PM me your address and I'll send you a bunch of samples. My company doesn't get too involved in the automotive industry, but we are the largest general soundproofing and acoustics company in the country and likely the world.
Received samples today. I see what you mean about not really auto industry stuff. The quiet wrap or BAP might make a good lightweight under carpet dampener for those who don't want adhesive stuff. Would probably also be good for the headliner, for those of us crazy enough to want to dampen the roof of our cars. Any idea of the average frequency range of road noise? I know it will vary quite a bit depending on road surface and tires. Sounds mostly < 1kHz in my car with some higher harmonics. The V-Max stuff definitely looks interesting. Fibers in the middle layer. I don't recall any other similar material having visible fibers like that. Pluses I notice right away: Obviously the weight. Very light. Adhesive looks very clean. Seriously, my B-Quiet is a mess. I got the stuff all over my hands and it takes days to completely come off (short of bathing in turpentine), plus it's oozed out in some spots and gotten exposed in places where it's coming off on the bottom side of carpet and getting on my hands again when I work on the car. This V-Max looks like it won't have that problem at all. Possible cons (I haven't tried this in any significant amount, so I'm only making a best guess here): Wondering how well the adhesive continues to stick at -20 F. Looks like it could get brittle, but only a test will tell for sure. Weight. Too light, possibly. For example, ducting is a much thinner metal than the sheet metal in a car. It would theoretically take much less mass to dampen it. The heavier metal in a vehicle should theoretically take more mass to dampen an equivalent amount. There are factors to a material other than weight that determine how well it dampens, but to the best of my knowledge, weight is going to be the most important factor by a large degree. With the materials available today, there's simply no way that, for example, 10 pounds of one material could dampen the same as 20 pounds of another material (applied to the same area). Of course, those who don't have insane stereo's in their car may be perfectly served by V-Max with a much lighter and less-messy material. I don't know if I can understate how much more pleasant it probably is to work with versus the usually very messy car products. One thing that blew my mind about the Dynamat Extreme is how after it had been inside a door for more than a year it was able to be removed without leaving a mess and then reapplied again with plenty of adhesion still. It looks like the V-Max would be similar, judging from how the adhesive feels. Any experience uninstalling it after a significant period of time?
I only market the V-max to the HVAC industry so I don't step on my manufacturer's toes. It's made by Cascade Car Audio to be used just as the Dynamat stuff. The advantage to the product is the reduced weight, thickness, and installation properties. If you have a chunk of metal laying around, drop the metal onto the floor. Then stick it on there and drop it again. As far as the cold goes, I have a piece plugging a hole in my firewall. I put it on last winter as I was sick of the cold breeze from the road. No problems with adhesion at all. After you've dropped that chunk of metal, throw it in the freezer and see what you think. Anyway, at $8.00 a sheet, it is tough to go wrong.
Cool, I'll definitely play with it some more off work hours. Not trying to bash the product or anything - just giving my first impressions. It definitely appears cleaner to work with than any other car dampening product I've ever seen. Thanks again for sending the samples! Can't wait to get time to read through the info you sent with too.
Sent you a PM. Its not an auto project, but I need some sound proofing stuff here in the next couple weeks.
I was looking at using this product to dampen my RS when I get into re-doing the interior, thoughts/reviews/otherwise? http://www.quietcoat.com/index.html
That gong video is funny. "Here, watch me hit the CRAP out of the un-treated one and tap the one with my magical stuff on the back..." I'm sure it helps significantly, but they did a poor job with their objective approach. I can do the exact same thing with my v-max and you don't have to spray it. I did a test with a co-worker where I dropped a license plate onto concrete and it sounded like a plate should. Put a 4" square of the V-max on the back of another one and it sounded like a piece of wood hitting the floor.
Yeah, I take all the "HEY! MY PRODUCT IS THE AWESOMEST!" videos/quotes/etc with a grain of salt on any site. The advantage I see with this stuff is being able to spray the firewall on both sides, since I can sand and paint it. Nothing hardcore on the engine side, just a light coat. I've worked with a lot of mats in the past on car audio projects, and I will NEVER use Dynamat again.....Overpriced, super heavy, and like you've said, that crap cuts you. To be honest, its easier (in my mind at least..) to spray it down than to lay mat in those areas.
I talked to a buddy & colleague who has used quite a bit of it and he said that the only problem that he's had with it is that when it gets wet he has had it delaminate from the internal side of the doors. Other than that, I guess, it may work well. I do a lot of business with Cascade Car Audio, so before you buy anything, let me see what I could do for you to hopefully save you a couple of bucks.
That would be awesome man, thanks. I'll get in contact with you when it gets warmer and I can tear apart the car, lol. If it delaminates when it gets wet, looks like I'm not using it on the outside of the firewall. I'll be using mat on other parts of the car, I'm just thinking working with mat in some areas would take twice as long as spraying the stuff in there, prep included.
No sweat. One of my colleagues used to own a car stereo shop in the south metro and has competed in car audio competitions against factory teams and I believe he's won a few of them. The only privateer to do so if I remember correctly. He's the guy that got us in with Cascade. So, if you need product just let me know and I'll do what I can. The V-max is nothing like the dynamat.
