Dynapad VS Block-it Review

Maybe it’s just old age, but after living with borla stingers (aftermarket exhaust) for four years I wanted to revert to something a little more subtle. The noise in the interior cabin (mainly drone) was becoming unbearable. I’d find myself experiencing ringing in my ears similar to the aftermath of a heavy metal concert. However after going to my local dealer and hearing a stock corvette (no aftermarket exhaust), it reminded me as to why I got the exhaust in the first place, stock corvettes are too quiet.

After doing some research, I came across some materials /products that could deaden/tone down the drone, particularly the block-it pad by TKOperformance & Dynapad.

Although it seemed like a pricey fix (Dynapad: $120.00 & Block-it: $260 (shipped) , I jumped in and bought the two for testing .A lot of people seemed to have luck with either of them, so I thought by combining both I would get great results.

After installing block-it & Dynapad, I have to tell you I was a quite confused. To my very sensitive ears I could not hear a significant difference with either one installed or combined (one on top of the other). What the pads seemed to do was deaden the sound but by a very small margin.

Several people who regularly drive with me also stated that the pads made things slightly quieter; consensus was 5-10% quieter. Luckily, I had a DBA Sound Meter so I did some tests to quantify our opinions, I measured the DBA in C weighting to get the low frequency readings.

Conclusion: Does NOT reduce drone/noise sound significantly.
In terms of noise/drone the pads didn’t significantly reduce unwanted sound. Looking at the results below, average sound reduction was 2-5 decibels, which isn’t much of an improvement.
The block-it pad seemed to be more effective than Dyna pad but needed to be combined with Dyna pad to produce barely noticeable sound reduction.

 

Dynapad w/ Block-it

 

Hey, believe me I don't know much about sound and decibels. But, I thought I read in a car mag a long time ago that decibel levels are exponential, (note: wrong word; should have wrote "logarithmic") meaning a 1 db increase or reduction is not as insignificant as one would think. And that by the time you start getting 2 or 3 db reductions (or increases), it's seriously big. *

Could be wrong, but if it were me, I might ask in this section for what they might do: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/audio-electronics-20/

Good luck with it.

* here's some stuff I found:

"What are the benefits of reducing vehicle noise?

Cutting road noise levels by 3 decibels is equivalent to halving the level of traffic. The decibel scale is logarithmic, so if a 3-decibel noise reduction means halving the traffic noise, a 10-decibel reduction would imply cutting the noise levels by as much as ten times. "

from:2011 12 Noise briefing
http://www.transportenvironment.org/...nd_out/.../664

 

Decibels are measured in log scale - and it appears there is some reduction in overall sound (in MOST cases), but the sound suppression appears to be similar to the precision of his meter. You'll note that no manufacturer of these kits ever offers a measured result (x decibel reduction), but only says that it's "noticeable."

However, human hearing perception is also logarithmic: the higher the sound in decibels, the larger the CHANGE has to be in order for you to detect it. So OP's perception can be realistic.

ETA: I cannot get your link to work, but since the dB scale is logarithmic we'd need to know what the initial measurement was (in your example) to determine how a 3dB change relates to the real world: is it a 3dB change from 10dB, or 100dB?

 

Too bad you didn't test at about 1600-1900 rpm while cruising. This is the usual range for drone.

 

I had the blockit kit for about 1 week before deciding it was the worst purchase I had made for the car and resold it. Luckily I bought it used and sold it for what I bought it for.

I had longtubes and stingers and neither myself nor my wife could tell a noticeable difference. I'm sorry you didn't find one of my posts complaining about it before you made the purchase. Luckily you will be able to re-sell it pretty easily though.

 

Its not written above but I remember it hovering around 101 dbc 1600-1900 RPM, there really wasn't a significant difference however it did reduce some unwanted vibrations. I didnt mention that bc that benefit alone still didnt justify spending so much for so little but I kept my purchase, Iam against returning things, besides it makes a good mat.

@ FloydSummerOf68 its ok Iam not bummed out about it. I had fun testing the different mats out. BTW both mats are made out of the same material.

 

Are you sure those are the same - the photo suggests the left mat has a larger cell diameter than the unit on the right. I have no idea if this will make a difference, but I'd guess the one on the right has slightly more mass (ie more dense), appears slightly thicker and has a slightly more defined center laminate - and would theoretically work better. However both are clearly the same in overall design.

Not that "better" is anywhere close to detectable in this case...

 

There is not a one product cures all when it comes to sound proofing a car. For an education I would suggest the following site.

http://cascadeaudio.com/

Also understand in you are interested in making the car as quite as possible you will have a significant amount of weight added to the car.

 

Weight can easily be offset with power

 

Well then you can do what a local shop around here did for a Z06. Tear the car totally apart and put it back together with the idea of making it limo quite. It might not of been a limo but it was real close. But I am guessing they add almost 200lbs of material to it. We are talking removing much more than just the interior. They removed the rear fenders, bumper and addressed underneth the car as well.

 

That's really cool.

I haven't heard of a shop around here doing anything like that. It couldn't have been cheap though, lol.

That, plus a blower, plus a re-upholstered interior in a GS and you'd have a world class car in every sense of the word.