I am familiar with the 96 since I have owned it for about 5 years and the
2004's since my g/f owns one that I drive frequently.

My 96 is quieter than her 04 but only because of what I did about 3 years
ago. I removed all the seats, carpeting, headliner, trunk lining pieces, and
all 4 door panels. I installed dynamat type of sound deadening material all
over and used spray adhesive to glue down foam to the flooring. I installed
dynamat on the backside of all of the doors and plastic bubble wrap on all
the doors behind the panels for wind noise. I put dynamat on the roof panel
under the headliner.

The doors shut more solid, the radio sounded instantly better with more rich
sound (with just stock speakers and radio) and the road noise is very low.
I have a decibel meter but haven't used it yet while driving. There is
hardly a car I get into that is quieter.

If you have cupped or oddly worn tires, or cheap tires that can be a huge
contributor to road noise.

The 04 has way too much road noise for a new car as far as I am concerned.
It really drowns out the stock radio to the point that it is not enjoyable
to listen to the radio while driving and turning it up just makes the radio
sound like ****. I am not talking about distortion or treble bass controls
the radio sound just sucks on the 04 lx models.



"R. P." > wrote in message
...
> I find the road noise in my '94 Accord pretty deafening while driving
> on a typically worn highway. Are the newer models any better? Does any
> particular model stand out in shutting out the road noise from the
> passengers?
>
> Rudy