[rlouie]

Best "bang for your buck" you say?

https://youtu.be/pABvTWSxOes

That comes down to a theme that I've been saying all along for sound deadening, you don't have to use the name brand stuff or what other people are telling you to use... use anything that will absorb/block the sound for the cheapest price.

 

[rlouie]

Thanks for the input. I'm new to sound deadening, so I'm trying to sort through all the conflicting opinions all over the web. After all the reading I've done, I tend to agree with you. There are often expensive name-brand products, and then there are products that are much less expensive, but work just as well (and sometimes people find products that work great at a fraction of the price that weren't even originally intended for that purpose). I'm hoping someone will post a product that they've used and like, and that is available for a reasonable price. Some of this sound deadening material out there is insanely expensive!

I believe a lot of the hype out there for certain brand name products is due to two reasons:

1. Actual paid endorsements (ie free product or 'employees' posting) to use the product and lots of it.
2. Independent people who purchased the product and used it according to the manufacturer's recommendations (which might not be for the customer's benefit but the company's) and either didn't know too much about the subject matter and blindly trusted the manufacturer to do right by them OR didn't want to admit that they might have took the wrong course of action.

After all, the physics of sound management in cars isn't any different than in houses, planes, boats, or ear muffs. So, if the stuff well works in one situation, there's a darn good chance that it will work in the others. Anyone who say it's different because it's a car better have a darn good story to tell why it's different.

As for stuff available at a reasonable price, check out carpet underlayment - not the cheap stuff but the stuff that supposed to deaden sound transmission between floors. Most carpet installers will either sell you endcuts for cheap or give them to you for free as it's not worth their trouble to try to piece together small pieces for a big room and they don't want to have to pay to throw it out.

You can always test the effectiveness yourself by doing a simple test of making an ear muff out of the material and listening to the same piece of music or recorded noise. Sure, it won't be as accurate as the Youtuber but you'll quickly get an understanding of what works and what doesn't.

 

[rlouie]

Hello again CRAZYHAWK. So I intalled the front speakers yesterday. The mounts from ebay you recommended were a life saver. Do you know if the same mounts are needed for rear doors? For some reason I ordered these for the rear doors: "1 PAIR UNIVERSAL 6.5" / 6.75" SPEAKER ADAPTER Angled SPACER MOUNTS RINGS". I'm not sure why but I must have read it in a different post.

The rear's aren't angled like the fronts... They basically fire straight at each other. Some people just used the 'universal' mounting ring included with most speakers as they fit with a bit of an 'adjustment' to the mounting holes on the ring (at least on my Polks). However, with the 'universal' mounting ring, the speaker ends up being a little bit further away from the door card than what the stock ones are so putting a 1/2" spacer ring between the mounting ring and the speaker works well.

 

[rlouie]

Great. Thanks for the reply rlouie. I've got some mounting rings (image here) that came with the speakers (Polk db651). So between those and the ones I ordered off ebay, hopefully I'll have something that works.

And I guess if I use the angled ones, it won't hurt, given that the rears are coaxials, so the tweeters will be pointing more upwards towards the rear passengers.

It's not going to hurt because it's not going to fit. The space in the rear is small in comparison to the fronts. Sell off the second pair of angled brackets here as someone is going to need them shortly (they always do) and get some straight half inch spacers. Oh... BTW> Don't forget to fill in the ring cavity on those brackets with some household caulking so that it will reduce the vibration from the speaker and put some CLD on the sides of the bracket as well.

 

[rlouie]

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification. Very helpful!! Right so half inch spacers. Could I ask you to take a look at these on Amazon (Xscorpion SP-DE65 Stackable 6-1/2-Inch Speaker 1/2-Inch Up Depth Extender) and let me know if you think they'll work? I have to get them ordered quick because I've got Saturday all scheduled for the install. Ugh.

They look the same as most spacers so they should be fine. Remember to take this opportunity to add some household caulking to the underside of the spacer (between the holes) so that it will be more rigid.

 

[rlouie]

I'm sure that aftermarket is cheaper and better, but the Kickers were done in 30 min.

Unless you get it done at a dealership... then it's an entire afternoon.