Sound Proofing your EP3

[Ocelaris]

Sound proofing. It's a good idea I think.

Why? Make your Stereo seem louder. Make road noise go away, make engine noise go away. Or at least silence alot of the bad noises. This isn't a treatise on why you should sound proof your car. Only you know if it's right for you. It can add significant weight to your car.

My Methods:

Carpet padding for noise cancellation (higher pitched noises)

Dynamat alternative for silencing sheet metal.

I plan on removing my entire carpet, doors, and applying about 100 square feet (or at least that's how much I'm buying) of dynamat to the sheet metal, and then putting the carpet padding down everywhere!

Dynamat may be a wonderful product, but I personally am going to go with an alternative. Not to say dynamat original isn't a good pcoduct, but my research has shown that price per pound you're better off with 50$ worth of ice guard @100square feet, rather than 10 square feet from dynamat for 50$. JMHO

Ice Guard, Weather Guard, WeatherLock, Ice and Fire guard looks, feels, acts just like dynamat original. 100 square feet for 55$ In Bethesda Maryland. Grace Company is the only one that makes the non-granulated version of the stuff (or so the roofing suppliers have told me). Home depot carries the granulated version which is really messy, like 45$ for 100square feet.

Here are some good links for some info. these guys can probably explain it a little bit better than I can:

team Rocs:
http://www.teamrocs.com/technical/pages/sound_proofing.htm

I'll find more links later, but do some google groups research for ice guard, and sound deadening if you're interested. I thought I'd start a discussion on sound proofing since I'd not seen one yet here.
Ocelaris

[grooveline]

I'll find more links later, but do some google groups research for ice guard, and sound deadening if you're interested. I thought I'd start a discussion on sound proofing since I'd not seen one yet here.
Ocelaris




look harder..... you long winded mofo ;) are you a friggen rep for dynamat or something? sheesh...



http://ephatch.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=8816

[sniperSI]

For years my father owned his on electrical enginering company. We had these blue pieces of rubber with sticky backs laying around everywhere, rolls of it, (that was about 15 years (god 15 years) ago a)

That my friend was called neoprene rubber for grounding your body by touching it before you picked up a sodering iron or what not.

And that myfriend is what the name dynamatt is stuck on.

neoprene rubber

get it from electrical supply cats , way way way fucking cheaper then dynamatt, and it's the EXACT same shit, short of the logo.

[jaydub]

Actually, sound deadeners aren't all the same. They are different thicknesses, and to obtain the most sound dampening, it has to be a pretty dense material.

I've tried a lot of them, and (not so shocking) most of the name-brand stuff is just shit you can buy at roofing supply shops. I personally went with a material called RAAMmat (www.raamaudio.com). It's sold by a great guy who works for Rainbow speakers, named Rick. He's a great guy to work with. I got a 70 sq. ft. roll of it for $80, and it's great stuff (though I haven't applied it yet).

Also, original Dynamat is pretty much the bottom of the barrel, in terms of what it really does. They charged an arm and a leg for it, but a company named McMaster-Carr used to sell the EXACT same stuff without the dynamat label on it, and it was stinky, and a pain in the ass in to install.

I'll be ripping out my interior in the next month or so to install my RAAMmat, once I get some closed cell padding (not regular carpet padding) for the floor. Should be fun, especially since the interior panels take longer to take off than they do to put on. :mad:

Anyway, my $.02.

[Ocelaris]

Longwinded, maybe, rep for dynamat? Not sure how you saw that in my post... In fact I was being fair to dynamat for those who didn't want to go out and do the research themselves. I myself would never reccomend dynamat, WAY too expensive, when you can get the same thing for 1/8th the price at a roofing supplier.

I'm sorry I didn't see your post... I should have looked in interiors, I had debated posting in the electronics vs. Interior section, and decided on electronics, because probably the only people interested would be car audio people...

Some more longwinded stuff for those of you that are interested.

There are 2 kinds of sound proofing.

1) mass loading, which adds weight to the frame of the car to lower the resonance frequencies. use asphault based sheeting, lead sheeting, or other heavy materials.

2) barrier loading, literally blocking the sound from going through the material. This blocks mid to high frequency noises, and incorporates anything else that doesnt' include the mass loading category. That would include vinyl stripping, neoprene or other open celled rubbers (though I don't know why closed cell wouldn't work just as well), compressed fiberglass, foam, or "jute" and any other sound "barrier" materials.

