Saturday, January 3, 2009

2009 Honda Odyssey Approaches Luxury Ride and Cabin Isolation

The Odyssey utilizes a wide variety of technology, construction and space age materials to reduce road noise to the lowest levels available in the minivan segment. The Odyssey has the following features that address NVH:
-Floating front and rear subframes with rubber bushings (new on rear subframe)
-Advanced sound absorbing material lines majority of cabin (new material technology)
-Active Noise Control (exclusive to EX with Leather and Touring models)

To maximize gains derived from the Odyssey's stronger body, both the front and rear subframes of the current generation Odyssey have structural enhancements to improve ride and handling precision characteristics along with noise reductions. The points where the front and rear subframes attach to the body have rubber bushings, which help to isolate the effects of noise transmitted from road surfaces and bumps through the fully independent suspension.

Lightweight Soundproofing Material

The Honda Odyssey utilizes a new style of lightweight sound proofing material that reduces weight and absorbs more noise than traditional insulation. Traditional soundproofing material works by "insulating" the cabin from noise with a thick, heavy layer of foam padding (like carpet padding) on top of a layer of rubber meltsheet (and then adding an additional thin layer of meltsheet). The Odyssey still uses meltsheet, but the soundproofing material is comprised of a much thinner layer of lightweight sound absorbing substrate that "absorbs" sound rather than "insulates" or "reflects" it. This material can save more than 13.6 kg of weight compared traditional soundproofing material while providing higher sound deadening performance.

Active Noise Control (ANC)

Additional sound reduction is achieved through the Active Noise Control (ANC) system (on models with Variable Cylinder Management).

The Odyssey uses advanced technology to create one of the quietest automotive interiors on the road. Models equipped with the leather interior (which includes some EX models and the Touring model) have Active Noise Control (ANC). The ANC system uses a microphone at the front of the vehicle interior to create "anti-noise" through the audio system speakers. More specifically, the audio system analyzes the sound waves entering the cabin, and then instantaneously creates an opposite sound wave (anti-noise) to cancel the unwanted noise. This helps reduce interior engine noise that may occur during certain cycles with the Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) system on EX with Leather and Touring models. The system also reduces road noise and numerous other external sound factors. The end result is a superbly quiet cabin typical of vehicles in the pure luxury class of automobiles. The system will not counteract voices inside the cabin whether desired or not.

Source;
Honda Canada

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