Bay Area/ SoCal Call: Full Sound Proofing

Use to work in car stereo installation biz back in high school... I've not run across many Prius posts for sound system mods... But you can use a power inverter on the 12v battery and run 110v pro audio rack gear and powered speakers... That's what I did with my Mackie Sound system back in the day. Lol...

 

But seriously... My experience with car stereo systems is the price is way toounfair for how bad signal-to-noise ratio and worse yet, acoustic quality-wise. It's just not a good place for sound quality. I mean there's nothing impressive at all about the sound of someone's license plate rattling to the beat of the music.

That being said, I'd love to see how far you go with stripping out the interior and and using sound deadening paint and sound deadening material. From what I've read the placement of the material you install is way more important than how much of it you install... Undercarriage paint can be helpful, but if it's a sloppy job future repairs and moisture getting trapped in the sloppy parts is a concern.

Also, not sure on Gen3, but on Gen2 the stereo is integrated into the rest of the car so much that you either need to rewire the OEM stereo to ride under the seat, or install the right resistor so the car thinks that the original OEM stereo is still functioning normally. But that was something I read on here 5 years ago, so maybe there's finally a new way to integrate a new system with the old? Maybe there's a function in Toyota Techstream diagnostic software for that?

Finally, the Gen3 are incredibly crowded and claustrophobic to me because the poorly designed center console is way too big if you're tall and don't have enough leg room. So I'd suggest rewiring the gear shifter and placing it elsewhere (Japanese Toyota Racing Design Website used to sell an aftermarket push button shifter) and then ripping everything out from the stereo system all the way down to back seat and replacing it with a matching upholstered cushion between the front seats so the area feels more expansive, more like a bench seat, rather than the awful of sitting inside a plastic box.

 

I've only sound deadened the front doors and trunk, it helped controlling rattles and did quiet the door some, but it is still no where near as quiet as my Acura MDX. Plus adding all the sound deadener really killed my mpg; I avg 42. I say just get the lexus cth200 or whatever it's called and get a good base to start from.

 

Good point... Of course being able to afford a Lexus Hybrid is another question entirely. As for the weight issue, I'd recommend stripping out the interior of the car and finding as many ways as possible to reduce the weight of the vehicle by the same amount of new soundproofing weight you put in. There's a guy on here currently doing that with his Prius C, maybe chat with him about it.

 

I can't really strip anything but the spare tire, I carry around a big nice person sub box and went with maple plywood to save weight. Worth it for me, having a good sub system is mandatory.

 

Maybe a long term project to plan for is stripping interior down to bare metal and doing better lighter seats and all new upholstery and weld in a sub box that's of a light enough weight to not cost you a fortune in gas over the car's lifespan... If you want to do a sub right, you gotta weld it into the vehicles frame! Besides think of how much nicer the interior would be if you smoothed out the lines and got rid of all the unneeded extra?

 

Yep... Back in the day even Mackie was impressed and they posted it to their website... That was the only time I was ever referred to as a Mackoid.

 

So how long will you plan to keep the car after sound dampening it?

 

I did the the full car using the package from Sound Deadeners Showdown. Took a few days to do but I'm very pleased with the results. Sure, it adds about 80~100LB of dead weight but it wasn't enough to notice my mpg drop.

I actually have a small bit of materials left over if you're interested in for a discount. I have like 2 boxes of CLD tiles, a small roll of MLV, CCF, melamine foam, etc.

 

Nice work! Please post lots more pics... I'm especially interested in how you end up re-doing the dashboard with the new sound system, as well as how you redo the door panels and roof...

 

I didn't take too many pictures but it's all pretty straight forward. I didn't do the dashboard so I can't help you there. I did full door, trunk lid, trunk, floor, roof, everything that is reasonable.

 

That's funny because i have a prius 2010 and an acura mdx advance 2015 as well. I sound deaded the front door in the prius and the trunk area.

I also finished installing the SonicElectronix all in one unit and it's no where near as quiet as my Acura.