Lord Farquaad
Junior Member
I hope I can talk to someone who has specifically done this or knows someone who has. Regardless, any bit of advice you could possibly think of would be appreciated.
I have a 2019 Subaru Crosstrek Limited with the Harmon Kardon audio upgrade. No work has been done to it whatsoever. I am content with the way the system sounds with the ONE exception that when a song hits notes below 50 Hz, I don’t hear them. However, the songs that don’t have much below 50 Hz sound perfectly balanced to me on this system. In fact, 50 Hz itself hits hard enough already; the frequency response just drops off very steeply below that.
So, I want to expand the frequency range of this system downwards in a natural and pleasant way that will do justice to the range from 32-40 Hz without making the range from 50 Hz up sound any different than it currently does.
In other words, my goal: add the very, very bottom end of the spectrum to this system, purely additively, without subtracting anything from the current sound. I also want the sub to be hidden. I'm fine with removing the spare tire from my spare tire well to make room, unless there's a better place. Ballpark max budget: $1250, not including labor.
To accomplish my goal, I was thinking I would get some 12 inch sub, set the crossover super low, and not even bother high-passing the rest of the system since it naturally rolls off where the sub is going to begin anyways. I own a home stereo system where I’ve done something similar: Speakers that sounded good down to about 50 Hz and I didn’t have a way of high-passing them so I just set the sub crossover at the point where the speakers naturally rolled off. I’ve loved the way that system has sounded for years, so I also think I’d love it if I could do a similar thing with my car. I know there is less risk of blowing out the satellites if they’re high-passed but I don’t listen to music very loudly and I don’t think I’m personally at risk of doing that.
But there is much I don’t know. I don’t know which sub to get, where that sub should go (besides that it should be hidden), or any other details about what this installation requires.
I am probably going to go to a shop to have this done because I am horrible at DIY. Nonetheless, you might as well pretend I am doing it myself because I want to know as much as possible about the BEST way to go about doing this, so I can reiterate as much as I can to whoever does the job. (I’ve had numerous horrible experiences with car audio shops in the past and I really can’t have anyone screw this up.)
Here is one pitfall I’m aware of: This Harmon Kardon system might have some kind of fixed, factory equalization. If so, I would like to know what that EQ looks like, where in the signal chain it is applied, whether or not it’s volume-dependent, and if there’s any way to send the subwoofer a flat signal instead, especially if the factory EQ rolls off the lows. However, I will not accept the factory EQ being removed from the system entirely because that will change how the entire system sounds and would be counterproductive to my goal.
Now, it’s possible that a subwoofer, especially one covering such a small range of frequencies, might happen to sound good even with the factory EQ, but that’s an extremely risky gamble unless I have more information.
One more concern:
The left and right channels in my car are swapped for some reason. I don’t mind swapped channels if that’s the only problem with a system, but I fear this is a red flag that indicates other problems. Like, what if the lefts and rights were supposed to be phase aligned to the driver, but now the phase alignment is totally wrong because of the swapped channels? Or why are the left and right swapped in the first place? This system is supposedly stock. Why would it be wired wrong? It’s just a little concerning and I wonder if it should be fixed or left alone. If it’s fixed, I worry it won’t be fixed correctly. For instance, maybe this system does phase alignment, but it’s actually in phase when the lefts and rights are swapped because of where the swap happens in the signal chain, and when a shop swaps them back it’s actually going to ruin the phase alignment. It seems possible.
If you bothered to read all of this, thank you so much.
I have a 2019 Subaru Crosstrek Limited with the Harmon Kardon audio upgrade. No work has been done to it whatsoever. I am content with the way the system sounds with the ONE exception that when a song hits notes below 50 Hz, I don’t hear them. However, the songs that don’t have much below 50 Hz sound perfectly balanced to me on this system. In fact, 50 Hz itself hits hard enough already; the frequency response just drops off very steeply below that.
So, I want to expand the frequency range of this system downwards in a natural and pleasant way that will do justice to the range from 32-40 Hz without making the range from 50 Hz up sound any different than it currently does.
In other words, my goal: add the very, very bottom end of the spectrum to this system, purely additively, without subtracting anything from the current sound. I also want the sub to be hidden. I'm fine with removing the spare tire from my spare tire well to make room, unless there's a better place. Ballpark max budget: $1250, not including labor.
To accomplish my goal, I was thinking I would get some 12 inch sub, set the crossover super low, and not even bother high-passing the rest of the system since it naturally rolls off where the sub is going to begin anyways. I own a home stereo system where I’ve done something similar: Speakers that sounded good down to about 50 Hz and I didn’t have a way of high-passing them so I just set the sub crossover at the point where the speakers naturally rolled off. I’ve loved the way that system has sounded for years, so I also think I’d love it if I could do a similar thing with my car. I know there is less risk of blowing out the satellites if they’re high-passed but I don’t listen to music very loudly and I don’t think I’m personally at risk of doing that.
But there is much I don’t know. I don’t know which sub to get, where that sub should go (besides that it should be hidden), or any other details about what this installation requires.
I am probably going to go to a shop to have this done because I am horrible at DIY. Nonetheless, you might as well pretend I am doing it myself because I want to know as much as possible about the BEST way to go about doing this, so I can reiterate as much as I can to whoever does the job. (I’ve had numerous horrible experiences with car audio shops in the past and I really can’t have anyone screw this up.)
Here is one pitfall I’m aware of: This Harmon Kardon system might have some kind of fixed, factory equalization. If so, I would like to know what that EQ looks like, where in the signal chain it is applied, whether or not it’s volume-dependent, and if there’s any way to send the subwoofer a flat signal instead, especially if the factory EQ rolls off the lows. However, I will not accept the factory EQ being removed from the system entirely because that will change how the entire system sounds and would be counterproductive to my goal.
Now, it’s possible that a subwoofer, especially one covering such a small range of frequencies, might happen to sound good even with the factory EQ, but that’s an extremely risky gamble unless I have more information.
One more concern:
The left and right channels in my car are swapped for some reason. I don’t mind swapped channels if that’s the only problem with a system, but I fear this is a red flag that indicates other problems. Like, what if the lefts and rights were supposed to be phase aligned to the driver, but now the phase alignment is totally wrong because of the swapped channels? Or why are the left and right swapped in the first place? This system is supposedly stock. Why would it be wired wrong? It’s just a little concerning and I wonder if it should be fixed or left alone. If it’s fixed, I worry it won’t be fixed correctly. For instance, maybe this system does phase alignment, but it’s actually in phase when the lefts and rights are swapped because of where the swap happens in the signal chain, and when a shop swaps them back it’s actually going to ruin the phase alignment. It seems possible.
If you bothered to read all of this, thank you so much.
