Interior Sound Level Decibels Test -- Soft Top vs. Hard Top vs. No Top

[Bronco Buster Wayne]

People have said it helps tremendously with sound. Search post on this site.

https://store.dirtydog4x4.com/?route=product/product&path=139_150&product_id=640

Cool, thanks!!

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[Bronco Buster Wayne]

Cool, thanks!!

Wow, this looks great!! I might have to try this out!

 

[Bronco Buster Wayne]

People have said it helps tremendously with sound. Search post on this site.

https://store.dirtydog4x4.com/?route=product/product&path=139_150&product_id=640

Wow, this looks great! Might have to try this out! Can't get hurt too bad for $250!!

 

[Tex]

I don’t care for the thin looking rear roof caused by the seam. And the color makes the center and front panels look too tall. I can’t say I don’t like the hard top. Just not my favorite feature. If I had one or ever bought one, it would be painted white or black.

I get your point, but only because you circled the tops in red.
Never would've looked there to find the top you were referencing, I'm glad you pointed it out LOL

 

[Deleted member 44986]

For what it's worth, when I took delivery of my MIC hardtop Bronco, the wind noise was very, in my opinion, unacceptable. It was louder than any convertible I had ever driven in. Since adjusting the top (centering all the panels, tightening any gaps, and adding a turn or two to the latch hooks until they "felt" like they were very snug but not difficult to latch) and adjusting the windows to seat tighter / evenly (this made a big difference as my passenger front window was letting in a lot of air,) it is substantially quieter. In fact, now it's not much louder (if at all) than most lower end fixed roof vehicles I've owned or been in and (seemingly, as I haven't done any quantitative comparison) significantly quieter than any soft top bronco I've driven in.

 

[explorer4x4]

I think many have the sound deadening feature all wrong. I don’t believe a carpet material blocks external sounds much at all. It most likely is used to lesson echo and sound bouncing off the reflective surface of the hard top inside the vehicle.

My thoughts exactly, I’m putting wood flooring in a couple bedrooms in my house. Once the carpet is up it echos a ton. The same can be said for the hard top and soft tops. The hard top sound deadening is just absorbing. Just like the soft top is probably absorbing sound also. The biggest difference between the two would be what’s let it and out. The same goes for temperature and moisture.

 

[Murph914]

Just drove in my nephew’s 2018 JK softop. I t’s super close in noise to my 2 door hardtop. Going to see if I can tighten mine up a little bit. When I get back from this trip I’m going to take some of my own db measurements.

 

[FlyingScot]

I did a shit ton of sound proofing in my wildtrak.

The three things that made the most difference was the doors have ZERO sound proofing. And the seam at the top of the roof is like an echo chamber. And lastly the Goodyear's are garbage.

If you take care of the doors, (tailgate is a door), stuff some 1 inch foam along the roof, and get some better tires each of those things can net you 2-3 db.

Ditching the Goodyears was a "why didn't I do this sooner" moment. Had 12k mi on them (and yes, with regular rotations) and they overpowered the wind noise at absolutely every speed. With them gone its now easier to have conversations with my kiddos in the back seat and I don't have the radio turned up quite as much during the commute.

 

[Hossfire]

Here's the screenshot at the end of the video. I thought I saw some higher readings on the soft top than the MIC. Not sure whether Jorge was using the average at each speed or the lowest.

As some others have discussed, you have more ways to reduce noise in the MIC than the soft top. Neither top will ever be as quiet as a fully enclosed cabin (like the F150 or Expedition examples). Also, the Bronco has a more upright windshield and bigger tires.

I'm not bashing Jorge in particular, but there are plenty of people in the business of trying to convince us to settle for the soft top when the hard top is what we prefer. I just plainly like the look of the hard top. When you pay $60K+ for a vehicle, you shouldn't need to compromise. If I want a soft top in the future, Bestop makes (IMO) a better looking product.

 

[Hossfire]

Also, MIC at idle is likely just the level of wind noise at the test time.

 

[Billy Goat]

its really the sound of the wind your hearing in a ST vs a HT. Measurements should be similar because your also hearing the engine and tires which generally speaking are louder then wind noise. No options is "quiet" but a HT has less wind noise over a soft top and less environment noise bleed in the cabin. if that helps.

Nothing a badass radio won't take care of

 

[Chaos]

1db may not sound like much, but I remember from Navy sonar school that 3db is double the SPL (sound pressure level). So 1db is a 33 percent increase in sound pressure.

I have no idea if this is relevant to noise inside a car, but the military beat that formula into our heads so it’s got to mean something.

Exactly, decibels are not a simple linear scale. 1 db difference is actually quite a lot in general terms. Trying to judge or quantify differences between these tops with using sound meters is really not effective. I think as many have indicated the big differences are the ambient noise while stationary is much greater with a soft top. Moving down the road a soft top is a little noisier, but it is not up until around 50mph when the wind noise really starts to hit all the seams in the hard top. The hard top (not all tops are created equal, each and every top may have a seam or fit issue), is generally not much different than typical solid top vehicles (not necessarily a luxury vehicle, keeping in mind luxury vehicles have loads of door seals and sound deadening to provide a very quiet cabin) below 45 mph. Vehicles equipped with larger tires are a little to quite a noisier depending on the tire. Above 50 mphs cabin noise between a soft top and hard top is not wildly different, although in my experience cross winds are worse in the soft top, but both experience quite a bit of wind noise.

 

[darinhouston]

dB is only about 10% of the issue. I haven't read all the replies on this, but I think they're ignoring what some call psychoaustics and other factors - all sounds are not the same - timbre and frequency of the wind noise is VERY distracting and interferes more with things you "want" to hear in the normal hearing range than low rumbles at any amplitude.

 

[BroncoFanGirl]

(I couldn't watch the video)

Did the hardtop in the video have the sound deadening liner? So without it the hard top would be much louder than soft top?

Yes, it did have the sound deadening liner.

 

[robertgoulet]

i've got a floppy and generally am happy with the sound up until about 55-60mph. I would NEVER go over the speed limit but I'd guess if I did go over 65 it'd be a bit annoying, but only just. Not enough to complain about since it is a removable top, after all. Have to give something to get something.

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