be if you are the DIY type.

Volume - Unless you are in a very well built property/complex, you will need to me mindful of trying to achieve reference volumes.

Luckily, I am not sure many people out there listen at or near reference volumes, at least not unless you are occasionally letting it crank but even then, I’m sure most folks don’t want to listen at that loud of a volume for long.

Bass - Unfortunately, another compromise. Most properties with shared walls, even very high quality buildings/units, bass can easily travel through walls, especially the real low stuff,

If you have two or even one capable sub, you can easily irritate your fellow neighbors.

I advise decoupling subs from the floor, especially if the floor is a hard surface. Items like isolation feet/pads work good, along with well designed isolation pads.

Isolation will help crack down on in room and vibration transfer to other properties/units.

Nearfield placement, if possible.

Neighbors - It doesn’t seem to be as common as it used to be but they to meet and be kind to your neighbors.

It would much better to let your neighbors and let them know about your home audio passion. Have them contact you directly if you are making too much noise. That way you can hopefully keep HOA or on site management out of the issue.

Try to find a volume with your neighbors that’s acceptable to both parties, if possible and try to stick to that volume.

It’s not ideal to have a shared wall or have very close neighbors, in this hobby. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have good sound. In fact, I’ve heard some very good systems that meet 90% of our desired audio quality and volume, in properties with shared walls.

You too, can have very good sound, my more size/location restricted home audio enthusiast friends, out there!

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