sound dampening with lead?

has anyone tried this? I am told that the best way to reduce noise is to either dampen the sound or use something with a lot of density. any help would be good

That would be a bit much! Carpet ot motherboard foam are usualy enough to deaden case noise. I like mobo foam cuz its basicaly free, and no static problems.

yea, it'll also block any x/gamma rays that may come out of your CPU... :-D

Okay, motherboard foam is good, but I would be very concerned about using lead. It's toxic if you don't wash yourself after handling it, and is also pretty damn conductive.

Soy

I definatly wouldn't recommend lead sheeting. Something along the lines of a lead-wool blanket would be better as it's completly enclosed and somewhat lighter then pure lead sheeting of a comparable thickness.

As for using it in soundproofing...well, it's not that great to use in a computer case. It is pretty heavy and ,as such, it may cause chassis strain.


It's a good idea to visit this site to get some basic info and tips for sound proofing.

Not to mention that it would be a heavy as hell case.

i think lead sheeting is a excellent idea, along with some kind of asphalt product, ie iceguard for roofs. this is basically what dynamat is made of, or should be... they got new formulas, but the best one was some old school stuff made of rubberzed lead sheeting on one side and pliable asphalt on the other.. the rubberized lead sheeting can be sourced from medical supply places, its used for making lead jackets for radiatiology labs. the asphalt stuff is just called "iceguard" and can be found at home depot, menards, etc....

well I am told from my dad that he can get lead sheets from work so that would be free! so i fugure why not tyr it?

who the hell told you that denser materials are good for soundproofing???????

wtf????

sound travels much easier, and with less energy loss through denser objects.... e.g. sound travels faster through water than air, and faster through steel, than water.

air is the best sound insulater, and that is why foam is used as dampening.

material changes also cause an energy loss when vibrations (sound) are present, so foam, (little pockets of air... divided my rubber material) is the best sound insulator that is cheaply available.

whoever told you that dense materials were good for this purpose is full of ****.

An added bonus you forgot about.

You could hide Kyrptonite in it!

yes, so that all those kryptonite thieves would not get it!

or so that superman wouldn't run off with your case since he'd be the only one who could carry it...

picture courtesy of the people at soundproofing.org

This is a basic setup for soundproofing a generator. I guess you can tack on lead on the inside of the box.

well I am told the reason for using something dense ot dampen sound would be to prevent it from translating the vibration of course it depends on the type of vibrations that you want to prevent. i think high frequency noise would be damped more by dense materials than something soft.

if you dont think that something dense dampens sound why is it that when I close my case the computer is quieter?

if you dont think that something dense dampens sound why is it that when I close my case the computer is quieter?

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The sound isn't absorbed. It's just reflected by the case's hard surface.

snowmobile74 said:

if you dont think that something dense dampens sound why is it that when I close my case the computer is quieter?

Click to expand...

Because the sounds has to pass through air, then the material of your case, then through more air. It's all physics. Take a physics class that talks about sound and they'll tell you almost the same thing that MightyBuck is saying. His post reminded me of my physics classes. Sound is vibration and the denser a material is, the more particles are contained within a unit volume. Therefore, the more packed the particles are, the easier it is to transfer vibration from one particle to the next without much loss of vibration magnitude, but once you go from a more dense material to a less dense material, the vibration is forced to go slower because the less dense material has more empty space between particles that the vibration takes a bit longer to transfer between particles and vibration magnitude, which means that the sound will travel slower and die out faster.
Submarine radars work with "pinging" or using sounds reflected due to the fact that sound travels extremely fast in water and will not die out very fast. Remember: sound can be reflected because vibrations can go back and forth through materials/particles, hence echoing.

Soy

actually buck, there is no one product that will completely deaden sound. why you ask? well ill use some quotes and ellaborate where need be to explain...."Damper – by far the most common type of material. It uses mass loading to lower panel resonance and absorb structural vibrations, converting them into low level heat." they are talkin about asphalt here, thats what it does... it absorbs sound/vibration and turns it into heat (on a very minute scale), next we got "Absorber – as the name suggests, these products literally absorb airborne sound waves. The sound waves have to propagate through the absorber and the open/closed cell foam will slow it’s progress reducing the overall level in the process." this is a foam, like you were sayin. and last "Barrier – as the name suggest, these products form a barrier or wall, which blocks airborne noise from passing through. The denser the barrier, the more effective it is, which makes lead an excellent choice for a barrier" and this is the lead vinyl stuff i was talkin about. its stretchy kinda heavy rubber cloth.
so what that all means is that if you wanna truly deaden sound, and you are bent on doin a home job, then a layer of asphalt sheeting first to reduce case vibration. then a layer of the lead fabric to physicaly stop/block the sound waves, then a layer of like neoprene or some other dense foam for slowing/blocking initial sound, all very thin layers,.

Evil_Eye said:

The sound isn't absorbed. It's just reflected by the case's hard surface.

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That's partly true. Once the sound hits your case, it will be spread in every direction, including back to the source of the sound.

Soy

if you line the entire case with lead, you will also be protected from EMP (electro-magnetic pulse).

Also something to think about.

Physics class should have also enphasised the fact that sound waves are kinetic energy that are being transfered (in waves). Denser materials can absorb much more energy as well as reflect it better than less dense materials.