Maxmat Showcase 2007

From one of the most audiophile-savvy distributors in the business: a new, more cost effective, quality sound deadening material.
Instructions for use: For information on the stuff they make and an overview of the whole range. Check out the main article. For showing off in public how much you know about the stuff and the brand. Read Instant Expert section first. Otherwise skip straight to the meat and potatoes.

Mobile electronics expert Andy Hefft has worked with car audio legends Bob Hobson and Barry Copeland since before they were even the young whipper-snappers who set up their own distribution company while running their ‘Prestige’ shop in Rayners Lane, north London. It was called BBG as in Bob, Baz, Gordy Distribution. The shop was already doing installs for rising footballers and their girlfriends, back when Victoria was called Adams not Beckham. So they were getting famous fast, way back then. These days Gordon runs BBG, while Prestige and AVHQ are the two in-car and home cinema arms of Bob & Baz’s highly successful and award-winning business in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. They have won two consecutive Home Cinema Choice Best Install of the year awards for their 5.1 cinema room installations and Bob himself was a legendary Sound Off hero, going all the way back to Bristol docks days before the shop was set up. One thing that’s not known generally – Bob was the inspiration behind ‘Jim Gentry, mild mannered audio engineer’ who turned into Boomzilla (who looked a little like Ian ICEMAN Pinder) in the old-school cartoon strips I used to produce with a chum in Car Stereo & Security Magazine! (He also enjoys a good thumping bass line) As well as stalwarts like Heffty, they also used to employ living legend installer Paul Richardson (Installer of the Year with the trade mag I work for and now with his own operation) and still work with star installer Nigel ‘Professor’ Vaughan, who freelances for them. If you get a job at Prestige – you are the best. Max Mat is the AVHQ answer to the more famous sound deadening stuff with the bigger price tag.

The 2007 Range.Many years ago, I had to build a rehearsal studio in what looked like a crypt. We used a consultancy firm called Eastlake, who design studios all over the world. I also once toured with a genius musician who knew awesome amounts of stuff and I asked him to tell me about ‘soundproofing’. He spent the next three hundred kilometres of autobahn telling me about the difference between sound treatment and transference. One is about acoustics, the other is about isolation. So I’m full of stuff about shear stress and absorption coefficients, which is heavy duty acoustic science. That’s where this stuff comes in. In our cars, we get rattles and resonances because they are made of metal and move. The posher the car, the closer you get to what they call ‘splendid isolation’ that happens when you shut the door of a double glazed car or one with lots of sound deadening in it, like a Bentley.
As you know, adding sound deadening material to the inside of an installed car is usually the most cost-effective upgrade in terms of sound benefits you can do. The only issues are cost and how hard it is and so how long it takes to stick it to a panel with a heat gun. Lots of this stuff has come in previously from the USA and so we needed to pay freight costs on weighty bitumen-based stuff. This new line, Max Mat, sold by Bob Hobson and the guys at AVHQ is sourced with far less food miles and so costs you guys less. They have priced it very competitively and are very keen to let you know how super-sticky it is and how you can slap it on a panel to stick forever without a heat gun (unless you are using the really thick stuff) without even needing to worry about dusty panels or check for any grime other than actual oil.
It comes as ‘Max Pro’ which is foil backed, in packs of 4 or 8 sheets for an SRP of £23 and £45 respectively, or for a better trade price in workshop bulks of 70 sheets, each 450x300mm. It is the thick foil backed equivalent of ‘Extreme’ stuff from the most famous brand. Next, is the selection of three-layer products. Made to absorb a wider frequency range, they are called Max Expert, Max Extreme and Max Ultimate. They are sold in different amounts, so as to keep the retail pack prices similar. Expert is 4.2Kg per square metre and has a cloth layer and is 3mm thick; Extreme is the same synthetic mastic, then bitumen, then foil layer and is 4mm thick and weighs 5.8kg per square metre and the monster gear is Ultimate, at 5mm and 6kg per square metre. This means one layer will do the job of two of another product in half the time.
There are other products, too, like Panel Pad, which is for deadening big panels of higher frequency buzzes and Acoustic Barrier Material and even a foil backed bonnet liner. They have the range, the super stickiness and the price.

 Product rated from heavy duty all the way up to state of the art

 Variety of products in easy to understand packaging and applications

 Easiest brand of all sound deadening mats to fit

 Basic ‘Max Pro’ is like ‘extreme’ product from the leading brand – foil backed

 Heavier gauge foil used than other brands for better absorption

 New tri-laminate absorptive composite construction on the top three products

 From 4.2kG/M2 to 6Kg/M2, so dual layers are not needed to get thickness

 From 2mm to 15mm thick Acoustic Barrier Material for overlaying large panels

 Sheets sizes in 450mm x 300mm & 1.25M2, most products need no heat gun to fit

For more information, contact Andy Hefft at AVHQ on 01923 777 994 or e-mail [email protected] website: www.avhq.co.uk