Usual itch for better sound never ends. And as you would see Seltos' Bose sound system is nothing to write about and it's just adequate. After delivery, for a month or two, I fiddled with different sound settings in my car and then accepted that this would be same how much ever I change different settings. My main complain was voice clarity not up to my liking and high is no where present inside this Bose system. And if bass improves (clear bass) a bit is enough for me. So with promise of one day would upgrade the audio, I left it as it is. And after 2 years that day came.
I wanted to upgrade as gradual as possible. So as a wise person would do, I wanted to do door damping as stage 1, then move to upgrading speaker to introduction to DSP and what not. But I would like to stop as early as possible.
Hunt for an installer started in August this year, but after couple of usual shops in Koramangala and central Bangalore, I was super confused, some sounded snob, some too casual, some did not care and some were too "expert" to my capacity to accept the jargons. So, only installer left was myself. I gave it a go.
Did some online research, saw couple of youtube video and I was already confident that there is no installer better than me in Bangalore
Finalized on these two items -
1.
i-copper from motorogue.in for vibration reduction
2.
Nitrile tape - a fire resistant, heat proof 6mm sound absorbent roll.
Accessories
1. paper cutter to cut the mat and tape
2. 2 inch roller to roll on the mat after install
3. PH2 screw driver,
4. Pry tool
5. Cleaning alcohol
Action
So first thing is to remove the door pad. I started from Driver door. To remove it, first pry open small panel above tweeter. Then remove two screws - one in bottle area, 2nd in behind a small flap (pry open) in door unlock lever.
Door is locked in place with multiple clips around the periphery. Pry open slowly from tweeter side to bottom to other side. Now do not pull the door pad as for driver door has 4 connector and 2 string connector. Better take help from someone to hold the door pad when you press the clips of those connectors and pull open. For string connectors you just have to rotate the connecting bit and pull out of groove. Disconnect and open the speaker too (hold with 4 screws). Tweeter is fixed with door pad itself.
Door pad has sound absotbent padding all over. But the metal parts do not have any damping what so ever.
Now I took the approach to damp only the flat surfaces. So three slim strip of mat filled the outer metal. An A4 size (may be a bit large) mat for middle metal large hole, and smaller one for an opening below speaker. Did not try to fill anything smaller holes. Also just behind the speaker, on outer metal added sound absorbent tape on top of the damping mat.
I made sure the the plastic cover it came with was intact and preserved the silicon glue so that I could reapply it back. Also for connectors I kept appropriate cut out.
I cleaned the metal surfaces with cleaning alcohol before applying the mat and made sure after applying the mat, used the roller to make the mat stick to metal.
On the plastic door pad, it has enough sound absorbent, so I just added damping around the speaker on the flat surfaces only.
Once done, fix the plastic cover, roll over the silicon glue, it seemed fixed. Reconnect the speaker, connect all electronic connector, then those two string connector and align the door pad press the clips to fix it in place. Test all the functionalities of the door button, door lock unlock, speaker etc. Once satisfied, fix those two screws and close the panel you opened at begining.
All other doors are similar. I did one door at a time, so opened, applied, tested, closed - then moved to next door.
I needed 1 and 1/3 of mat each door and two feet of sound absorbent tape each door.
After the damping, Following improvement is observed
- Mid (vocal) is clear like I changed the speaker. It's no doubt more than 50% improvement in clarity.
- Bass became tighter, clearer.
- No apparent change in high though. This may need speaker upgrade (Morel may be or JL audio?)
Super happy with the damping performance. Some mat is still there, would dampen the boot and subwoofer area. And then I may just update the front component with a bright one with decent bass. Just to show how the so famous Bose speakers given in OEM, here are the front and magnet.
So until next time, would update if I could dampen the subwoofer and later when I change the front component.