It seems like our trunks are sealed extra tight or something. I have a stage 3 punch 15" in a ported box currently and at low volumes you just can't hear that bish...especially if you are listening to any type of music that doesn't have alot of bass. My h/u has a three stage loudness selector and I keep it on the lowest setting. It seems like the music doesn't sound over-bassed with the loudness on until I have it above half power. At high volume the sub is pretty loud and clear. BTW I have 400 watts RMS going to it, which isn't anything to brag about but it should be enough to do the trick anyway. I know the sub isn't the best but it isn't garbage either. In old cars I have had it seemed like I didn't have to use the loudness button as much as in this car and that was with lower quality subs.

 

loudness should only be used to compensate for the human ears inability to hear good highs/bass at low volumes. most good loudness buttons completey shutoff at around 3/4 volume. ive never used loudness and i never will.

 

I never used it until I got this car.

 

My loudness is set on high. That's so way I don't have to turn the volume know too much to get it loud.

 

4th Gen trunks are far from being "sealed extra tight", without a lotta help. I don't know how the 97-99 trunks are, but my 96 trunk b/t inner tailights flexes a lot.

 

By "sealed extra tight" I just meant that the bass gets trapped in there somewhat. At least on my system I have a hard time hearing the sub at lower volumes without using loudness on the h/u. I have never had to use loudness before on any other sedan I have had. I guess I could crank the bass boost on the amp but that would probably not be a good way to solve the problem.

 

Ok...i c whatcha meen. Personally i have always used my loudness on my h/u. I also always keep my bass at 0, and my sub level on my h/u is always set low also. To me the loudness makes the music sound more "full". If I were u I would play around with it until u figure out what sounds good 2 u.

 

hmmm could be sub positioning. try placing all the way in the front ofthe trunk (the part of the trunk more towards the front of the car) with the subs facing back...that will generally give best in car responce i beleive. if i can find the link...this guy did some extensive testing with this....figureing out why with certian sup postionings it would be louder in car with the trunk open than closed. etc etc etc...

oh, also, if yo ucan fold your back seat down...

 

DO NOT USE THE LOUDNESS FEATURE AT HIGH VOLUMES....

the loudness feature will do nothing but cause extensive clipping, expecially at higher volumes. it is to be avoided like 18dB bass boost or the black pleague, which ever is worse to you (if you are a true audiophile 18dB bass boost is the worser of the two)

 

That's pretty funny.

 

Some headunits automatically turn off "loudness" at a certain volume.

 

I have 2 agree about the bass boost. I do like to be able to adjust that and my crossover from my front seat. It is usable...like loudness...at time, but most people can figure out when they don't need it.

 

I don't use it at anymore than about 1/3 volume. My bass boost on the amp is set at about 1/3 too. If I turn the boost up a good amount this problem of no bass at low volumes goes away. But since it is centered at 45hz I am worried that turning up the boost past 1/3 would make it sound unnatural so I keep it low.

 

My box is too big to position that way. It has to sit where the woofer and the port are firing toward the top of the trunk. I dunno...maybe the sub isn't efficient enough or something. The amp is an old RF 200X2 so I know it is getting at least the 400 wrms in mono that the amp is supposed to give. Maybe that isn't enough for me? It always seemed to work fine in the past and I have had it hooked up to several different subs in several different configurations.