Sound deadner

[Second Skin Rep]

Before I read this entire thread I see some suggestions that I have seen on many other forums over the years.
I realize I am the owner of Second Skin, so my opinion will be biased at best, but I do feel the need to bring up a few points that many other forums (mostly car audio related) have known for quite some times.

1. Asphalt is junk. Never use it, no matter what anyone else says.
It is toxic
It is not viscoelastic (wont convert vibrations effectivly)
It has a foul odor
It has a melting temperature o 180 degrees.
It has been known to be inconsistent at best - some batches are good up to 180 degrees, while other batches from the same manufcaturer will ,elt at 150. You never know.
Any company that is selling an asphalt product is buying it from a manufacture that makes flashing membranes for roofs. There is not a single sound deadening manufacturer in the industry that will use asphalt.

I can say all this because I used to sell an asphalt mat my self. about 7 years ago. I knew all the best manufacturers, all the bst formulations and all the tricks of the trade to TRY and get the stuff to work in cars.



I had a 30% return rate and ended ups spending $20k of my own money to reemburse or replace many a customers asphalt product.

Since we switched to butyl rubber 5 years ago or so, ther has not been a single reported case of product failure or user error.

Here are the important things to look for in a constraint layer damper:

The first is total weight - this is more important than total thickness. The thickness of a vibration damping mat will not play any roll in vibration damping performance. So when you are comparing products, make sure you are guaging the weight along with the price.
For example:

Dynamat Extreme
1.67 mm thick
.45 lbs per sq foot

Damplifier (not the pro version)
1.25 lbs per sq foot
.45 lbs per sq foot

Damplifier Pro
1.75 lbs per sq foot
.65 lbs per sq foot

As you can see, thickenss and weight between each product varys quite a bit.

Another thing to measure is the foil
The thicker the foil (constraining layer) the better the vibration reudction.

Dynamat Extreme
4 mils

Damplifier
4 mils

Damplifier Pro
6 mils

eDead
1 mil


Those are the big ones.
Here is a link to the sound deadener showdown
This guy did these tests in his garage and kitchen a few years ago.
Awesome job too!

We sent him samples out a few months back and are waiting for the new results to come out. That version of the site is kind of dated and many companies made changes to their sound deadening products once he exposed many of the myths and flaws.

We too changes ours a bit in the 3 years since that site came out.
If anyone has any questions, fell free to ask me
[email protected]

I am always happy to help, whether you use Second Skin or not.

ANT