Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tin-can to almost Mercedes feeling, no joke!, September 13, 2007
I've had the dynamat installed in my '04 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport for about a month now and it was well worth the effort. When I say effort, I tore out my entire interior to install this stuff. Inner and outer door skins, entire floor (doubled up in places), trunk (doubled up again), rear hatch, and under my hood. It took a total of about 17 hours to install and trashed my hands, cuts and sore for several days. I used the dynamat heavy-duty roller for most of the installation and the handle of the roller to push the material into tight crevacises. My entire car, exluding the roof, took 2 3/4 bulk packs. I still have some left over and trying to figure out what to do with it...
The results: You could say I was skeptical like other users, mostly because I hadn't known anyone who used it or what dynamat was even made of really. It's basically sheets of tar (butyl rubber) backed with thick aluminum foil. This stuff is heavy, but pretty thin and tucks into tight places pretty easily. While at first I noticed an increase in my cars weight, it seems to be less noticable the more I drive. What's more noticable is the quiet ride and solid-feeling the car now has. The doors really do close with a thud and not that reverberating tin-can sound like before. The entire chassis feels much more rigid and stiff, like a higher priced, luxury car. My roommate, who drives a Benz C-class, said the stiffness was immediately apparent and the road noises was significantly reduced. This girl loves to drive and she was pretty impressed with the results.
The amount of road noise from freeways was almost difficult to carry on conversations or listen to music clearly before. Much more quiet now. If you've ridden in a subaru impreza, you know how loud they are! While it's not Lexus quiet, it's much, MUCH better than a stock subaru. There's still some noise, but I wasn't able to cover the firewall as much as I would have liked and my tires are lousy. When new tires are needed, I'm going back to a quality set and that should help a lot more. (BTW, Bridgestone-made Fuzion HR's suck a$$, but they are cheap.) I'm going with Bridgestone Turanza's next time.
My intention was purely to block out road noise and make a more comfortable environment for myself and passangers. A bonus to killing the road noise was the improvement in my cars audio quality. I had previously installed an Alpine h.u., Alpine speakers and Audiobahn d-class amp w/ a 10" sub and it really brought my system to life. I never knew what mid-bass was till after the dynamat was installed. I'm amazed to get that much thump, out of 6 1/2" door speakers!! I had to go back into the headunit and re-adjust my equalizer because the entire soundstage totally changed. It really allows me to enjoy my music to it's fullest without an amp for the door speakers, which is nice! My music consists mostly of hardcore, metal-core, metal and punk. The dynamat really brought out crisp, clean sound that wasn't distorted at higher volumes like before. It's also allowed me to tune in really precise and crisp bass hits from my single 10", enough to make my rearview mirror droop with each hit. I love hearing and feeling the kick drums in heavy music.
All-in-all, I am extremely pleased with the results. At first I was tired and my hands and back ached from two straight days of installation, all the while thinking "what the hell am I doing!?". But now, I can sit back on a drive, carry on conversations without raising our voices, listen to my music with better definition and clearity, or enjoy a nice peaceful interior alone. It's been well worth the effort.
Would I do it all over again??
In a heartbeat on this car. Hopefully the next car will be more quiet from the factory... if not, I'll probably dyanmat that one too!
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Expensive but Effective, July 2, 2007
I decided to go with Dynamat to reduce road noise in my Jeep Liberty as the all-terrain tires were unbearably loud at highway speeds after a few hours. Amazon had the best prices on the bulk packs by far so I bought two to cover all four doors and the floor of my Jeep Liberty. I ended up with two sheets (3 sq ft) left over which should be enough to cover the rear gate when I have an afternoon to kill.
The metal backing is incredibly sharp and it conducts electricity, so a co-worker warned me to take great care to ensure that the wires do not come into contact with any of the edges. It's no easier on your finger tips either! I found out the hard way that you should not cover any contact points between the trim panels and doors if you want the panels to fit as snugly as they did before the installation. With the great care and lessons learned, all four doors took approximately 20 hours to install and the floor took close to 30 more. I'm certain an experienced installer could have done the job in half the time.
The results of just the doors were impressive enough, but covering the floorboards made a tremendous difference. At 75 mph, I now listen to the radio at 18 instead of 30, which is an approximate 40% reduction in cabin noise. More impressively is the sudden emergence of midrange and punch from the base that makes me wonder if somebody stuck a subwoofer in my console. With no adjustments to treble or bass, the premium Infinity speakers now sound almost worth what the dealer charges!
Despite the high cost in initial expense, weekend sweat, and finger tip slashing, Dynamat has lived up to the hype. Hearing is believing!
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My doors go "kfump" now, instead of "klang", May 14, 2008
I agree with the others; anyone who doesn't like this product must have installed it wrong.
I have a 2000 Honda CR-V SE. I lined the underside of the hood, the entire roof, all four doors (inside the doors and the surface), much of the floor, the spare tire well, the rear quarters (inside, behind the rear speakers) and lots of the tailgate with two (2x) Bulk Packs (9 sheets each.) I had not planned to line the roof, but after gutting the seats, all trim panels, and all the carpeting it seemed worthwhile. I cannot explain how differently the vehicle sounds now. EVERYONE compliments it (including my wife, who could not understand why I was spending the time and money on the project in the first place, but now wants me to Dynamat her Solara!) The doors go "kfump". Knocking on the hood, roof, or doors sounds like hitting a solid wood desk. There are NO vibrations or rattles in the car whatsoever (I also got some cheap self-adhesive felt sheets from a hobby store and lined the ashtray, glove box, and little change compartments. Now it's like driving around with ear muffs on. There is still some road noise, because I have pretty knobby tires, but the incredible thing is that I can no longer hear my exhaust from the rear of the car, and sometimes I'll look sideways and notice an 18 wheeler beside me that I did not even hear. When I pass vehicles going the opposite direction I am used to the "whee-owwww" as they go by, but now it is a "whiff", or just silent.
Lining the roof made a huge difference when driving in the rain, but since the windshield is so noisy in a downpour the cabin is still pretty loud, but there is no "ratta-tat-tat" from the metal anymore at all.
I bought a heat gun and the rubber Dynamat roller specifically for this project (though I'm sure I'll get plenty more use out of the heat gun). I agree with many of the other reviewers that if you do not press this stuff down in FIRM contact with your vehicle that you will not get the best results. I've done MUCH (much, much, much, much...) research on this and the bottom line is that this product is so effective because of "vibration damping", NOT sound blocking. If you hold a sheet up in midair between you and a speaker it will have no effect. If you glue it to the speaker you will virtually stop the sound.
I can also go on about how AMAZINGLY different that my stereo sounds, but I think everyone else covered that. Yes; more mid-bass. Yes; you will hear things in your music that you never heard before. Something that surprised me though was how much quieter your music is OUTSIDE your car. I am not a loud person, and I always turn the volume down at stop lights, and in residential neighborhoods, but one time I stepped out of my car and left the stereo on at a pretty comfortable level. When I closed the door I could not hear it at all. Nothing. Nada. That was a nice bonus.
This stuff is incredible when installed right. Amazon had the best prices in all my searches. You will ache, you will probably bleed, but a weekend or two of hard work should reward you for years. Enjoy!
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