Do leather seats increase road noise?
Discussion
Having been in semi stripped out cars both before and after the strip it's crazy how much more road noise there is from all the hard surfaces! My Ibiza FR suffers a bit with road noise and got me wondering whether going for one with leather seats has accentuated this or not. There's probably naff all in it, but wondered if anyone out there has two identical cars with different seat trim and a sound meter kicking around might be up for doing an experiment? I imagine most of you do 
E65Ross said:
Errr, can't see how? Less surface area? How would the surface area of a seat impact road noise which largely comes from wind noise and tyre noise?
Road noise can still enter your ears through the air and if it's not being soaked up by a material with a larger surface area (fuzzier) than leather it's going to be louder.As he said above though, unlikely that anyone other than Batfink would be able to tell.
E65Ross said:
Errr, can't see how? Less surface area? How would the surface area of a seat impact road noise which largely comes from wind noise and tyre noise?
The noise arrives in the cabin passed any sound deadening and the waves are then reflected or absorbed depending on what they hit/bounce off. E65Ross said:
Errr, can't see how? Less surface area? How would the surface area of a seat impact road noise which largely comes from wind noise and tyre noise?
Sound absorbing materials are usually more flexible, textured & porous. Fabric seats are a lot closer to representing that sort of material than leather which are harder and have much less surface area.If you've ever been in an acoustic chamber which is lined with soft sound absorbing tiles, it's quite a surreal experience as the sound your hear in there only comes from the point of source instead of rebounding around. It's really really wierd!
An example of the opposite to this which might be more familiar is when you've taken all the furniture out of a room in your house for decorating. It's a very noticeable difference with the extra sound reverberation around an empty room.
VeeFource said:
Having been in semi stripped out cars both before and after the strip it's crazy how much more road noise there is from all the hard surfaces! My Ibiza FR suffers a bit with road noise and got me wondering whether going for one with leather seats has accentuated this or not. There's probably naff all in it, but wondered if anyone out there has two identical cars with different seat trim and a sound meter kicking around might be up for doing an experiment? I imagine most of you do
Yes, the difference can be quite noticeable.sleep envy said:
DonkeyApple said:
In theory it has to as it has a lower surface area etc. whether it's perceptible to anyone other than Batfink I have no idea.
What do you mean by 'less surface area'?
DonkeyApple said:
sleep envy said:
DonkeyApple said:
In theory it has to as it has a lower surface area etc. whether it's perceptible to anyone other than Batfink I have no idea.
What do you mean by 'less surface area'?sleep envy said:
DonkeyApple said:
sleep envy said:
DonkeyApple said:
In theory it has to as it has a lower surface area etc. whether it's perceptible to anyone other than Batfink I have no idea.
What do you mean by 'less surface area'?VeeFource said:
E65Ross said:
Errr, can't see how? Less surface area? How would the surface area of a seat impact road noise which largely comes from wind noise and tyre noise?
Sound absorbing materials are usually more flexible, textured & porous. Fabric seats are a lot closer to representing that sort of material than leather which are harder and have much less surface area.If you've ever been in an acoustic chamber which is lined with soft sound absorbing tiles, it's quite a surreal experience as the sound your hear in there only comes from the point of source instead of rebounding around. It's really really wierd!
An example of the opposite to this which might be more familiar is when you've taken all the furniture out of a room in your house for decorating. It's a very noticeable difference with the extra sound reverberation around an empty room.
_Neal_ said:
Smooth surface vs not as smooth, but the fabric itself covers the same area.
He means the actual surface area (of the surface) and once you get down to that sort of scale there's a massive difference. Sort of similar to how you can get up to 100 square meters of surface area within an adult human lung.zebra said:
Anechoic.
Correct, we just used to call it acoustic as that's what we used ours for at my old work.Edited by VeeFource on Tuesday 26th November 18:17
I can't believe someone who calls themself an engineer could seriously ask this.
Absolutely in no way, will a leather interior make a noticeable difference to the perceived road noise while driving. If road noise is an issue then change your tyres or don't remove all the sound proofing from your car.
Absolutely in no way, will a leather interior make a noticeable difference to the perceived road noise while driving. If road noise is an issue then change your tyres or don't remove all the sound proofing from your car.
VeeFource said:
Having been in semi stripped out cars both before and after the strip it's crazy how much more road noise there is from all the hard surfaces! My Ibiza FR suffers a bit with road noise and got me wondering whether going for one with leather seats has accentuated this or not.
Couldn't say but folding the rear one down improves acceleration.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff