7.11 Speaker Upgrades & Door Damping
Noise insulation is very bad in the XL6 and it was very irritating to hear traffic noise seeping into the vehicle. Added to that, I was not too happy with the stock speakers and thus began the search for a decent upgrade + some door damping. I had earlier zeroed in on a pair of Infinity co-axials for the upgrade but after reading up on the forum and looking at reviews online, decided to stick with JBL as a brand as they seemed to have some of the best mid range speakers available. Discussed the same with Parag and after his feedback, decided to go with JBL GTO 609c components for the front doors and JBL GTO 629 co-axials for the rear. After watching price fluctuate over weeks, picked up the
GTO 609c from Motorogue.in for INR 7,990 and
GTO 629 from amazon for INR 7,700. While I had budgeted for ~10K for the upgrade, decided to extend the same and invest in better quality product which would last me a long time.
Door damping was the other topic that I was educating myself on as I had never felt the need to damp the TUV. After reading through the
damping materials thread (The Damping Material and Sound Deadener Thread), it was quiet clear that CTK/STP were most commonly used and 'Vibromax' was a product that I could consider. Parallelly, I was talking to a few accessories installers for the JBL GTOs and installation + door damping. Quotes for damping sheets + installations per door were 3.5-4K per door as the doors on the XL6 are quiet big, especially the rear doors. Most of these accessories shops claimed to use Vibromax/Brazzo/STP damping mats. During a discussion with Leoshashi, he pointed me to STP GB mats and I started to keep an eye on price. Sometime in the last week of June, the price dropped to 6.8K for 15 sheets and I placed an order for the same.
As of last week, the damping mats and JBL GTOs were ready to be fitted and I was still on the fence on how I should go about the installation. I was going back and forth on the DIY vs. Outside installation because:
1. I don't have enough space and lighting to do this elaborate DIY
2. I don't have a good set of tools for DIY
3. I am lazy bugger and prefer someone else doing the hard work
BHPian Sharatscorp referred
The Bass Club, based on past work as well as personal experience. I reached out to Mr. Suresh from Bass club and he was able to answer my questions and establish expertise. After going through some of his work samples and checking reviews on Google, I decided to go ahead and get door damping + speaker installation done at the Bass Club. He quoted 4K for installation of speakers + mats, 2K for spacers + rain guards and 800 for wiring (ensured that it was for 16 GA), which I thought was a decent deal. Zeroed in on Friday afternoon for the install and Suresh confirmed that he will book the slot for me and complete the job by Friday evening.
Based on reading on the damping materials thread, I wasn’t sure if these mats were waterproof. Shashi had asked me to order
hinge spray wax and Butyl tape along with the damping mats. Hinge wax was to be used to create a waxy layer over the damping sheet applied on the inner portion of the outer door pane, to prevent moisture buildup on damping mat surface.
Butyl tape was to be used to reapply the plastic vapor barrier sheet post installation of mats.
Friday afternoon 2PM, I was at The Bass Club and work began in the earnest. Suresh himself worked on the car and was assisted by Vivek. I asked them to do 1 door at a time and ensured a) the vapor barrier sheet was cleanly pulled out and kept aside and b) all the panels were wiped down clean with IPA, which I had carried along, before any damping work was carried out.
Stock Door and Vapor Barrier Sheet Stock speakers - Super light Stock tweeters mounted on Panel
Suresh started with the rear doors as they would need quiet a bit of damping and once the inner panel was fully damped, a roller was used to cleanly roll the damping mat across the surface and ensure that it adheres to the surface. I then whipped out the hinge spray wax and asked Suresh to spray the same on the mat surface. He was taken aback by this request and asked me about the use of the spray. We discussed the use of wax, post which it was sprayed across the entire cross section of the mat to create a layer. Ended up using almost 2 bottles of wax per door.
Inner Panel damped and coated with Hinge wax
Post the outer panel, inner panel of the door was damped and spacer + rain guard were mounted. Since the rear speakers were co-axials, Suresh checked the connectors to ensure that they fit the GTO 629s and used a heat sleeve to protect the connector joint. GTO 629s were easily mounted onto the spacer and the vapor barrier sheet was reinstalled. We had to use the Butyl tape to reinstall the vapor barrier sheet and roll gently using the roller to ensure that it sits tight. The aim was to ensure that the end product looked like the below image but we did not manage to get it absolutely right.
Source -
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attac...ies-img-94.jpg
Here is how the rear door looked post installation of mats with the speaker mounted.
The plan was to finish up all doors before damping the plastic door panels. Talking about door panels, is it normal for manufacturers to use hard thermocol for damping and to provide structural rigidity?
For all the other doors, we carried out the same exercise:
Remove barrier sheet > IPA wipe down > install mats on inner panel and use the roller > spray hinge wax > install mats on outer panel and use the roller > mount spacers + rain guard > mount speakers > reinstall vapor barrier using butyl tape. It took 4 hours to complete the entire damping + speaker installation work on the door panels.
The only difference between front and rear doors was that the front doors needed to house the GTO 609c components, which meant crossover had to be mounted onto the door panel. Wiring for speakers and tweeters were drawn and heat shrink sleeves were used to cleanly seal joints and connectors.
Front door with damping & crossover
Now that all doors were damped, it was time to work on the door panels. It was 6pm and light was fading fast, Suresh used 1 sheet on each of the door panels and focused on damping the top and bottom of the panels. I helped him as best as I could and we quickly rolled the sheets and pressed the edges to ensure that the mats sit tight on the plastic panel surface. Once the doors panels were done, they were quickly mounted and locked in place. I checked the edges to ensure that there were no gaps and operated power window buttons to check that they were working fine. With that done, it was time to move onto the tweeters.
JBL had provided multiple tweeter mounts and Suresh ended up using one of them and a glue gun to mount the tweeters onto the stock panel provided. Since wiring was already in place, tweeters were quickly connected and the tweeter panel was mounted.
Tweeter Mounted onto the OEM panel
It took about 5.5 hours to complete damping & speaker installation and I must say that I am satisfied with the work that Suresh has executed. He was very meticulous when it came to a) applying the damping sheets and rolling them and b) while wiring the crossover and components. He was open to suggestions and did incorporate most of my suggestions when working on door damping. In the end we ended up using 4 sheets for each of the rear doors and 3 sheets each for front doors. Each sheet weights about 1 Kg hence the doors feel a little more heavier
The cabin feels a lot more silent now post damping. I can no longer hear the squeaks and rattles from adjacent vehicles. Diesel clatter from good autos are muted and loud horns are a thing of the past. With music on, NVH is even better as now I can clearly hear the instruments and vocals. I like my music to be neutral and with the EQ set the way I like it, JBL GTOs does a really good job. We tend to listen to a wide range of music - Carnatic, Fusion, Instrumental, 80/90s rock, Post rock etc. hence vocals and mid range clarity were important. The GTOs definetly deliver well balanced music with the carbon fiber cones delivering some decent bass. Overall, I am very happy with the decision to invest in GTOs as they seem to be working well with OEM Harman HU and deliver some decent quality music. Tyre and road noise does continue to seep in and the plan is to damp the floor sometime in the future.