Wood privacy fence - planning over the top? Alternatives?

Now we're considering alternatives. I could also order a mix pack "Natural Hedge Bouquet" with 160 plants online for €280, which would allow me to green my entire garden and would only cost a quarter of what the fence would. However, the soundproofing towards the neighboring property would probably be somewhat weaker than with the board fence (? - does anyone have experience with that?),

We have a ready-made hedge along a few meters and have had good experiences with it. In terms of soundproofing, I don't see any difference, although we also have a more than 20-meter-long brick wall about 1.60m high. Sound is not stopped by such small obstacles in the open nature. The soundproof walls along highways are also really tall, but I'm no expert on that. I personally don't notice any difference....

According to soundproofing, I don't see any difference, even though we also have a wall over 20 meters long made of bricks, about 1.60m high. Sound is not stopped by such small obstacles in the open nature.

The idea of the soundproofing wall as a bouncer ("hey, you are not allowed in here!") is rather naive. A sound barrier that just stubbornly stands in the way would simply be "climbed over" by the sound pressure. Diffusers are significantly involved in the success of the overall concept, i.e. the point is to shatter the sound wave into many tiny air currents, crumple and reflect it, let it extinguish itself, and slow down the rest until it shifts into more pleasant frequency ranges. Flexible obstacles are best for this and effective broadband against sound and other wind pressures.

This is about bass. It has already been mentioned that it can only be dampened by mass.

A useful measure that should not be missing is communication with the neighbor.

Yes, sometimes that doesn't help at all or even makes things worse, but actually, in my opinion, that is where the most important potential lies.

Patience, humor, ingenuity ... charm and inner flexibility ... these are all qualities that can be useful in this. Training and experimenting with them can also be fun :)

We also have neighbors who occasionally need party music for gardening, also at presumably similar volume levels. (Yes, it annoys me a lot too.)

We have good test terrain for this question.

- 2 meter chain-link fence as a reference.
- Several meters of Thuja hedge, very old, 1 meter thick, dense and 2 meters high. Slightly dampened. Unfortunately really only slightly.
- Shed with gable at the boundary (used to be a double one, also on our side.) Solid construction, gable about 4 meters high, almost 10 meters long and 5 meters wide. So practically a 4 meter high, very massive soundproof wall.
Behind the shed the music is almost gone. Meaning gone in the sense that I have to actively listen to tell if it’s turned off already. Also the bass.
- Living room window, 8 meters beside the music-exposed side of the shed, ear height when standing is only at most 1 meter below the shed height. There the music is again clearly audible, but with much less bass and significantly quieter than behind the hedge.

What I want to say: both massive stones are worth their weight in gold, the thicker the better (mass!).
As well as height.

But I can hardly imagine a normal thin wall having the perfect effect of our shed even with the best engineering skills and particularly dense, specially shaped stones :-/

The idea of the noise barrier as a bouncer ("hey, you’re not coming in here!") is rather naive. A noise barrier that simply stands stubbornly in the way would simply be "climbed over" by the sound pressure. Diffusers play a significant role in the success of the overall concept, meaning it’s about breaking the sound wave into many tiny air currents, crumpling and reflecting it, canceling it out in the process, and slowing down the rest until it shifts into more pleasant frequency ranges. Flexible obstacles are best suited for this and are effective broadband against sound and other wind pressure.

What would flexible obstacles be?
And do you have any idea which materials could be used as diffusers outdoors? Something I could screw onto our fence posts and that perhaps doesn’t cost a fortune?

I once read about coconut matting that might be good for absorbing sound. However, I haven’t found any good offers to buy it in larger quantities and preferably long/wide rolls.
There’s also this "cold foam" with triangles that is used in music studios, for example, but I doubt that it is suitable for outdoor use?