Is it me or the Harman Kardon subwoofers are WEAK? (GT2)

[RedStinger]

I keep reading online there are supposed to be 2 subwoofers under the front seats but I hear nothing come out of them. Using the same MP3's in the same USB drive I used in the Mustang I traded in, there is practically no bass. I used to blast Guns N' Roses in the Mustang and the whole car shook with the songs but in the Stinger the sound is so pathetic I rather listen to podcasts. I even put my ear to the seats and heard nothing come out of them.

Is it a setting somewhere that I'm supposed to enable to power them up or something?

 

[yesitsakia]

Yes the subs are really weak and there's no button make them louder.

 

[Danny_O]

I'm in agreement, the subwoofers are very under powered but they do work even though you don't hear anything from them.

 

[RedStinger]

I'm in agreement, the subwoofers are very under powered but they do work even though you don't hear anything from them.

Well, not good enough.

Adding this to my list of mods.

 

[mldavis2]

??? I had to turn mine down a couple notches for a realistic balance. It is a very good system, but not if you think good bass is rattling the windows and the spare tire in the trunk. Check your speaker balance again because some owners are reporting that the fader shifts to the back and sticks there. One owner is an audiophile and made a sound spectrum of the speaker system which clearly shows good bass. The subs in the HK crossover at 70db so there is probably a lot of music that has either lost part of the audio spectrum with compression, or never had it to begin with.

You kids someday will regret playing your music at 120db when you're wearing hearing aids.

 

[DBurd]

They are true subwoofers, as in frequency response 70hrtz and below. They actually work quite well when the system is balanced properly. Most people are familiar with classic ?3-way? speakers that have a tweeter for treble, then a ?driver? for midrange sound, and then a larger ?driver? for the bass frequencies. In those types of speakers the woofer will produce a wide range of the low frequency spectrum sounds including, the ?kick? from a drum, the pluck of the bass string, the sustained and punchy bass from a synthesizer, etc. Each of the doors in the Stinger has a three way speaker configuration, (12 in total) 1 ?sub?woofer under each front seat )2 in total) and the center channel speaker on the dash, which is used for different signal processing effects (quantum logic), making up the 15 speakers.
That said I find that this car has the absolute best stock audio system I have yet to hear in a car. The bass pushes and drives much heavier than I would have expect from even a high end manufacturer such as Harmon K. Make sure the fader is not pushed all the way to the back, it?s a quirk that happens, not sure why yet. Regarding the mustang, are you referring to the ?shaker? sound system. I?m not trying to be offensive, but man that was a ?loud? but completely unrefined system. The first time I heard it I remember thinking how upset I would be if I had spent the $2k to get that ?upgrade?. With all this in mind, true audiophiles of times before would never spend money to buy a higher end system from the manufacturer. They were all way to expensive, and were out-performed buy aftermarket sound systems. In the last 10 years there has been a shift in the higher end market towards much more professionally sounding and performing ?stock? audio systems. Keep messing with the tone settings, quantum logic, fader settings, etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RedStinger]

They are true subwoofers, as in frequency response 70hrtz and below. They actually work quite well when the system is balanced properly. Most people are familiar with classic ?3-way? speakers that have a tweeter for treble, then a ?driver? for midrange sound, and then a larger ?driver? for the bass frequencies. In those types of speakers the woofer will produce a wide range of the low frequency spectrum sounds including, the ?kick? from a drum, the pluck of the bass string, the sustained and punchy bass from a synthesizer, etc. Each of the doors in the Stinger has a three way speaker configuration, (12 in total) 1 ?sub?woofer under each front seat )2 in total) and the center channel speaker on the dash, which is used for different signal processing effects (quantum logic), making up the 15 speakers.
That said I find that this car has the absolute best stock audio system I have yet to hear in a car. The bass pushes and drives much heavier than I would have expect from even a high end manufacturer such as Harmon K. Make sure the fader is not pushed all the way to the back, it's a quirk that happens, not sure why yet. Regarding the mustang, are you referring to the ?shaker? sound system. I'm not trying to be offensive, but man that was a ?loud? but completely unrefined system. The first time I heard it I remember thinking how upset I would be if I had spent the $2k to get that ?upgrade?. With all this in mind, true audiophiles of times before would never spend money to buy a higher end system from the manufacturer. They were all way to expensive, and were out-performed buy aftermarket sound systems. In the last 10 years there has been a shift in the higher end market towards much more professionally sounding and performing ?stock? audio systems. Keep messing with the tone settings, quantum logic, fader settings, etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It wasn't like the Mustang vibrated violently with the Shaker audio system but playing something like "You'll be mine" the battery solo would have this nice "kick" to it with every percussion. I just don't hear that with the Stinger. For sure I'm not an audiophile that can hear every range of the spectrum but damnit when I'm playing rock I want my heart to vibrate with the sound! Refinement is the last word I want to use to describe my sound system when it comes to loud rock.

I'll check the fader setting.

 

[RedStinger]

??? I had to turn mine down a couple notches for a realistic balance. It is a very good system, but not if you think good bass is rattling the windows and the spare tire in the trunk. Check your speaker balance again because some owners are reporting that the fader shifts to the back and sticks there. One owner is an audiophile and made a sound spectrum of the speaker system which clearly shows good bass. The subs in the HK crossover at 70db so there is probably a lot of music that has either lost part of the audio spectrum with compression, or never had it to begin with.

You kids someday will regret playing your music at 120db when you're wearing hearing aids.

"Kids"? We're probably around the same age. Guns 'n roses didn't give you a clue?

