Sound Deadening Choices

[Bill Merchant]

I was really inspired by the people who installed sound deadening material in their doors to cut road noise and improve the sound of the other ICE (In-Car Entertainment system). It got too late for me to do it last year, but with the weather warm, it's time to start modding my Prius again.

I went online to do some reasearch, but ended up more confused. I found these companies supplying sound deadening material, in addition to the elastomeric roofing material at Lowes/Home Depot that c4 mentioned:

Dynamat Xtreme
B-Quiet Ultimate
FatMat eXtreme (45 mil thick)
FatMat Rattle Trap eXtreme (80 mil thick)
eDead v.1.SE2

The various companies have other products, like liquid-paint-on material and thick material for high-frequency sound.

So my question, fellow PriusChatters, is which ones have you used and which would you recommend? What do you think is the most important characteristic of the material? Thickness? Aluminum face? Butyl content?

I tried to get comparable prices for about 50 square feet, though some manufacturers sell by the square foot or sell "kits" for doors, etc.

I look forward to your recommendations and discussion!

[jbarnhart]

You missed one choice -- better tires!

I kid you not, Bill, I was going to add sound deadening to my Prius. But after I got the Comfortreds on the car, the road noise just wasn't bothersome enough to warrant going thru the install.

[Bill Merchant]

Thanks for your reply, jbarnhart. Yes, one of the first things I did was put Goodyear ComforTred tires on. That helped with road noise and handling, but I want to take the quiet to the next level.

Any other suggestions?

[jbarnhart]

I yearn for active noise cancellation -- quiet without the bulk and weight. Sigh, Earth computers just aren't up to it yet...

[Bill Merchant]

Maybe that's the REAL use for the center speaker...

[momanz]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Jul 5 2006, 12:49 AM) [snapback]281289[/snapback]</div>

I was really inspired by the people who installed sound deadening material in their doors to cut road noise and improve the sound of the other ICE (In-Car Entertainment system). It got too late for me to do it last year, but with the weather warm, it's time to start modding my Prius again.

I went online to do some reasearch, but ended up more confused. I found these companies supplying sound deadening material, in addition to the elastomeric roofing material at Lowes/Home Depot that c4 mentioned:

Dynamat Xtreme
B-Quiet Ultimate
FatMat eXtreme (45 mil thick)
FatMat Rattle Trap eXtreme (80 mil thick)
eDead v.1.SE2

The various companies have other products, like liquid-paint-on material and thick material for high-frequency sound.

So my question, fellow PriusChatters, is which ones have you used and which would you recommend? What do you think is the most important characteristic of the material? Thickness? Aluminum face? Butyl content?

I tried to get comparable prices for about 50 square feet, though some manufacturers sell by the square foot or sell "kits" for doors, etc.

I look forward to your recommendations and discussion!
[/b]

I've found this article useful. Haven't decided on taking the plunge though.

[Bill Merchant]

Thanks, momanz, for the great reference article! Have you installed any sound deadening? I see you're in Oregon too. Near Portland?

[PriusDad]

I hate to add even more confusion, but I came across this stuff while considering sound damping material myself:

http://www.quietcar.net/

This stuff is a spray/brush/roll on visco-elastic polymer that weighs considerably less than Dynamat and its competitors, since it dampens sound by converting it into small amounts of heat rather than relying simply on mass to resist sound transmission. In all honesty, I don't really want to add the 40 to 100 lbs. of dead-weight incurred by Dynamat to my Prius. By comparison, 5 gallons of QuietCar, which according to the web site is what a Prius would need for door, trunk, floor, and firewall coverage works out to about 18 lbs. when dry. And it's less expensive per square foot too.

Hunting around a bit more, I discovered that QuietCar is one of a number of products made by http://www.quietsolution.com , including similar products for boats, trains, and aircraft, as well as a number of sound dampening products for home construction. All this leads me to believe these guys know what they're doing when it comes to stopping noise.

However, I have a huge disclaimer here: I have not yet had the courage to remove the door panels, seats, and carpets from our new Prius to go put this stuff in. So I can't tell you how well it works. But when I do build up the courage, this is the stuff I want to try, not DynaMat.

Maybe I can convince the local car-stereo place to dismantle the car and apply it for me. At least they know how to take a car apart and reassemble it without ruining anything... well, I hope so anyway.

Regards,

Peter.

[mrbigh]

Bill, I haven't do it on my Prius yet but on my sons '05 Hyundai Tiburon, we B-quiet basically his entire car to kill all rattles when he played his 3KW sound system for competition purposes. By cost/properties average, that was the best solution. We did 3 layers and add near 80 lb. to the total weight .
I have left some material to do the front doors, task that i will start after returning from out trip to the 2006 Hybridfest. At the moment, to compensate for the road noise, I crank louder the sound system and get a back massage

[savingtheearth]

I had Dynamat and the new Dyna-sorb installed- adds some weight but really makes the sound system sound better.