I wonder if any of you experience what i do with my new subwoofers. The thing is that they seem much louder when i have the front windows down and also have more sound to them but when i do close the windows its more like that u only feel it and yea u do hear it but not as much, its quite a difference in sound output actually.
Why that is happening i really dont know if anything it should be louder, I have two 12" in a sealed box firing to the back of the trunk.

wonder if anybody else experienced anything like that or knows whats happening and how i can fix it, maybe a different type of a subwoofer...

 

whats your amp frequency set to

is you subs facing your trunk lid

do you have the back seat or the arm rest down



some how your almost backwards on your sound pressure levels.

 

i have them crossed at 100 hz lp/hp with a 36db slope for the subs and 24 for the mids. I do have the armrest down but it doesnt help much ...

 

and yea they are facing the trunk lid but it shouldnt matter cause they are in a sealed box

 

them facing the trunk lid makes a huge difference.....its all about sound pressure and when your subs are facing the trunk lid, the sound waves actually "build" on top of themselves. you should have your subs set to around 80 on LOW PASS. people turn the high pass on alll day long because it "sounds" louder but its really just allowing more frequencies through your mids should be set around 100 120 HIGH PASS, or FULL. everyones ears and preferences are different, the only thing i can think is that your mids are being "drowned" out from the wind, or the the cabin air pressure is not at dense as your windows closed. i dont know man, its just one of those things id have to hear and see for myself.... let me know what comes of it, if you have anymore question gimme a shout.

 

I have this exact same issue. At first I thought I was just hearing things, but after numerous tests, the bass is definitely deeper with the windows down.

I have a sealed 10" sub in a fiberglass box behind the passenger side wheel well. At first I tought it was because my speaker is firing to the side, because I didn't notice this problem when I had a sealed 12" sub in facing the rear.

BukvaMan, did you remove the stock sub? I did, and I was wondering if that has something to do with it.

 

yea i have removed the stock sub thinking to have more air come inside the cabin wich didnt make much difference then i even tryed with the armrest down on the backseat to have more of that sound come in and yea when i do turn up the volume u can feel the air being forced through that opening but somehow it doesnt seem to me that is loud enough for what it does to subs like if they were working really hard to achive what they do.......

and yea when i have the windows down the subs sound so much deeper and have a kind of subwoofer sound to them but with windows closed its not there anymore as if if u put trebble down all the way...

i would really love to hear somebodys else system since i have never been able to compare it....

 

Well, I have had four different setups in the car.

1. The stock sub, which had the opposite problem. As soon as I opened the windows it seemed like what little bass there was went right out.

2. An Elemental Designs 8" sub in the stock location. The speaker was just too deep to fit properly, so I couldn't hear the window effect.

3. A JL Audio 12" sub in a sealed box. This came out of my old CL and was my first aftermarket system in the TL. The bass was great, but the box took up too much space. The speaker was facing the rear and the stock sub was still in place.

I never noticed a problem with the sound, whether the windows were up or down. This system always beat pretty hard, with good lows.

4. The current, side-facing sealed 10" Elemental Designs sub in a fiberglass box. I initially had problems with the amp cutting out. Once I finally got the system tuned, I started to notice the "window effect." The stock sub was removed.


I have a few theories on what might be the problem.

1. The amp might be improperly set.
2. The removed stock sub may have changed the acoustics.
3. When the windows are up, the sound reflects in a way that causes destructive interference at the driver position. This is similar to the way you can hear a difference in the bass when you sit up or lean back in your seat. One way to test this is to sit in different seats with the windows up and down to see if there's a difference.

I'm going to try to test these this weekend. I'm still not happy with the tuning of the system, so I'm going to play with that too.

 

i would put the factory sub back in and close your arm rest. just leave the factory sub un-hooked, like i was saying earlier the subs turn your trunk into a box almost if you want to think of it that way...i guess it all depends on how you want your sound. the sealed box is alot different then a ported or a bandpass.

i dont have the problem for some reason. but ive spent countless hours setting my equipment up, and i get paid to do it, ha ha.

just keep playing with it and see what you can find.

 

im also right below you in raleigh
NC so if your ever running through hit me up.

 

I just had my JL Audio 12" installed 3 days ago (thru LOC)... slot ported box, and left the stock sub in (disconnected it). Mine hits fine...sometimes too hard (LOL). Rear armrest closed, sub facing away from the backseat, and again, it hits. My only problem is that the box takes up quite a bit of trunk space.

Anyone thought about/have done a stock sub replacement? With either a Kicker SSMB8 or JL 8w3v2?

 

I notice the EXACT same thing with just the stock sub. That stock sub doens't hit that hard, but def. hits MUCH harder when the front windows are down even just 3 inches...make a very noticable difference. The TL is very tighly sealed, hence the quite ride (except for the rattles) I believe opening the windows is almost like the difference between a sealed box and a ported box.
You're not crazy, I have noticed it for a while! When its nice its the perfect excuse to crack the windows...

 

its called compression.

 

can i do anything about it to fix that kind of a problem now....

 

i would recomend dynamat, i love the stuff.

when you allow air pressure into the cabin of car, your turning your car into a large box if you can imagine, and when you open the windows, you can look at them as vents almost.

the same effect of a bandpass box using the amount of space in a trunk to turn it into a larger box, i know it sounds crazy but thats what its doing,

by using dynamat you will reduce distortion, wich kills alot of your sound to begin with, but if you put enough in there and in the right spots, youll see a huge difference in the whole quality of sound, i would highly recomend your doors as well. it makes your doors seel alot better-> less road noise = less distortion which then you hear alot more sound. it will be a little costly but well worth it.
i was thinking of something completely diffrent.
Hope this helps...

 

i remember somewhere on here, a guy repaced it with a kicker shallow sub, dont know if it made a big difference, but he kinda did a diy on it, just search it.

i thought about doing it myself, but the frequency response and overall sound quality would be the same, and im guessing there would be alot if rattle. and you would have the same problem with the the sound being louder with windows down IMO

 

*correction* ^ it would NOT be the same

 

Every car with every type of sub setup I've ever been in has been louder with the windows down. It's normal. Probably more so in newer cars that are more airtight.

 

Like other's have mentioned...I notice this with the stock sub. It's funny you mention it, because just yesterday I was sitting in traffic for an hour (like I do every day on the way to work, haha) and I had the windows down. The sub was actually noticable! I was suprised...I actually thought to myself...was it not working until now?! Now that you mention it, I'm sure it's the window thing...

 

i put that stuff everywhere!....strategically though not jus throwing it up all over the place.....

 

if u ask me the better the positions of the sound deadening material the louder and more focused the music gets

 

I agree, some weird fluke thing I guess. Besides, dont you want your windows down anyone? Show off that sh*t!