Open Cell Acoustic Foam Tiles Behind Speakers

[Je1279]

Has anyone added open cell acoustic foam tiles (ex. Blackhole or Guardian) behind the speakers in their doors with no other changes to their aftermarket sound system? If so, was any improvement worth the cost? I plan to add ~70% CLD coverage as well as front and rear block off plates, but I am debating adding these to the install as well.

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[NDakBoom]

Has anyone added open cell acoustic foam tiles (ex. Blackhole or Guardian) behind thier speakers with no additional changes to their aftermarket sound system. If so, was any improvement worth the cost? I plan to do ~70% CLD coverage as well as block off plates, but I am debating adding these as well.

Sounds good stereo has some great you tube installation videos. Believe they point out that the block off plates are the minimum you would want to accomplish. They also sell kits depending on how far you want to go with additional sound deadening.

 

[Je1279]

Sounds good stereo has some great you tube installation videos. Believe they point out that the block off plates are the minimum you would want to accomplish. They also sell kits depending on how far you want to go with additional sound deadening.

Agreed. I have been binge watching some of their great videos of late. I also purchased their front and rear block off plates, speaker adapters, tweeter adapters, and one of their amp racks. Currently, I'm trying to determine if the extra ~$350 is worth the price to add the sound absorbing tiles to the doors for the areas behind the speakers in addition to the CLD material.

 

[NDakBoom]

Agreed, I have been binge watching their videos of late. I actually purchased their block off plates, speaker adapters, tweeter adapters, and amp rack. Currently, I'm trying to determine if the extra ~$350 is worth the price to add the sound absorbing tiles in the doors in the areas behind the speakers.

Balancing act of wants vs needs vs expedible income. I'm just now trying to convince myself to put $5k towards upgrading my 2022. Good luck in the decision making process.

 

[Je1279]

Balancing act of wants vs needs vs expedible income. I'm just now trying to convince myself to put $5k towards upgrading my 2022. Good luck in the decision making process.

Agreed and likewise!

 

[23PB&Me]

I’m doing a full stage 3 package with ResoNix and sounds good block off plates. I have the drivers side done and the doors are wayyy more solid and dead on the knock test, like wow. The amount of sound I hear outside the drivers and passenger sides is also a drastic difference. So it is doing something. I’m not sure I heard a huge difference in the OEM speakers because when I turn the volume up the center and tweets feel like they are screaming at me and I already replaced the sub with an audio mobile evo2410 so the bass is way better even off the factory amp and it washes out the meh mids. I feel like once I get the whole system overhauled and tuned and doors properly powered it would be apparent, but where I am now I’m not sure how much I notice. The tweets and center are just too overwhelming. I am planning on disconnecting the sub this weekend to actually hear the doors and I bet then I’ll be able to hear the difference, though I already put my new speakers in so not exactly an apples to apples test for your situation. Also for road noise I’m not sure I hear much of a difference from the doors. Definitely a lot coming from the floor and the front tires, I can see why starting down the deadening path can be a money pit ?. I mean… how much more would it be just to CLD the whole floor and put barrier on it… heh

 

[Jbcaindo]

You'd be surprised how much resonance can be absorbed from the outter door skin.

I use resonix guardian on the outters, resonix cld on the inner and door card with some butyl rope if budget allows.

If a tight budget, it's guardian on the inner and soundskins on the outter and speaker rings.

 

[Je1279]

For those who have used the guardian tiles, how are they to work with? I like the fact that they are more water resistant than the blackhole tiles, but it sounds like they may also be somewhat fragile due to the melamine. If I go this route, I will probably end up cutting them down to the size of the blackhole tiles to get them into the tight areas of the outer door skin.

 

[23PB&Me]

For those who have used the guardian tiles, how are they to work with? I like the fact that they are more water resistant than the blackhole tiles, but it sounds like they may also be somewhat fragile due to the melamine. If I go this route, I will probably end up cutting them down to the size of the blackhole tiles to get them into the tight areas of the outer door skin.

I had no issue getting the whole pieces in there. You learn to use the backing and separation materials, start by undoing a corner or side, put the guardian in place and pull the rest of the backing. I didn’t have any issue with the melamine, the adhesive to the was paper can be a little tricky, just don’t be a caveman and it all works. When cutting the guardian I advise cutting from the MLV side, I used a framing square to run a sharp box cutter down multiple times(3 ish) till I was through and as deep as the box cutter would go, then flipped it, put a little bend over the cut, and ran by box cutter on that, the melamine cuts super easy, the MLV takes a couple scores.

I would advise not just doing guardian. Follow procedure, the rope is cheap, CLD you already know is worth it, the guardian. Once the guardian is on. You won’t get a second chance to add CLD or rope, when that adhesive sticks, it sticks. I had to remove some 1” fiber mat from the inner door skin at the arm rest and nap pockets because it wasn’t allowing the skin to seat all the way, you’re basically shaving the fiber off the adhesive.

