Amplified Sound

Noise from domestic entertainment can annoy, cause stress and generally affect the quality of life in a residential area. It is the biggest cause of complaint between neighbours. This section gives some simple precautions you can take in your home to avoid causing nuisance.

Noise from domestic entertainment

Noise from televisions, radios and (especially) stereo systems is a growing problem. Amplifiers in domestic sound systems are now so powerful that they can cause a severe problem to immediate neighbours and can affect a whole neighbourhood. Of course, these problems are much worse late at night.
The council accept that people have a right to enjoy their homes, and their choice of music. The law does NOT allow the council to be ‘party poopers’, and we do not want everyone to be totally quiet. However, noisy neighbours do NOT have a right to destroy other people’s enjoyment of their homes, causing distress, loss of sleep or even illness. We all need to be considerate.

Generally, it is true to say that it does not matter what type of music it is – loud ‘heavy metal’ causes exactly the same distress and loss of sleep as does loud classical music. However, more recent styles of music have a much heavier bass beat than previously, and these bass frequencies penetrate buildings very easily. A thudding bass beat at 1am in the morning can certainly be a serious nuisance, and is certainly an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Almost all of these problems can be avoided if care is taken about the hours of use, and having self control with the volume button. The advice given below includes some tips on how to avoid causing problems.
How to avoid causing problems with domestic sound system.

• Loudspeakers –should not be fixed to or close to party walls.

• Vibration – try to insulate the speakers from the floor or from party walls. This will reduce the noise and vibration reaching next door. Put them on a decent speaker stand or put carpet or underlay under them to deaden the sound.

• Volume – keep the volume as low as possible. As it gets later in the evenings, turn it down.

• Bass Beat – be careful about the bass controls, and don’t have them up too loud.

• Hours of use – we suggest that people need to rest from noise at the weekend and in the evening. It is especially important if young children are involved; we seek to provide peace and quiet in the evenings. Although we cannot give any hard and fast rules, you should be considerate about the volume of at all hours of the day.

• Headphones – You can use headphones with most domestic entertainment equipment. You can even get cordless headphones which allow you to enjoy your music and still move around. Be careful not to have the volume up too loud, or you could cause long-term damage to your hearing.

If you have professional equipment – you must be more considerate. If a normal domestic stereo system can cause a noise nuisance, then think what the larger professional systems can do!

Loss of hearing – sometimes, complaints about noise from very loud televisions are caused because people (especially older people) are losing their hearing. People simply don’t notice that they are slowly becoming rather deaf. As a result, over the years they slowly turn up the volume on their televisions so they can hear them.

Eventually, they’ve got it so loud that sometimes visiting relatives complain that it is painful! A lot can be done in these circumstances, and perhaps the best option is a special device fitted to the television so that it ‘talks’ directly to a hearing aid: the person with loss of hearing can now hear perfectly, and the rest of the family can turn down the volume.