RAAMMAT Sound Deadener Review - Honda Forum / Acura Forum

Phre0nBurn · 08-16-2004, 01:05 AM

Ok... To make a long story short...
I am in the middle of re-doing my interior, and throwing three 12" JL Audio W6V2's in the back of my 300Zx, so I figured while everything was apart, I would sound deaden the car.
I chose RAAMMAT 60 because of all of the off-brand deadeners out there, I have heard more good things about this...
I ordered 125 Sq. Ft., that was shipped in 2 rolls, each roll is about 2 ft. wide.
Raammat is aluminum backed, like Dynamat Xtreme.
Raammat is 60 mils. thick, as Dynamat Xtreme is 67 (correct me if im wrong, but I think that is what Dynamat is...)
At first touch, the Raammat seems comparably thinner than the Dynamat, and it kind of made me iffy at first, but then I found out why.
The previous version of the Raammat had a slightly thicker aluminum backing, about as thick as the Dynamat, but, if you have ever worked with any aluminum backed sound deadening mat, you quickly learned that thin aluminum really hurts when it slices open your finger tips.

So, on this version of it, the aluminum was thinnned out, so it would be more pliable, and not as much of a threat to your oh-so-precious hands.
After I laid down just under 100 Sq. Ft. , I counted a total of 57 slices on my hands, 85% of them paper-thin slices on my fingertips, that hurt like hell, it even hurt to type. Gloves would be great, but the mat sticks to them, so that option is ruled out.

Raammat was surprisingly easy to work with, as long as your arms and hands can take a beating, and it sticks (so far) very well.
A few tips though, things you should know, that I didnt at first.
Make sure your surface is as clean as possible. As an example, I took out the carpet when I did the flooring, scraped up as much of that fuzzy stuff that was glued down as possible, then took a steel wire brush and some paint thinner, and went at it to get it all up, and get all of the glue and whatnot up. Then I rinsed the area with a wet rag. Following that, I vaccumed everything, and everything that surrounds everything ( lol ), about 4 times.
THEN, I went over it all with window cleaner ( got a gallon from Home Depot ) about 2 times. After that, I wiped it all down with another clean wet rag, and then followed with a lint free dry rag, and then let it air out while i had a smoke...
So, basically, make sure it is as clean as it was when it came out of the factory.
Also, about rollers. USE A DYNAMAT ROLLER!
I tried both the rubber Dynamat roller, and the wooden one from Home Depot, and the Dynamat one works MUCH better. It may not seem like it at first, but into your 30-40th hour of pressing down and rolling back and forth, you realise the dynamat one is alot easier, quieter, more versatile, does more of an area, and sticks better, as the mat adhesive is pressure sensitive.
Anyways, here is the summary of it all, and as soon as I have a few free hours, and someone to host the images, I will put up all of my during-the-install pics, along with some notes on each.

SUM IT UP!
RAAMMAT 60 Aluminum backed sound deadening mat
Price: $80 per 62.5 sq. ft. roll, about 1/3 the price of CHEAP Dynamat Xtreme.
: Out of 10, 10 being best :
Workability and pliability: 9
Adhesion: 9
Price: 10
=====
Smell: None
Logo on mat: None

You can purchase RAAMMAT on E-Bay, or visit www.raamaudio.com

Overall Satisfaction compare to the leading brand, Dynamat Xtreme: 10
Awesome Product

Phre0nBurn · 01-02-2005, 03:33 PM

Well, Im back after a looooong 'vacation' you could call it...
Id like to update on my previous review of the RAAMMAT Sound Deadener...
I moved to phoenix, and i had to leave my Z behind, so i could come back and finish it in a few months... Well, the car sat for 2-3 months, and I get home, and all of the mat that was laid on the roof/underside of the hatch, has fallen off
:'(
So, I would stick with Dynamat... heh
I am sorry for praising the product previously, but at least I have found out, so that no one else has to...
2 months down the drain... blah, oh well...
On another note, I do know of a company based out of Phoenix called Second Skin, they make sound deadening products, and currently have contracts with Jaguar, though I have not confirmed this with Jaguar, I do talk to the owner of the company alot, I have his cell, his name is Anthony, seems to be a really cool dude... Anyways, If you are in the market for a sound deadening product for your car, go with Dynamat, or check out Second Skin...

