Foam rings.. Fast Rings

Has anybody else tried fast rings or roadkill brand foam inserts?
I’m considering buying these. I recently upgraded all of my speakers to kicker. One thing I am thinking about is the Crutchfield adapter plates make my speakers about an inch closer to the door panel. Will this allow the foam rings to do their job and extend the foam barrier from the back of the speaker to the outer door panel? And how effective these will be if not?
Also peoples experience with installation and if they had to modify them.

 

The only thing these do is perhaps help with decoupling. They try to convince you that these channel the sound waves into the cabin and keep them out of the door cavity between the card and skin. While it's a nice idea, open-cell foam doesn't work like that. If that's your goal, visit HD or some other home improvement store and find some closed-cell foam like weather sealer or garage door seal & make some out of that stuff. These will work for channeling if compressed enough to close the cells and actually make a seal, but only if the gap you're tying to close is narrow enough for the foam to compress significantly.

You can prove it to yourself. Go find a set of these in the store and make a note of the foam type. You probably have a bit of it lying around the house - maybe in some packaging. Now find some source of sound - maybe a speaker. Move it back and forth in front of your ear and see how much difference it makes. Better yet, if you have a good mic, try it with a spectrum analyzer. The vast majority of the sound will pass right through it. The same happens in your truck doors.

These are not going to satisfactorily hush backwaves either. It will possibly help a little given the thickness, but if our auto interiors, which are full of foam, are not able to tackle reflections then why should you think a tiny little slice in a car door will? There are many techniques and materials proven to do this, but the claims that Stinger makes about this stuff are grossly exaggerated.

Perhaps this helps illustrate my point. This microphone boot is made of the same type of foam





The foam acts as a windscreen to discourage turbulence, but intended waves (the audible spectrum) get right through.

 

As a car stereo installer, I completely vouch for fast rings (the 3 piece set.) I try to get all of my clients to let me install them because it makes a world of difference. My store doesn’t sell them and I don’t charge extra to install them so it’s not like I’m making money from it.

 

I also use fast rings in most of my cars. They most definitely make a difference, especially on classic cars with huge voids in the door panels that are solid metal. They basically are a 3 piece gasket set. I’m all for debunking useless crap but these actually work and for a minimal investment. Using a good sound deadening mat behind the speaker will also help if you’re worried about it rattling the door.

 

I’m considering using audioseal or MLV. I’m not sure if this is what you’re talking about though, I do have a bit of rattling already up above my driver side 6 x 9. I was thinking of putting some DynaMat on that area of the inner door panel as well.

And thank you again! Direct experience with these is what I was looking for.

 

If you're sound deadening, install them... If you're not, don't bother with them.

 

I just used some Frost King weather stripping and layered it 2-3 times around the woofer. Same effect as the $50 Fast Rings (front and back) for like $6. This of course ignores the backwave improvement, if there is one at all with using Fast Rings. Made a significant difference in guiding the sound into the cabin vs into the door panel.

 

Road kill fast rings (the ones I prefer, 3 piece kit) are $17 on Amazon.

I have used just the front ring as well as the full 3 piece set. It’s a pretty good improvement in mid-bass when you use the full kit. And for $17 for a pair ($34 for the whole truck) it’s absolutely worth it.

 

Exactly what I bought. Thank you! Looking forward to this work in progress.