i think there is a tipping point where you can insulate yourself too much and disconnect from the driving experience in a negative way yes. I wouldn't want to go any further than i have for that very reason myself.

When you have 2 and one is noisier than the other, it does drive a certain amount of curiosity. Aside from soundproofing materials, it should also be mentioned about the impact a quiet set of tyres can have.

absolutely :) . As for tyres, best I know of are those dunlop blue response ones. I think its about 67 or 68db is the figuire they quote - lowest I can find, and pretty reasonable price too. fantastic proposition. Any better recommendations anyone has I'd be interested to hear, but cost vs refinement I can't see a better game in town

Cant help there. I am running the same dunlop blue responses as well. Marvellous tyres, transformed the road noise for the better

We purchased a new memory foam mattress then didn't like it.
As no one else wanted it I cut it up to get rid of it but I struck on the idea of using the base material, not the rather thin memory foam to insulate the boot area of my V6
It certainly made a difference. I first removed the boot liners then tailored the thick material into place before re fitting the liners.

I intend doing a similar job on my XF as earlier this year the missus commented that it was much noisier than the 75 when travelling with the rear seat folded down.

If you do want foam, carpet underlay (e.g. Cloud 9 Nimbus) is probably the cheapest way to do it.

your car is quiet.... as you constantly say in these type of threads, good for you..... a LOT of ours aren't.....

Including my cdti.

Logically the debate about noise has to start from some sort of datum line. So whose car is going to be used as the base to work from? And what sort/amount/location of sound proofing does it have fitted?

Just trying to point out that noise is, like beauty, in the ear of the beholder (rather than the eye) innit... :Snow:
...

My case is that the datum line was my old Rover 420sdi. I got the 75 and was delighted with it.......for 13 years. Then got the second one, and it was noticably noisier so i simply set about trying to make it as quiet as the first.

I would say i have taken it 95% of the way and am very happy also with the second car now, but there is still something, and i suspect it to be the doors.

As i had material left over from car 2, i didnt see any harm on using it around the boot on car 1, but as I said it didnt make much difference that time. That is probably because that car does have 3 silencers so there wasnt so much boom from the back box to deaden in the first place.

I have reached the point that car 2 is a little but noisier than car 1, but not really noisy enough for me to make the effort to take all the door panels off again to put sound deadener in, although at some point i may need to replace the lock motor, so if i do i will give it a try.

I guess what i am saying is that for 13 years I agreed with you. If i had only ever driven the second car i would have agreed with you as well. Its only because i had an exceptionally quiet one, then one not so much that i got on to this track, and now have what i think are 2 quiet ones.

Like Jim's case, who would ever inagine a brand new Jag would be noisy? Well if they have had a quiet 75 previous to it then they would, and some of us just want a quiet life and a nagging curiousity to know why things sound different.

I have been in 3 cars of various late models recently with distinctly noisy wheel bearings, and sat there thinking of the drivers, "cant you hear that racket?" But they were oblivious to it, so again as you say sound is in the ear of the beholder. Agreed.