Surpassing limitations on sound quality.

[16.6V 10+ year member]

Are saying that people on here actually triple their efforts when they say they applied a layer of sound deadening? Or are you talking about a professional? Either the case, I have seen many installers put down exactly how many layers they say they would. Not sure why someone especially an installer would go the extra mile and give a customer 2 extra layer or even 4 extra layers (double deadend) for free. None the less, ventilation is good in our cars, allows you to shut your doors, keep condensation down, keeps mold down, etc.. But if you are try achieve a solid door or car for competition, SPL or SQ, you will want them completely sealed off. Its really a give and take situation.
Oh and if it takes a pro 5-6 hours per door, and they are only installing a few layers, they probably do not know what they are doing and they would most likely be fired. If they were even doing it leisurely, I still dont know what to think about that.

Back to the original poster, Like Hebrew said, I also Sandwhich my ensolite between my deadener. This is about the best approach I have come up with, without using acoustic foam. Foam is about the best bet for knocking down those unwanted noise. But you will only reach a certain reduction in different cars, until the windows and designs start to come into play. That of which you can usually do nothing about. Cars are just not the perfect enviroment for audio..I guess thats what pushes us to achieve better things in them?

I learned that from installers that work with expensive cars in expensive audio shops, not best-buy installers. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

In fact, it takes a shop 1-2 weeks to do proper audio install.

 

[Buffalohed 10+ year member]

I have actually considered that I am vastly altering the "flow" of my car so to speak. I noticed when I first deadened my floor that there is some moisture and wetness on the metal under the footmats. Also the inside of my doors get wet sometimes, obviously.

As for deadening the way you described, that is exactly how my two front doors are done. With 2 layers and 2 of ensolite, and clay and MDF. My two rear ones I removed the window motors, deadened with raammat and then completely filled with great stuff. Water shouldn't even get in the rear doors at all though because I have siliconed the windows as well. Hopefully that isn't an issue, but I will address it as it arises.

How much do you guys think I would notice by deadening my hood and parts of the engine compartment I can access?

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

I'm beginning to realize a couple things about achieving SQ in a car.
1. You are ultimately limited by sound proofing and the acoustical properties of your car. I have put tons and tons of time and money into deadening my car and there is still a lot of noise that comes in, from many different sources. Unless I can figure out how to silence it, my car can only sound so good while driving.

- Yes, you could get into your car and never get out trying to sound proof it better. Road noise is a big problem. One thing some people could do and that is never talked about is engine noise. One of the best things I ever did was have a quite, Cadillac-like muffler installed on a Z-28.

2. Rear fill provides a nice "sound experience", for lack of a better term, but it inevitably detracts from sound quality and accuracy. I have found that while I enjoy having sound all around me, and the rear fill adds a lot of depth (largely I think because it bounces off the rear window), there is a significant trade-off for accuracy, tonality, and response curve when you go with rear fill. When I figure out how to raise and widen my soundstage I will be golden, because right now it is pretty low, and there is a lot of interference between my tweeters due to placement.

- Surround sound, specifically a rear channel surround sound signal fed to the rear speakers would solve all those problems and more... if well implemented... speaker placement is important there also.

Your weakest point is your speaker placement... kick panels are the way to go.

Before buying a car that I want to put a good system in, the first thing I look for is speaker locations. Pick up Trucks are no good, a car will always beat them.

 

[grouchy 10+ year member]

What cars are you driving? If you apply that much deadening the factory ventilation is completely screwed. It is likely that your cars are going to rust badly due to condensation and rain, or they will smell like *** after a while. Do you know that the water must flow freely inside of your doors?
To do the long term deadening, you have to keep open all ventilation holes, and apply fist layer of deadener on the hot metal so that condensation won't accumulate between two surfaces.

One layer of deadener goes on the deep inside surface of the door, second layer one on the outer surface of the door, and the third layer on the plastic upholstery.

It takes about 5-6 hours to correctly deaden 1 door by a pro!!! The pic is an example of how to deaden a door correctly. (Note: the third layer goes on the inside of upholstery, not on the top of the other layers!!!) After you apply these 3 layers, you start laying 4th,5th, and 6th layer of deadener if you want, but again, you MUST keep ventilation and drainage holes at the bottom of the door/body - 100% open.

Ex of 1st and 2nd layer of the CORRECT deadening job:

I have a toyota echo. Don't know exactly how all the soundproofing was done to my car, as I paid an installer to do it. I guess I could ask them about condensation, but they do good work so I think it will probably be ok. You can see some pictures here

http://hzemall.com/our_gallery/installs/2005_toyota_echo/install2.htm

 

[16.6V 10+ year member]

Sound deadening is one thing that you should really do yourself, unless you want to spend your time on finding a knowledgeable installer and give him about $2000 to do the job + the price of the deadener. After all, it is very basic stuff, but requires a lot of effort and persistence.

Jut strip your car to bare metal and inspect the surface for ventilation holes and drainage holes. The take an electric heat gun (can be had for about $40 in most home improvement stores) that and begin to heat the metal until it is just too hot to touch. Then apply precut peaces of deadener. Also, NEVER put the whole peace of deadener on the surface but try to press it inch by inch very slowly. Unless you deadening your roof NEVER use roller on doors because you can’t apply adequate pressure on curved surfaces. Usually pros use the back of a screwdriver to correctly deaden curved surfaces as they lay deadener on hot metal. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

My advice to all armature car-audio lovers is to deaden one area at a time. One Sunday you deaden one door, the next weekend you deaden the other door etc.. until you are done with all car. If you will try to deaden the whole thing in one long session the chances are that you are going to get tired and f*ck your car. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/verymad.gif.3f39c5c2fd57527b671fad3efdfac756.gif Expect to spend at least 6-7h on one door…

The goal to is make as little modifications to car’s ventilation system as possible while provide better soundproofing. Remember that factory engenders are not a bunch of idiots and every whole inside of your vehicle was put there on purpose – which is to increase the lifespan of your vehicle. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif