Leaderboard

Tonight's work still needs to be wired up! Had to break out the ole' dremel to do a little trimming:

Last car we optimized we pulled out more than 30lbs of deadening which was almost half the stock package and still managed to pull out 8dB of panel noise from the car. The previous package that we optimized was developed with a combination of FEA, classic modal analysis with accelerometers, and sysnoise. They wanted to cut cost (imagine that) so they hired us to optimize the placement post design. Huge difference and saves the manufacturer over $100k/mo.

Wired passive for now off the radio, but you can hear the difference.

I will tell you from personal experience, the gain was not worth the cost and effort. One more thing to give you perspective. If there is a noise that shouldn't be there after the R&D does all their nips and tucks, and the car is produced. Someone like M5 is who they call, to locate the noise and/or give a cost effective remedy/band-aid to resolve the problem. Nothing is an absolute, everything is a compromise. One thing they don't do is call a dampener company, and buy one of everything.

*** SALE CODE SAVE20USPS EXTENDED THROUGH May 22nd, 2017 ***

Funky! I listened to it with my guinea pig....dude I hope he doesn't get pregnant.

They are always swamped. Beyond swamped in fact. Just a price you pay for buying US products.

Ah, up in sacktown. I would stick to the game plan of just the doors with LLP. I mostly pointed all that out so that you would understand your car is reasonably quiet compared to alot of cars out there. As far as the rods in body, they are called crash bars. I guarantee you will find one running horizontally inside of the door. Pack the buytl rope behind that. If the roof supports are not glued to the exterior panel I would also put some there. Basically places like that, as it is cheap sound deadener. The spray in foam is also very cheap sound deadener. It serves two functions, first it applies pressure to the panels so they cannot move and vibrate, secondly it will stop any noise that is traveling through the body cavities. I will point out the car above was done to that extreme to keep the bass in, not to keep sound out. I had 12 inch mid basses in the door any 15 inch BTL sub. I wanted it knock my head around and be violent. Which it was!!

I guess a good question to ask at this point is what music do you predominately listen to? Reason I ask is you are going to get different suggestions as Jay listens to a lot of chopped and screwed and five listens to a lot of jazz an instrumental. So yeah Tell us what you listen to and speakers you have heard that you thought sounded loud/ good.

I almost got the Alphas when i was looking at the MLI5s. I've known that you have had them a long time too. The Evil must be good

My door treatment kit on my current ride. And pics from the only car I did the floor on. Guess I did the seat area different than I remembered. ideally you would want to glue the seams to create an actual barrier. The tape I used is so sticky it will not come back off, so I was happy with that. I was trying to find pics of Aaron's SQ wagon. He and Don did a stellar job, that would be worth reproducing in your ride. Maybe you could ask him nicely for pics.

Dude, I just seen your build thread and realized you have your car already completely disassembled.... and that it is a wagon. So there are three other control points I wanted to give you insight on. First, as you noted there is already a factory sound deadener. All automotive manufacturers do this to some varying degree. But it is a compromise of cost, weight, performance. Look at it this way, if you're buying a Lexus instead of a Toyota, or a Cadillac instead of a Chevy. One of the added costs is more sound deadener, and the research on where to put it. By no means will they ever stop all sounds. But from low-end to high-end there is good, better and best. I'm not super familiar with Mercedes line up, but I would assume yours falls in the middle. Which brings me to my second Control point. One simple way to lower road noise from the factory is use "mass loaded vinyl backed" carpet. All carpets have a plastic backing, but this would be an extra layer that is still part of the carpet. If your car has that, I would consider not lining the floor as the product is already there. Which brings me to the third control. Being a wagon is inherently going to bring more road noise in from the rear tires . That would definitely be a place I would personally Focus on. Here are a few pointers on controlling panel resonation. Pack butyl rope between the body and support rods anywhere there is a support bar inside of the structural body of the car. Second is tap each body panel with your hand or a small tool, to find the areas that have the highest resonation. Install the CDL tiles there first, then wash, rinse, repeat. This way you can get the tiles were they are most needed. As far as heat, that is a tough one. Unfortunately what you are battling is probably more a product of humidity than actual temperature. Where I live is dryer than a motherfucker, you would come here and think 100° feels like 70°. Not to say that the heat barrier is not possibly good idea, but it will definitely be a lot less effective where you live. I say it's worth a little more research, as I am no thermodynamics expert. No need to thank me as I enjoy helping others, so pass the favor along. I just hate seeing people do more work then they need to. One way I gauge intelligence is the ability to use ones resources and energy wisely.

I come on this site because I want honest information about all things car audio. I am NOT interested in manufacturers pimping their wares, making outrageous claims, and saying anything just to sell more products. I'm sure the owners of BOSS audio tell their customers that their amps CAN do 5000 watts. Thank you M5, no thank you Second Skin.

Is that an attempt to miss lead people to buy things they don't need? Gaslight others much?

Do you understanding dampening at all? Yikes to the irrelevant "data" and videos. Your statement was that it was as good as CLD, show us...not that it is better than an untreated cymbal, lol. I thought you were a huge improvement to the Ant idiot, please don't disappoint us. Btw, I am not the one with an opinion, I measure structural resonances for a living.

Btw, it is not conventional to show damping across all frequencies as no structure resonates across all frequencies in a way that makes it measureable, but if you claim it works just as well as CLD then you should actually show what it is doing mechanically or at least use a self generating structure with a calibrated forcing function. Real units would be expected as well. Measurements of both structures before and after as well. It is REALLY easy to screw this test up and draw false conclusions. The loss function you show is also a misnomer as the word loss implies transmission/absorbance and not damping. Pretty unrelated; however, I can only imply what a scientist would from seeing the plots as there is no text describing the experiment actually done. I can tell though that it was done by someone who didn't understand the ramifications or results that they were testing.

Nice.

Sexy

Patiently waiting for the Evil 1's and good weather.