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Ultimately, I care about my own sound within my own car. My volume setting is always low, so I doubt it's a factor for passersby. If you insist on entertaining others, then your criteria are heavily different from mine. What I have works for me, but perhaps you feel the need to pile on the amplifiers? If so, I feel sorry for pedestrians and other passersby ! Just because you can broadcast your preferred sound doesn't mean the rest of the world desires to embrace it.

In terms of sound damping material, Edead works great for me -- cost effective too !

 

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My sound is based on my personal preference, and I suggest others design their own sound along their own preferred lines. My goal is limited to satisfying me, not others, especially not those external to my vehicle. Different folks have different intentions regarding car stero, but mine are very definitely focused on me ! After all, if your audio setup doesn't please you, what does it matter what others think?

 

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FWIW -- My best results come from selecting a clean sounding head unit, (they do exist), musical door speakers, and interior resonance control. It's not a question of spending money as much as how money is spent !

 

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Whatever sonic damping satisfies you dude. If you can start with a well damped interior, that has to make it easier to select appropriate HU and speakers, but ultimately, it's all a question of listening to options and choosing what works best for you ! I may not have the best available option in my price range (given my personal listening preferences), but I do know what I have works quite well for me !

 

The MLV sounds like a good product, but you have to consider the windows are the final area you are going to get noise from. Wind noise at the windshield and then the other noises, passing cars, and trucks and other people with loud stereos will pass through those windows. And the MLV sounds rather heavy if you were to cover the parts of the interior that you want to control sound from coming in at. From the looks of it you would have to cover every interior panel to achieve your goal. And I mean the sections closest to the interior door panels, and interior wheel wells. You would have to probably use regular sound deadening stuff on the outer panels of the doors and trunks to get rid of the resonance of the vibrating metal. You wouldn't have to cover the enter door but about 1/2 because you only really need it in the center of the biggest bare metal parts of the doors( our doors have some factory sound deadening on some parts of the doors already, and you can overlap that a bit that is what I did). And you have the whole entire roof to cover if you don't put some sound deadening up there on the bare metal and there is a lot, you'll get noise from the wind and rain. Then use the MLV between the headliner and the sound deadening.

 

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I don't know what you guys are talking about. When I have music on in my xb, I'm usually singing louder than my stereo anyway.

 

Pyro, sounds like you have a good plan. I hadn't had a chance to finish more of what I was going to say about sound deadening. There are still going to be limitations to the amount of noise reduction you are going to get. From just looking at the video, to get near 40% noise reduction you are going to need other material besides the MLV. When I did about half my vehicle with RAAMMAT, I noticed a big difference if I was driving with my kids in the car and the radio playing, and their video playing. Before I put the mat in I could drive on the freeway and would have to have the radio around 12-15 to hear it reasonably, after I put the mat in I could keep the volume between 6-10 and be able to talk to my wife without sounding like I was shouting. With our XB there is a lot of noise that comes from the floor and the roof, then it comes from the huge windshield we have. So, I still think besides the MLV you might still need other sound deadening material to achieve the goals that is sounds like you want. That is what other weight is going to come from, unless you only plan on using the MLV.

 

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This. There is next to no sound dampening in the xB2. An MLV from SDS or SecondSkin (my personal preference, but they're both incredible products for the price) will help with outside intereference on your music inside. I've spent a lot of time dampening my interior: doors, quarter panels, roof, and rear hatch. I feel it's money very well spent. When I close my doors, it's like a vault. Very solid and next to no resonances.
I don't care about what others can hear outside of my car, either. But I do care about making the products I've chosen work as well as they can.
I've came across Raamat, AudioTechnix, Stinger, and Dynamat. AudioTechnix is pretty decent, as is Stinger. But Raamat was pretty subpar in my opinion.

 

I am surprised VEGAN, that you didn't like RAAMMAT. Not sure which kind you used their current line up is simple and too the point, all peel and stick. I used their mat and their ensolite( closed cell foam type stuff). I think it worked great. I hate the fact that I have to do it all over again, but also like it so I can put in better areas after going through the process once. One area I noticed needed it is the floor, especially the front half.

Pyro, I understand where you are coming from. Just sounded like you were only going to use one product and some of your statements, like the one about a big rig driving by, was why I mentioned the windows. But anyway, good to know you have done your research. I was just looking at clarifications cause it sounded good but at the same time it seemed like you were missing some key issues, just was adding my 5 cents worth with my experiences of doing some sound deadening too and having to redo my interior sound deadening soon.

 

I wasn't as impressed with the RAAMAT product as I was Damplifier Pro. The foil on the Damplifier Pro is so thick and the product itself is super thick. I'm not sure what product I saw, but it was falling off of my buddy's roof. Seemed cheap to me.
Ensolite is another story I'm planning on using that on my doors and other key areas when time and finances allow. I'm currently trying to get my buddy to hook me up with a Crossfire sponsor.

 

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Has anyone put CLD tiles, CCF decoupler, and the MLV on the roof panels of the xB yet? Or any part of the xB for that matter? I'm curious as to whether our stock interior panels are even going to pop back on and fit with 3 layers of sound barrier behind.

I'm taking my headliner down soon to paint it and while it's out, I want to deaden the roof (Probably the biggest offender with vibration distortion in the xB). I just don't want to spend the money on these products only to find that now my headliner won't go back in.
And if it is too thick, what combination of 2 of the 3 products will be the next best alternative?

 

I've already threw in a layer of Damplifier Pro but I do plan on hitting it with a good layer of Spectrum Sludge and ultimately Luxury Liner Pro. I'll deal with fitment issues as they come up. I'm really not worried about it. There's quite a bit of room behind the headliner.

 

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