I still need to do my write up, here’s my advice for the rope. Ford puts a wavy foam between the crash bar and the outer skin, I used a box cutter to cut at and angle from the crash bar down into the profile of the crash bar on the outer door skin. The. Used a flat razor to gently scrape between the foam and the outer door skin to remove the chunk. I used a plastic bristle brush to gently remove any extra foam, vacuumed it all up, then laid the rope.

For the CLD from the crash bar to the outer skin, 2 or 3” strip piece, peel and fold about a third of the backing over, put a slight bend in the CLD at that line. Stick that exposed butyl onto the crash bar, pull the backing a little further and work that bit on, then repeat until the CLD is all the way on. This will make sure you get good contact to the crash bar, rope, and door skin. If you contact the door skin before making sure you are down on the rope it is all over, that CLD is not going to come off the door skin…

ResoNix posted a 3 part video series on sound deadening you door, watch that, balance what you do and don’t want, but know once you skip a step, there is no going back to fix it.

I’ve added some pics of my drivers installation so you can see it on one of our trucks. And I’m going to do a full write up once finished. It’s taking me about a day per door(I’m probably super slow), but since you don’t get a second chance with this stuff I’m taking my time to make sure I do it right.

Also quick heads up, guardian and mega CLD doesn’t appear to touch the window, but it will contact the part on the center track that holds the window, so along the path you’ll need to leave some foam out or cut it down a little to not impact operation. It is easy enough to hook the window control up and roll the window up/down to confirm your placement. I’ve added a pic of the read door that shows that notches I made.

 

[Je1279]

I had no issue getting the whole pieces in there. You learn to use the backing and separation materials, start by undoing a corner or side, put the guardian in place and pull the rest of the backing. I didn’t have any issue with the melamine, the adhesive to the was paper can be a little tricky, just don’t be a caveman and it all works. When cutting the guardian I advise cutting from the MLV side, I used a framing square to run a sharp box cutter down multiple times(3 ish) till I was through and as deep as the box cutter would go, then flipped it, put a little bend over the cut, and ran by box cutter on that, the melamine cuts super easy, the MLV takes a couple scores.

I would advise not just doing guardian. Follow procedure, the rope is cheap, CLD you already know is worth it, the guardian. Once the guardian is on. You won’t get a second chance to add CLD or rope, when that adhesive sticks, it sticks. I had to remove some 1” fiber mat from the inner door skin at the arm rest and nap pockets because it wasn’t allowing the skin to seat all the way, you’re basically shaving the fiber off the adhesive.

I still need to do my write up, here’s my advice for the rope. Ford puts a wavy foam between the crash bar and the outer skin, I used a box cutter to cut at and angle from the crash bar down into the profile of the crash bar on the outer door skin. The. Used a flat razor to gently scrape between the foam and the outer door skin to remove the chunk. I used a plastic bristle brush to gently remove any extra foam, vacuumed it all up, then laid the rope.

For the CLD from the crash bar to the outer skin, 2 or 3” strip piece, peel and fold about a third of the backing over, put a slight bend in the CLD at that line. Stick that exposed butyl onto the crash bar, pull the backing a little further and work that bit on, then repeat until the CLD is all the way on. This will make sure you get good contact to the crash bar, rope, and door skin. If you contact the door skin before making sure you are down on the rope it is all over, that CLD is not going to come off the door skin…

ResoNix posted a 3 part video series on sound deadening you door, watch that, balance what you do and don’t want, but know once you skip a step, there is no going back to fix it.

I’ve added some pics of my drivers installation so you can see it on one of our trucks. And I’m going to do a full write up once finished. It’s taking me about a day per door(I’m probably super slow), but since you don’t get a second chance with this stuff I’m taking my time to make sure I do it right.

Also quick heads up, guardian and mega CLD doesn’t appear to touch the window, but it will contact the part on the center track that holds the window, so along the path you’ll need to leave some foam out or cut it down a little to not impact operation. It is easy enough to hook the window control up and roll the window up/down to confirm your placement. I’ve added a pic of the read door that shows that notches I made.

Thank you very much for the tips and excellent work!

 

[Riddick]

I recently won a sounds good stereo level 3 package. The package consisted of blackhole tiles, mat, and the block off plates. With nothing else changed in the audio system the sound did improve quite a bit. Without a doubt there's definitely more mid bass to the system. Doors are definitely more solid and the cab is quieter. I still need to do the back wall in the cab but I am very impressed so far with how it sounds and noise reduction.

Installation is fairly easy but very time consuming. I think I spent roughly 2 hrs per door which includes the outer skin, inner skin, and panel.