But yeah I do listened to compressed MP3's. I never had to worry about lossy audio formats with other cars but I guess the Stinger is going to be picky like that. I'll try again with FLAC formatted songs.

 

[mldavis2]

"Kids"? We're probably around the same age. Guns 'n roses didn't give you a clue?

Try 74. Bill Haley and the Comets ring a bell? Didn't think so ....

 

[kamauxx]

You kids someday will regret playing your music at 120db when you're wearing hearing aids.

That's a joke right? I mean even if it isn't it is...

Try 74.

And with that SO much has been explained.

 

[RedStinger]

Try 74. Bill Haley and the Comets ring a bell? Didn't think so ....

Damn. Okay, fine you win.

Anyway going back to the car, I errr.... procured FLAC versions of some songs and played them this morning. they sounded about the same, even though, for example, the You Could be Mine MP3 is like 3MB and the FLAC is 120. Still, I put my hand to the subwoofer under the driver's seat and it was dead. I checked the sound settings and they look good. In short, it has ZERO bass!

I'll give the Stinger a couple months of testing to make sure the brake system doesn't malfunction again then will probably replace the two subwoofers with ones that actually work plus an amp. Until then, nothing but podcasts. Speaking of, any No Agenda listeners?

 

[mldavis2]

[MENTION=732]RedStinger[/MENTION], did you check the fader setting to make sure it didn't default to the back? No subs back there and it seems to be a bug in some cars. When you use Reverse, there is an optional setting that pushes the sound to the rear (I guess they assumed you would turn your head to look behind you, but then why do that if you have a backup camera and rear warning system....) Sometimes the fader must get stuck to the rear which effectively disables sound to the subs. Mine work just fine in the GT2 but there have been several reports otherwise.

 

[OmyStinger]

The more I listen to the system in my gt2 I feel like the subs are not working. The door speakers are so good that they compensate for the missing sub. I have faded it many different ways to see if I can feel it working with my hands and (butt) lol. Nothing works to make me believe it?s working. The super low bass is never good because all I hear is the mids in the doors. If I am alone on this feeling I will wave it alone but if not I?m going to the dealership.

 

[Marc Collins]

The more I listen to the system in my gt2 I feel like the subs are not working. The door speakers are so good that they compensate for the missing sub. I have faded it many different ways to see if I can feel it working with my hands and (butt) lol. Nothing works to make me believe it?s working. The super low bass is never good because all I hear is the mids in the doors. If I am alone on this feeling I will wave it alone but if not I?m going to the dealership.

Step 1 - resist playing with equalizer-like settings that do nothing but distort the original recordings
Step 2 - ensure the faders are set to dead centre and leave them there permanently...any movement from dead centre distorts the original recording and may mess with the bass/sub cross-over
Step 3 - avoid MP3s, Sirius, HD Radio, AM, or any other substandard, crap quality format designed for the musically illiterate...get FLAC or other lossless sources and obviously you need to play through USB, not Bluetooth (sorry, I didn't decide to abandon CD's, others did)
Step 4 - remember that subwoofers are directionless - you should not be able to tell where the bass is coming from if it's working properly
Step 5 - if the bass is still inadequate, you have something else wrong, because the bass response is very good as [MENTION=456]mldavis2[/MENTION] reported

I think the reason you are hearing the bass from the doors is because those drivers are directional...so you can tell bass is coming from them, but it is likely being supplemented by the directionless bass from the sub. The door speakers are not that good by themselves

If you try a good quality source and still think the bass is not there, you could deploy the paper test. While not driving, place a sheet of paper over the sub and then put on your best bass piece of music. The paper should be moved by the pressure from the bass...if it doesn't move at all, then maybe your subs are disconnected.

 

[mldavis2]

A lot depends on the source. The crossover frequency of the subs is 70db and a lot of music does not go that low because it is designed for being used in cheap car systems.

 

[OmyStinger]

I will try that thank you!

 

[Texas Stinger]

Glad I found this post. When I play anything on SiriusXM, the bass is AMAZING!!!!

But, if I try FM radio, usb iTunes, usb Pandora or Amazon Streaming there is zero bass.

Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated. I want everything to sound like the Sirius radio stations but haven?t figured out how to achieve it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KamikazeGT]

Glad I found this post. When I play anything on SiriusXM, the bass is AMAZING!!!!

But, if I try FM radio, usb iTunes, usb Pandora or Amazon Streaming there is zero bass.

Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated. I want everything to sound like the Sirius radio stations but haven?t figured out how to achieve it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think it's the quality of the streaming service. The music sounds much better if you use the paid version of Spotify.

 

[RedStinger]

Glad I found this post. When I play anything on SiriusXM, the bass is AMAZING!!!!

But, if I try FM radio, usb iTunes, usb Pandora or Amazon Streaming there is zero bass.

Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated. I want everything to sound like the Sirius radio stations but haven?t figured out how to achieve it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow I tested this and the sound system is WAY better with XM than any other music source connected to the car. What kind of BS is that? They did so we pay for XM sub? Going to have to find a way to remove the gimping of non-XM music or replace the stereo (if it's even possible)

 

[MurlinatoR]

Wow I tested this and the sound system is WAY better with XM than any other music source connected to the car. What kind of BS is that? They did so we pay for XM sub? Going to have to find a way to remove the gimping of non-XM music or replace the stereo (if it's even possible)

It's not a radio issue. It's because of the frequency loss with other music formats. If you rip your music in a lossless format and play it through the USB or AUX jack from your device, you'll find the low frequency quality to be good as well. Any time you're pulling airwaves or data you will lose the low and high ends.