More Sound for Your Pound
A car is far from the ideal listening environment. Many reflective surfaces coupled with resonating metal panels added to the noise from tyres on the road, not to mention engine noise, all conspire to ruin our enjoyment of music on the move. However, help is at hand by way of Skinz sound treatment.
It is argued that we cannot do a lot about road noise. Contact between a vehicle tyre and the road directly transmits road noise through the vehicle's suspension to the passenger space. However, reducing the resonance in doors, bulkheads, floor, and ceiling can considerably lessen the amplifying effect these panels would otherwise have, thus reducing noise. As a lot of this noise is low frequency, you may well find yourself boosting bass when on the move, as it is here that most of the cancellation from road noise will happen.
Speakers not only project sound forwards but also from the rear of the speaker. We must treat the area behind a speaker, as any energy reflected from a panel behind it will try to interfere with the sound coming into the car.
To "deaden" a panel, we must stop it from vibrating in sympathy with the music or any other sound. We do this by applying a multiple-layer adhesive sheet that contains a bituminous material which adds weight and substance to the panel it is attached to and has no resonant frequency of its own. This deadening layer will also reduce some of the reflected sound returning to the speaker's rear. Tapping a treated door and comparing the sound you get against an untreated door will demonstrate its effectiveness. Skinz Expert Damping is a triple-layer sandwich of two differing-density rubber layers covered by an aluminium layer, offering very effective damping. A pressure-sensitive adhesive compound ensures optimum adhesion to sheet metal, plastic and other reasonably level and grease-free surfaces. Skinz Panel Liner will do a similar job and is a valuable addition to sound deadening.
We can further diminish issues caused by reflected sound by placing a shaped foam layer between the speaker's rear and any reflective surface. Skinz Wave Diffuser has an irregular shape, similar to the inside of an egg box. Wave Diffuser ensures that sound from the speaker's rear is broken up and absorbed both on the way to and back from a reflective surface and will have additional audible benefits when used in conjunction with Skinz sound deadening.
In many cases, it is hard for a specialist installer to get drivers excited about the benefits of sound treatment. It is often hard to justify spending money on what cannot be seen. Although its function can be explained, the resultant benefit to the sound is difficult to perceive without sitting in identical cars with identical systems, one treated and one not. We believe that a treated car will improve the performance of your speakers by up to 40% and firmly believe this represents a significant return on a modest investment.
Visit your local FOUR specialist to find out more.
Find out what our partner, The FOUR MASTER Network, can do to bring Hi-Fi quality to your car. Simply put some brief details into the form below.
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