Aaron Clinton

Please do take a moment to read this topic and not just look at the pictures, as some of the photos will not make sense if you skip over what I try to say. I am few days behind on getting this pictures posted up, but life and all that goes with it has been in the way. Anyway, a MASSIVE thank you goes out to Don at http://www.Sounddeadenershowdown.com. I had initially hoped to use the SDS product line on the little Mazda with Don's guidance, but he went far and away above the call of duty and took 3, yes 3, very long work days out of his schedule to help me along the way. This was an excellent learning experience for me in terms of the physics of how the acoustics effect the car around me. Don was ever patient with my endless questions and wanted to go the extra mile and spend the extra time to make sure we got it right. Not to mention Don's supply of room temperature orange Gatorade that kept us from dehydrating in the process. I will not get into the demise of the sled (Mercedes Brabus 300ce) at this time. I have 10+ years of college behind me, and I have always learned faster when using practical applications of the concepts being discussed instead of just extensive reading. In this case, physically having Don there explaining and showing me, step by step, section by section of the car, how and why and where to apply the SDS system was priceless! As you will see in the many following pictures, this is much more of a system, and the full effects were staggering. I say system because the CLD, CCF, Butyl Rope and MLV all have a purpose and work together to vastly change the vibrations in the metal and interior parts, along with sound transmission both into and out of the car. Don has figured out a number of very nifty tricks for installing, one most importantly is the fact that every inch of CCF and MLV can be pulled right out of the car, which you will see below in the pictures. We started in the rear hatch floor area, then worked our way forward on the floor up through the firewall, lastly working on the doors and vertical surfaces. I have dampened a handful of cars in the past, heck, I nearly covered every inch of the wifey's old Civic with butyl tiles, many sections with multiple layers, but the performance was not like this. Once we were done, I was grinning like a fool, and opening and closing the door in disbelief as to the difference. The level of silence inside the vehicle is really something, almost cocoon like in nature as your ears take a moment to adjust to the change in noise level. In this rare case, I am not the man behind the curtain, I let Don (former large format pro-photographer) photograph the process, so all these photos are credit of the SDS camera. As for the audio in the car, disregard that at the moment as it is still a 7 year old fully stock Pioneer system as I have had the Mazda only a few weeks and I am spending much of my non-daddy time on the road or away from somewhere appropriate to install audio. The funny thing is, how much better the stock audio system preforms. We were both taken back for a moment once we had finished up, I joked that I might just leave it stock. (Though I did lay down power, speaker wire, and RCA's under the carpet for the impending install which is another topic). This was a great deal of work, more then I had anticipated, but so worth it. I keep telling Don on the phone the additional benefits I keep finding out, the latest being that my 4 year old son goes to sleep much easier now due to greatly reduced road noise levels. Again, and huge Thank You to Don for all the time, answers, assistance and effort that went into this install. Details of the install log: Vehicle: 2003 Mazda Protege5 5-speed Materials used: SDS Closed Cell Foam SDS Mass Loaded Vinyl SDS Constrained Layer Dampener HH-66 Vinyl Adhesive Velcro with dual pressure sensitive adhesive Tools: Silver Sharpie Painters Tape Large Shears Scissors At least a gallon of Mineral Spirits Denatured Alcohol Utility Knife Scalpel Razor Blades Panel Poppers Heat Gun Scraper Stop watch Photos: 1,2: Hatch Floor before start of install: 3,4: Begin of tear down: 5,6,7: Removal of some asphalt on hatch floor:

Glad to have DC Power.

Just need to add the 200.4.

Glad you are back up and rolling again. I hope you do not have to go through that again.

Good eye!

Very nice!

The original Icon. It was 900 rms and had a light blue dust cap print: sorta like the one that other guy was selling not that long ago, so i heard theres going to be a 600 watt driver any news? We made some changes to the initial design. There is an adjustment in coil and top plate. Once the build house is finished with the new prototype, we will test it out and move forward or adjust the design again. The process is fairly simple, Mark does the heavy abuse testing and I do the critical testing.

Assuming you mean the 50.4?

Great pictures, excellent color and contrast. Love the NSX's and S2000's. Makes me want to juice up the Mazda, shame I just added 80+ lbs to it.

Rebuild the enclosure first!

There are different tricks people can do, but it would help to know more about the existing box to see where you are starting from.

The original Icon. It was 900 rms and had a light blue dust cap print:

The website is 8 years old, the company is 4.

You can try it and stuff the enclosure up with some polyfill.

Thanks for the support! .

Moving to SSA Store section. There are a number of stickers going out tomorrow, sorry for any delay.

2.0 is plenty. you can always make the internal air space smaller with blocks if you want.

SSA the site has been around since 2002, but SSA the brand was Incorporated Sept 1st. 2006. 4 years and we are still here.

It was ok. Thought it was going to be crazy due to the prices, but we did order a little inventory so we will have some nice deals on the inventory when it comes in.

I know the feeling all too well.

You can go smaller in volume as the Dcon's thrive in small ported boxes. We tend to prefer, when porting, keeping the SSA drivers in the high 20's-low 30's.

The order is in, we are just awaiting pricing for a carrier shipping to AZ, due to the large order it is going on a pallet.