J30A1Accord · 01-14-2005, 05:13 PM

Anybody have any reviews for Fatmat products, I am about to do my car and not sure what product to use.

If the quailty of these products suck, I will just sacrifice the price and buy dynamat xtream.

Silver Civic EX · 01-14-2005, 09:06 PM

well i use brownbread in my civic and i love it.. i bought it from ebay, i think it was like 100 for 100 sq feet. it hasnt peeled at all from my trunk lid, and my trunk has a leak somewhere that i cant find (if anyone can help with that please).. i have an obx catback on my civic, and b4 i installed the brownbead it was really loud inside the cabin, like rattling the rear pannel loud. after i installed the brownbread, it was a night and day difference. i highly recommend it.

Phre0nBurn · 01-15-2005, 10:05 PM

Brownbread is Asphalt based...
You generally want something that is rubber based, Butyl rubber is the best... Dynamat X, and Second Skin, are both very good mats, and both about the same price... SS makes 2 mats, a regular, that is like Dynamat X, and then a Pro mat, that is thicker than Dynamat X, aptly nicknamed 'STFU' mat...
You can look at all of their products on their website, www.secondskinaudio.com
They also have a forum on there if you need to know anything about their products...
Also, on another note...
I have heard MANY good things about their spray on liner.... And they have reworked it, and are releasing a redefined liquid liner in a month or 2... I heard it is very very good stuff, will never crack or peel, and its much easier to spray on than to lay mat down, and you can get the areas you cant get with mat... If you did 2-4 layers of the spray on, it would be like having 6-8 layers of Mat... something to look into...
Also, feel free to email them under 'Contact Us', it emails Anthony, the owner of the company, he is a very good guy, real cool, he'll help anyone out, even with questions about other products...
Good luck...
P.s. - Does the brownbread have a smell at all?? Where do you live?
Ive heard that Brownbread and other asphalt based mats smell like fresh pavement in the heat...

Silver Civic EX · 01-15-2005, 10:15 PM

the brownbread that i use doesnt have strong of a smell.. when i first installed it it did smell, but it wasnt anything to complain about, and even in the NC summers i dont smell it at all, ofcourse it is in the trunk so i dont think if it was producing a smell i wouldnt really beable to smell it anyways, unless ofcourse its really that bad then maybee i would beable to smell it but its not. it was really easy to install, with just a little bit of the heat gun it was impossible to get it back off.

Phre0nBurn · 01-16-2005, 02:51 AM

Oh yea, thats another thing, the heat gun...
You shouldnt need a heat gun, or any source of heat, unless its cold out... which does happen sometimes, I know when I laid the 3-4 layers in my car, i did half of it at night... So I ran my other car for a few mins to get it to temp, then killed it, and left the mat on top of the motor to keep warm and sticky... worked pretty well, but it was probably 55 degrees out or so....

Once the new liquid comes out from SS Audio, i am going to buy a few gallons, and spray it on the doors, roof, trunk, trunk hatch, and the floor... I will also purchase one of their foams and i will roll it up, then soak it in the liquid, and then stuff it into all of the open spaces beetween metals...
I will do a full review on it once it is done...

SuperAkuma · 02-07-2005, 12:46 AM

secondskin dont sell stfu80 anymore. They have the Damafilier to replace it. secondskin is more expensive than other deadening product because they are not asphalt base like someone else mention eailer. Because of this they have a higher heat talerance, they are rated at over 450*F. The highest of any out there.
Other deadening prodect like Fatmat which rated at about 300*F and sell for about $1/sqft. B-Quiet is another alternative to dynamat. B-Quieit has 2 version of it, Extreme and Ultimat.
The Extreme is the older one and is the entry leve one. It is 45mil thick and has a heat talerance of 230*F. They sell for about $1/sqft.
The Ultimate(aka brown bread) one is twice as much about $2/sqft and has the heat talerant of 311*F. It is 60mil thick.