I might note that there is in my understanding 2 different ways in which the barrier loading materials work. The Vinyl sheets are heralded as a "light weight" alternative to asphaultic based sheets, but their light weight nature gives rise to one of two ways barrier loading works. That is the vinyl absorbs and turns the vibrations into heat energy... that doesn't mean they're going to lower the frequency of the vibrating doors, but maybe that's all you need is to absorb vibrations instead of mass loading. I believe that rubbers work in the same manner as the vinyl, turning noise vibrations into heat. The other materials like jute, foam and compressed fiberglass dissipate sound/vibration noise, but which is different than the rubber/vinyl materials. I guess I differentiate the two barrier materials because of their attachment... like rubber and vinyl stick smoothly, where as jute is kinda just held in place.

My plan is to use a combination of mass loading, and the two barrier loading methods. I'll be using the asphault sheets, mainly on the floors, and across the opening of the doors, to make a sort of sealed box for the door speakers. Then I'll use a couple cans of rubberized undercoating spray, which will cover the rubber/vinyl vibration absorbing idea. Then I'll cover it with Jute all over to block high frequency noises.

Here is the best sound proofing howto I've seen to date, the guy uses asphault sheets, open cell rubber, and jute... but says next time he'd do without the rubber...
http://members.cardomain.com/tucansam

"I put some *sonex* in there. road noise is cut down considerably. i could have gone the dynamatt way, but its expensive, and heavy"

You are missing the point of a two part methodology to sound proofing. One without the other is not a complete solution. The Dynamat way is not comparable to what you did, you did some barrier loading, which is not even in the same ball park, but equally important part of soundproofing.

I would seriously recccomend you only put your porous sound dampening materials on the skin of the door closest to the interior, and make sure no water gets to it. Molding sound proofing materials are pretty bad for speakers, and will definetly speed up rusting.

When I was working on a home theatre this summer at work, they had these acoustical panels which were just compressed fiberglass. Those things were amazing, put your ear close to one and you couldn't hear anything from that ear, even if the home theatre was cranked all the way up.

I myself picked up a 100sq/ft of "grace, ice and water guard" which is just the homedepot asphault sheets that's non-granulated. I picked it up in Bethesda Maryland, if anyone from the DC area is interested, it was 55$ for 100 sq/ft. or 55cents/sq ft.

I apologize if my thread was a little misguided, or lacking therof in inspiration, but sometimes late at night it's hard to find a valid reason for posting what you've found. I'm sure the mods who always say "search first before posting" can relate to that. I mean, there's alot of info out there, but sometimes a seed is all somebody like myself needed to get started.

[Jpax]

I have to say the original Dynamat dose suck and is way to expensive, I have Dynamat extreame on my car and it works perfect for what i want. its thiner and lighter then original Dynamat , and it dosen't stink..:cool:

[Ocelaris]

Asphault sheeting 100sq/ft = 55$
Jute 44sq/ft = 10$
rubberized undercoating ~5$/can = 20$

Total = ~90$

I'd definetly get some neoprene if I could find it cheap... but when you start talking about 3 layers of different materials, stuffing the carpet back becomes an issue. :-) Bill

Also
Dynamat Extreme = Vinyl sheeting
Rockford Fosgate Noise Killer = Rubberized Undercoating Spray

Not saying that the cheap alternatives are necessarily the same quality, but they are the same idea.

do a search at Mcmasters http://www.mcmaster.com/ for "hi temp mastic" and you will pop up all the asphault and vinyl barrier loading materials. do a search for "sound damping" and you will get the foam/rubber materials.

[Jpax]

This guy needs help, Thats a shit load of work for not that much work......


From this

http://www.cardomain.com/member_pages/view_page.pl?page_id=245900&page=9

"So I decided I needed a reference. I hadn't listened to my home system in over a year. Its pretty much just sat there for whenever we watch a DVD. I popped in these test CDs that spit out really well-imaged sound, and guess what? On a system that is almost 10 years old with very, very little Kenwood power driving Boston Acoustics towers, the sound was phoenominal. The state was super wide, extending about 20 feet left to right. Instruments and singers were placed *exactly* on points; I could have drawn them on my furniture with a grease pencil. The response was flat... Bass was clean and tight but not overpowering, highs were mellow and not harsh, and vocals were not drowned out. In short, about 500% better than what I am currently getting in the car! "

[Ocelaris]

hahaha... that guy with his "golden ear" is a little out of it...

That site was useful to me because it was the only place I found where someone actually had pictures of their install. It's one thing to read about all this stuff, and another completely to see someone doing it in action. As I'm sure we all know from watching paxie's vids, which are so useful.

I myself would be very interested in pictures of the gutted inside of an EP3... When I get around to doing my sound proofing I'll have to remember to take pics to share! Bill

[jo3y]

I am going to be installing a componet set of speakers in my fronts when it gets warm, i will def be adding some soundproofing material to the doors, the doors and side panels rattle when my sub hits and i dont like it. I am going to try to isolate the vibration and use as little material as necessary. I want to stay light and sound good