Highway Noise

**Socno24** · 11-06-2004, 10:31 PM

My problem is that I can barely hear movies during car rides. I think that it is mainly due to highway noise. The DVD is being played through an Xbox. The yellow part of the RCA cable is going directly into a 7" LCD. The red and white parts of it are going into a seperate cable that joins the two into a single audio cable to which I pulg my headphones into. I have thought of a possible way to solve my problem. I could get noise-reducing headphones, however I am unsure as to whether they would cancel out enough of the highway noise for me to be able to hear. What do you guys thing? Would this work? Any other ideas? Is there some device that would just allow me to increase the volume? Thanks.

**msb5150** · 11-06-2004, 10:35 PM

Noise cancelling headphones work, get the bose ones, they may be expensive, but they work so much better than the panasonic one's I have. Aside from that maybe get a headphone amp, but they're a little pricey and will detroy your ears and or headphones if you listen to anything real high for any long period of time. Another possibility is to check out a material called thinsulate from 3m, the acoustic kind. I've read a couple of install articles saying it made a bid difference.

**LeoTheHamster** · 11-06-2004, 10:35 PM

You could always try sound-deadening the car

Tis basically required if you want a nice sounding system

Dynamat Extreme is the generally regarded as the best stuff to use. The more the better

Door skins - inner and outer and the boot area should be the first places to do, however if you have the time/money/materials then doing the roof and floor would be good as well

**Socno24** · 11-06-2004, 10:49 PM

Thanks for the suggestions

msb5150: I don't think that it makes much sense to purchase expensive headphones if I am only going to be using them 10-20 times a year (only for long car rides). I'd certainly conisder it much more if they were less bulky because then I'd use them everyday with my Ipod. Which panasonic ones do you have? Also, I have bad ears and am therefore more prone to farther hearing loss due to damaging sounds, so I'll stick to the headphones idea.

LeoTheHamster: My parents lease so that is out of the question. I'll consider that when I start driving that though...

I recall reading (I read lots and post little) that somebody here (frodo?) got the maxell headphones from walmart. How are those?

**Zombietime** · 11-06-2004, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by Socno24

Thanks for the suggestions

msb5150: I don't think that it makes much sense to purchase expensive headphones if I am only going to be using them 10-20 times a year (only for long car rides). I'd certainly conisder it much more if they were less bulky because then I'd use them everyday with my Ipod. Which panasonic ones do you have? Also, I have bad ears and am therefore more prone to farther hearing loss due to damaging sounds, so I'll stick to the headphones idea.

LeoTheHamster: My parents lease so that is out of the question. I'll consider that when I start driving that though...

I recall reading (I read lots and post little) that somebody here (frodo?) got the maxell headphones from walmart. How are those?

Your mom and dad let you screw around with their car?

**LeoTheHamster** · 11-06-2004, 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by Zombietime

Your mom and dad let you screw around with their car?

Chap over this side of the pond uses his mums car for dB drag

**Socno24** · 11-06-2004, 11:00 PM

Zombietime: As long as I do nothing permenant they're fine with it. The screen that I use is just held in place with a piece of velco (I don't leave it in the car). The xbox doesn't stay in the car and to power it I just use an inverter. Everything is removable with no marks left behind.

**msb5150** · 11-06-2004, 11:03 PM

I've got these since you asked. They're half-way decent on planes, which is what I was thinking when I posted last. The few times I've used them in cars, they have been great. If you're interested the price has come down by a bit, I think you could find them around $50 US. Oh yeah, to make a point: Dynamat is great for vibrations, but is useless for sound deadening/insulation. So you could put it on your decklid to kill vibrations, but spending close to $300 dynamating your whole car would really not help more than just putting it on sheetmetal and using some sort of thin insulation for deadening. And on a side note: Dynamat is really expensive for what you get. All it is is rubber with an adhesive backing, so if you feel the need to cover your whole car in it, check out roofing ice guard, its the same stuff just without a logo (that noone will see) and is close to 10 times cheaper.

**LeoTheHamster** · 11-07-2004, 12:19 AM

Originally Posted by msb5150

Oh yeah, to make a point: Dynamat is great for vibrations, but is useless for sound deadening/insulation. So you could put it on your decklid to kill vibrations, but spending close to $300 dynamating your whole car would really not help more than just putting it on sheetmetal and using some sort of thin insulation for deadening. And on a side note: Dynamat is really expensive for what you get. All it is is rubber with an adhesive backing, so if you feel the need to cover your whole car in it, check out roofing ice guard, its the same stuff just without a logo (that noone will see) and is close to 10 times cheaper.

http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/vbb/showthread.php?t=58457

Read, and be enlightened

**Matthew230** · 11-07-2004, 06:13 PM

The audio is quiet because the xbox has no real amp driving it. Therefore even with headphones you can't hear much. You could look for a small audio box, (in my day they were called ghettoblasters) with a line in option. This will provide the amplication you need, then you plug headphones into there. Spending money on noise reducing headphones won't be a great solution, ie they still won't make the audio any louder