Sounds good stereo offers high quality products and has fantastic customer support. I would consider these products premium, and the price reflects that. While the install is time consuming the products are very easy to work with. Removing the backing paper off of the tiles can be a little tricky but other than that they are very easy to put in place. The black hole mat is very pliable and very easy to work with, it's easy to form it in all of the crevices within the door.

For what it's worth I did a small water test with the door panel off. I simply poured water on the window to see how wet the tiles would get. To my surprise the majority of water ran to edges of the window seal and down to the door drains. A minimal amount of water made onto the tiles. If I had to guess I would say more water would get on the tiles if you were driving through rain.

I reached out S2G about water and the tiles and they stated it should not be a concern. They acknowledged they will get wet, but they stated the tiles are coated so mold will not be an issue.

 

[Je1279]

I recently won a sounds good stereo level 3 package. The package consisted of blackhole tiles, mat, and the block off plates. With nothing else changed in the audio system the sound did improve quite a bit. Without a doubt there's definitely more mid bass to the system. Doors are definitely more solid and the cab is quieter. I still need to do the back wall in the cab but I am very impressed so far with how it sounds and noise reduction.

Installation is fairly easy but very time consuming. I think I spent roughly 2 hrs per door which includes the outer skin, inner skin, and panel.

Sounds good stereo offers high quality products and has fantastic customer support. I would consider these products premium, and the price reflects that. While the install is time consuming the products are very easy to work with. Removing the backing paper off of the tiles can be a little tricky but other than that they are very easy to put in place. The black hole mat is very pliable and very easy to work with, it's easy to form it in all of the crevices within the door.

For what it's worth I did a small water test with the door panel off. I simply poured water on the window to see how wet the tiles would get. To my surprise the majority of water ran to edges of the window seal and down to the door drains. A minimal amount of water made onto the tiles. If I had to guess I would say more water would get on the tiles if you were driving through rain.

I reached out S2G about water and the tiles and they stated it should not be a concern. They acknowledged they will get wet, but they stated the tiles are coated so mold will not be an issue.

Very helpful and good to know. Thanks!

 

[Spiffy]

I find there are diminishing returns in audio especially with vehicles. I've been an audiophile my whole life. I cant count how many cars I have done audio in. Home theater two channel.
I just finish with a complete JBL system in my Platinum. Replaced that god awful 13 speaker b&o. Ended up with 5 channels.
My buddy has a large car audio business.
His job is to sell installation. That means high dollar sound deadening. We experimented on my f150. Results were 80% improvements with just exterior door deadening. Then an additional 4% improvement with behind the door card treatments. Some of the smoke and mirror products can get pricy just like 9000.00 home 2 channel speaker interconnects.
He explained that he has had customers that ripped out all the interior seats carpets and covered the floors and did the roof.
He admits that while there are some improvements against outside road noise the cost get exponentially higher with every 10% sound mitigation.
A guy can spend a ton of money sound proofing and throw it all away with poorly designed audio or a set of really noisy tires.
Then consider if your building a butt shaking system. How is removing road noise going to be effective.
My point is you can achieve 80% of your goals on a little money properly designed and just get an additional 5% improvement on 4 times the money.

Be careful of getting so invested that you can't see.

 

[Je1279]

I find there are diminishing returns in audio especially with vehicles. I've been an audiophile my whole life. I cant count how many cars I have done audio in. Home theater two channel.
I just finish with a complete JBL system in my Platinum. Replaced that god awful 13 speaker b&o. Ended up with 5 channels.
My buddy has a large car audio business.
His job is to sell installation. That means high dollar sound deadening. We experimented on my f150. Results were 80% improvements with just exterior door deadening. Then an additional 4% improvement with behind the door card treatments. Some of the smoke and mirror products can get pricy just like 9000.00 home 2 channel speaker interconnects.
He explained that he has had customers that ripped out all the interior seats carpets and covered the floors and did the roof.
He admits that while there are some improvements against outside road noise the cost get exponentially higher with every 10% sound mitigation.
A guy can spend a ton of money sound proofing and throw it all away with poorly designed audio or a set of really noisy tires.
Then consider if your building a butt shaking system. How is removing road noise going to be effective.
My point is you can achieve 80% of your goals on a little money properly designed and just get an additional 5% improvement on 4 times the money.

Be careful of getting so invested that you can't see.

Very useful and valid points.

 

[23PB&Me]

Very valid points on diminishing returns, but also remember that some of these products serve different purposes, so where guardian does absorb sound coming in and is diminishing returns on top of CLD, it is also there to absorb the sound energy put into the door by the speaker so it can’t be put purely in the deadening category.

Great point also on proper design of your system. I had professional help designing so I didn’t muck it up by trying to do it myself. I’m just saving the $ by doing my own labor, which has been very rewarding. Looking forward to the day I’m done and my system is finally tuned! I’m pretty done with the B&O amp and tune at this point..

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