I'm moving into an apartment soon and I have a pretty powerful sub (Paradigm PW-2200). Does anyone know of anything that I could do to help reduce the amount of sound that my neighbours could hear from my sub? i.e. is there something that I could place under the sub like foam, a rubber pad, etc., that could help this?
I don't think any item you place the sub on will help. The sub is omnidirectional. Sound energy will flow wherever there is an opening. Think of the sub as a source of water and can flow to wherever there is an opening. Also, the walls themselves can absorb a certain amount of energy. Apartment construction doensn't provide good insulation between compartments. It's probably gonna just take some experimenting.
I currently live in an apartment as well and i am on the top floor.
I set my sub up so it was away from the wall that seperates my apt from the other. I do not crank my sub all too often. I think the key is to be reasonable with your levels and you should be ok. I have not heard a complaint from anyone as of yet. I make it a habit not to crank my system after about 11 at night. Out of respect for the other tenants. I have had one incident where my neighbour decided he would crank his system (which i never knew he had till i heard it) We got into a system fight that night. I slowly raised my levels, The neighbour finally stopped when i got my system close to max output.
The next day I ran into my neighbour at the mailbox and he told me i had him maxed out long before i hit max. I told him i was not even at max yet. Now he pops by with his gf to watch movies or the odd time for NASCAR. I dont have all that great of a system, but its the respect of the other tenants that is key