By looking at the specs it seems like Fatmat is the way to go. But I've heard many horror story about them pealling off. I dont think I've heard anyone complain about B-Quiet brown bread and a lot of people LOVE secondskin's stuff. If you look at the website of fatmat vs B-Quiet, it seems that B-Quiet is a better company and look more professional. Fatmat looks like trash. IMO.

If you guys are looking into getting some deadening stuff I would checkout www.secondskinaudio.com and get it there. Look for the promotion that they have. I will admit that the FULL price for the stuff is very expensive but if you get the promo stuff like the b-stock grade it is worth it. I just ordered a 60sqft roll for about half of what they sold it for on the site. I know its still more expensive then B-Quiet but I think its a lot better. Im not saying that B-Quiet is no good because I am planning to order like a 50sqft roll from them for about $60 shipped and add it ontop of secondskin's Dampafilier.

I've been doing research on this subject for months now and I finally just ordered the stuff today. Ill keep you guys posted on whats going on.

SuperAkuma · 02-28-2005, 11:13 AM

I got my car done a few days ago. Man there is a BIG difference between deadening it and not.

I did like 2 layers on the 2 front doors, did like 3 layers on my trunk lids and did like one layers of strips on the trunk floor and side.

From the inside the car does not rattle at all. The bass response was a lot better and its soo clean now. I still have some rattle though but this is on top of the roof area only though. Like the map light and stuff. I havent had a chance to do those yet.

the damplifter from www.secondskinaudio.com are really good. They maybe kinda pricy if you pay full price but check his b-stock stuff out for like %40 off or so. Its the same quality but the color might be off a little or so. Once you paint it you wont notice any difference. And most of the areas that you apply it onto, you wont see it anyways. Another reason why I like his stuff is that you dont cut yourself when working with it. I used my bare hand to work on it and no cuts at all. I heard a lot of horror stores about how they got a million of cuts from using the other brand. He also has the highest temp rating out of all of them, even dynamat. The reason why is because his is not asphalt base.

I highly recommend this product to anyone who is planning to deadened there car.

i97supratti · 05-20-2005, 05:36 PM

How would you compare Second Skin products to Dynamat? Both are pretty expensive. Which one weighs less? I really do not want to weigh my car down, i drive a 92 accord which is listed as having 120 hp from the factory. But over 13 years, it's bound to lose power due to carbon build-ups, and basically being an old engine.

SuperAkuma · 06-01-2005, 03:41 PM

I've never used Dynamat before so I cant compair it. But going by the specs, Second Skin seems to be better. Higher heat resistance, thicker and all of his stuff is not asphalt base. Dynamat is asphalt base except the Dynamat Extreme I believe.

If you are concern about the weight you might want to get the spray on one. It is lighter and cheaper than the damplifter.

If you pay full retail price for SS than they are expensive, more expensive than Dynamat. If you click on the link that says product special, than you will see the b-stock. B-stock are the batch where he messed up on mixing it so the color might be off or so. But there is nothing wrong with B-stock as far as performance goes. It still work just as good as the A-stock on.

Also Anthony from SS is trying out this new product. Its called Hazmat. It was designed to put underneith carpets or something like that. It's the same thickness as the damplifter and has a higher heat resistance. Instead of 450*F like the damplifter it is 500*F. And since it dont have the aluminum layer like the damplifter and all of the other deadening pad, it is lighter.

He has a super sale going on until June 15, 2005. Its pretty much so you can test out the product before he officially releast it. 100sqft goes for $125. He also sells it in smaller package too but I forgot what the price was. I ordered mine to try it out. Im willing to take the risk, but im sure that it will be well worth it. I got it for about $150 shipped.

I already have a few layers of the Damplifter on my car, and I wanted to add more the the bottom of my car so I can cut down on road noise. I was going to order some of the other cheaper one but I cant pass a deal like this up.

And of course I will give a full review on this product once I get it. It dont be shipped until June 15th.