BHPian Rohit_Quad recently shared this with other enthusiasts:The Past2 months after the car was bought in 2022, I was at my trusted car accessories shop to enquire about dampening and a speaker upgrade. He insisted me not to touch the speakers, if I am not planning on adding an amplifier, due to his prior experience with another AX5. Apparently the stock speakers sounded better than the new Focals, which were replaced without an amp. Disappointed about this news, I left it at that, as it was a brand new car/ model and I did not want to touch the wiring due to the fear of warranty voiding. He did mention that door dampening would help greatly enhance the feel, cut down on external noise and improve the sound stage considerably. But did not feel like it at that time and dropped the whole plan.The ReasonFast forward 2.11 years, the itch to get both done was at its peak and I gave in. The in cabin experience was always great in the XUV, but sharp sounds, such as bike horns creeped in a bit excessively. Also, at mid-high mid volume levels, the sound form the speakers, lacked depth. The lows were there, but also were not there/ clear. Mids sounded a bit harsh, while highs were bright enough. I did the customary tapping on doors test before and they did sound very hollow and a bit tinny. Just a very high level information above, as I can go on for ever Where/WhatGot down to the car accessories shop – Motominds, Madhapur, whom I used once in the past for stereo work on my Ford Fiesta. The owner was very calm/ patient and gave me options starting form 15K to 23K for 4 door Dampening. He claims to have done more than 100 XUV’s and Hycross since their launch and are the 2 most common cars they get for this work. In the end I went with the 23k option, which included DHC black 2MM sound dampening for the outer skin and Dr Artex Gold HD heavy vibration dampening for the inner skins. Also got the steering wrapped with a custom faux leather cover for 2K. They got down to business with in minutes and you can tell that the team has done this job on many XUV’s as they removed the door cards with out any guess work, and knew exactly where all the screws/ fasteners were. Once the cards were removed, one can see the absolute lack of any sort of dampening from the factory (Just a small pad each on the outer skins of the front door) and why so many people before me might have got this done. It was all hallow, with just the vapour guard. Note – I am just a customer like anyone else and am not associated with them in anyway. Post InstallationAs seen in the pictures, they removed the speakers and added dampening around the speaker holes, along with the full outer skins (also on the strengthening beams, behind the speakers, etc) with the foam type sound dampening sheets and completely covered the inner side with the 2.6MM HD vibration dampening sheets. Once the work was done, one can immediately feel the weight difference of each door and the door tapping sounded like as if I was tapping on solid rock. No reverb, no vibrations to speak of. The sound insulation inside the cabin was heaps better than before (as it should be ), and cabin feels much calmer and silent. Did a sound recording pre and post dampening as well, under similar conditions. The output form the stock stereo system was so much more clear and the sound stage improved bounds. Weirdly, had to increase the bass by 1 point post the work, as I guess the speakers lost the reverb space behind them. Same songs, played using AA and Spotify premium sounded like 2 different cars, pre and post.Why no speaker upgrade?After watching a lot of youtube videos about the puny magnets on XUV speakers (maybe the AX7/AX7L variants), I went with the full intention to upgrade the speakers and play around lesser wattage ones as I did not want to add an amplifier. The owner explained to me how they were upgrading the speakers with out splicing any wires and we decided to test replacement speakers once the dampening was done. But to our surprise, once the speakers were removed, everyone was surprised to see massive magnets and very heavy speakers. Even though the wattage was only marked as 25W, everyone was convinced that the hassle of replacing (without an amp) will not get anything new, rather miss out on the what the stock speakers are presently offering. So we tested the system post dampening, with the stock setup and as explained before, was blown away by the stock setup. If I were to rate the stock setup at half volume before, it would be a 45 out of 100 and post dampening, a solid 80 out of 100. This is purely my opinion based on songs I listen to (Future, Kodak Black, Don Toliver, Nemzz, afro beats, Chris Brown, etc), and I would obviously love even more low end, which would only be possible with a subwoofer (maybe in the near future?). But for now the sound stage is perfect and clarity is more than satisfactory. Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
