Surpassing limitations on sound quality.

[Buffalohed 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.

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.

Every so often I decide on a new mini-deadening project but they continue to yield smaller and smaller reductions in noise. The next thing I am going to do is try to deaden the engine compartment, do something with the firewall, and then apply rubber undercoating to the actual underbody of the car (it's already in the wheel wells). I'm also thinking about getting some studio acoustical foam and sealing off the front footwells with it, meaning it will be under the dash and facing downward, to cut down on standing waves. Hopefully that will help some. There is almost nothing more I can do inside the actual car short of taking off the dash and deadening the inside firewall. The entire interior is double or tripled layered in raamat and ensolite, while the rear doors are completely filled and sealed with great stuff.

As far as my speakers, when I upgrade my components I am going to move my tweeters from their current place in the upper doors and move them to right next to the base of the a-pillars. I think that will really improve my soundstage.

Anyway I just thought I would share those little tidbits with you folks. Sorry I type so much //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

Click to read more...

 

[Eugenics 5,000+ posts]

congratulations. now you can move onto the 13th insight.

 

[Buffalohed 10+ year member]

congratulations. now you can move onto the 13th insight.

And what would that be?

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Yup, you aren't the first, and won't be the last, to stumble across these things //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Eugenics 5,000+ posts]

a book

 

[Buffalohed 10+ year member]

a book

Which book? I have many.

 

[WhoSayWho? 5,000+ posts]

Which book? I have many.

One with more words than pictures.

 

[Eugenics 5,000+ posts]

One with more words than pictures.

You read him like a book. A children's book. Nothing but pictures and shit.

 

[Buffalohed 10+ year member]

One with more words than pictures.

I don't think I have any books with pictures except for ones packed up in boxes.

 

[Eugenics 5,000+ posts]

I don't think I have any books with pictures except for ones packed up in boxes.

I display all of mine in our china cabinet.

 

[Hebrew Hammer 10+ year member]

mix up your mediums in damping....I use raamat along with ensolite...your truly need to use both...no less than 2 layers of raamat along with a layer of ensolite on every panel...

now the floor in my car is like this...2 layers of raamat, 2 layers of ensolite, 2 layers of raamat, 2 layers of ensolte, 1 layer of raamat....this is the best you can do short of concreting your floor...

 

[Buffalohed 10+ year member]

I display all of mine in our china cabinet.

So were you going to recommend a book or did you plan on leaving me hanging?

 

[Buffalohed 10+ year member]

mix up your mediums in damping....I use raamat along with ensolite...your truly need to use both...no less than 2 layers of raamat along with a layer of ensolite on every panel...
now the floor in my car is like this...2 layers of raamat, 2 layers of ensolite, 2 layers of raamat, 2 layers of ensolte, 1 layer of raamat....this is the best you can do short of concreting your floor...

Interesting. Do you just stick the raamat to the top of the ensolite, or how do you do that? I have up to 4 layers of raamat in the weakly supported places on the floor, and 1-2 layers of ensolite everywhere. I have extra though so maybe I will just start loading it up and see if that helps. I'm still convinced that most of the noise is coming from the floor, and the rest from the engine and windows/wind.

 

[Eugenics 5,000+ posts]

So were you going to recommend a book or did you plan on leaving me hanging?

It's actually a fiction book that has nothing to do with car audio.

 

[Buffalohed 10+ year member]

It's actually a fiction book that has nothing to do with car audio.

I see. Well, thanks for trying. I guess.