Moved into a new apt. and everything was great until new people moved in upstairs. All of the apt have carpeting except the one above me because the previous owners took out the carpeting and replaced it with hardwood floors so there's not much sound absorption.

We can hear most of the loud noises like the TV, when they drop things on the floor, etc. but the most annoying thing is someone plays the violin in that apt. We've never seen the upstairs neighbors so we don't know if it's an adult or their kid. If you've ever seen any old Jack Benny shows where he plays the violin, then you'll know what our neighbor's playing sounds like (screeching and awful). The problem is that whoever it is plays it in the evening around 7:30 pm (which isn't too bad) until usually after midnight (which IS bad).

We've talked to the landlord about it but there isn't much he can do about it because he doesn't hear it. We've tried to knock on our neighbor's door and ring their doorbell when they're playing but they never answer the door. We want to talk to them first because maybe they don't know that the sound goes right through their floor to our apt because they don't have carpet. But we can never find an opportunity to talk to them since they don't answer their door. In the meantime, any suggestions on muffling the sounds? The sound comes through the AC vent too and their floor (our ceiling).

We asked our landlord for suggestions and he suggested earplugs (guess who's not getting a Christmas tip this year).