Harman Kardon Boomy Bass

[Buz]

So I did locate the quick connect plug next to the sub last night and disconnected it while I had some 'boomy' music playing. The moment I disconnected the plug it was like the fog lifted and the sun came out. This was with Pandora via USB wired source. I am now able to get the bass setting on the EQ into positive territory.
I've only had about 15 minutes total listening time since then, but here are my initial observations:
-Surprisingly, the door speakers put out a decent amount of bass. You would never know this with the sub hooked up since the bass setting was always down in the -6 area, so no real bass was ever getting to the door speakers. More midrange is noticeable now too.
-Unfortunately the doors vibrate a lot now with volume at 30+ and moderate bass on the EQ. I'm concerned things will loosen up over time and rattle.
-With a decent wired source (Pandora, Spotify, etc) plugged into Uconnect the sound has become cleaner, punchier and more balanced, which is a definite improvement.
-The true, low deep bass is gone, which I do notice, but the elimination of the 'boomyness' is the better tradeoff here.
-Satellite radio still sounds like crap, probably even more so now without the sub since less bass is present in an already 'tin can' sounding medium.
-FM radio I haven't tested much but sounded a bit thin without the sub.
-I find I'm fiddling with the EQ more now depending on the volume and style of music. Now that bass is actually available at more levels, I'm tweaking it a lot more to get the music 'in focus'. A 'loudness' button would probably help in this case since I'm mostly punching up the bass & treble when I lower the volume now that the sub is gone.
-Surround Sound is hit or miss now. With the sub connected I almost always preferred surround ON. Now I find that turning it off sometimes makes it sound better.
-I've moved the fader from center (when sub was attached) to two clicks toward the front. It's a better soundstage now than it was with the sub for sure.

So overall I'm happier with the cleaner, punchier sound, but still feel quite disappointed that my premium HK system in my super expensive truck is hobbled without good low frequency enhancement. It's a workaround for a botched OEM sound system, which sucks.

Also, I'm hoping the amp is smart enough to know the sub is disconnected. I'm concerned that even though the sub circuit is now open, that the amp may still be amplifying that channel and storing it as heat inside the amp, which will kill it over time.

 

[William1034]

I disconnected my sub, and only listened for a few minutes. HUGE difference for the better! I have some errands to run today and will post an update later. I had some deadning done in the doors and back wall, no rattles so far.

 

[William1034]

I have driven around with the sub off for about an hour now, it sounds great. Listened to various kinds of music from Daft Punk, Black Sabbath, Govi, and others off my iPhone. My EQ is +2 +1 +4. I took it to my installer, Custom Audio in Austin on Burnet, they were blown away by the difference. Some of the stuff they played made most vehicles rattle, not mine.

I also asked about leaving the sub unplugged, no problem there.

 

[392DCGC]

Glad to hear it's improved for you guys. I took the hard route, to not much benefit, prior to knowing that the 6x9s can function decently by themselves. Spent several hours installing a PAC interface, amp, and running wires to feed the factory sub with a clean signal (didn't want to lose any interior space). Fixed the boomy bass, but not really worth the effort or cost (about $500) vs just unplugging the sub. The issue with the factory sub is the factory amplifier... it EQ boosts bass in an insane, unadjustable way. I can't think of a reason why, or what moron signed off on the system as being acceptable. Still blown away no update has been released to fix it either.

Are you listening RAM? The Harman Kardon subwoofer is OVER BOOSTED. It sounds like BOOMY CRAP. The amplifier needs updated!

 

[William1034]

Seems that the HK system was designed for country music. I’m not sure how the producer ever signed off on this system. https://www.brandchannel.com/2018/0...s-jeff-summers-and-harman-kardons-bill-wyman/

 

[392DCGC]

Yeah I've read/watched that marketing info but as far as I can tell it's outright BS. How does one tune a system to a genre of music? Maybe there are certain nuances to EQ, but the bass being completely screwed up even when listening to country music doesn't seem like it hit the mark to me LOL.

 

[Buz]

Yeah, the ‘tuned for country music’ thing, even if true, has no bearing on the fact that the system is just too boomy. Perhaps it was tuned anticipating most would be listening to satellite radio? But even then it’s too boomy.
What really sucks is that I had to rip carpeting down and and disconnect my sub to have the music sound worse than the Alpine system. it sounds good without the sub, but not as good as it should.
The HK system truly is a ‘fail’ on FCA’s part.
Buyer beware, do not base your purchasing decision on the HK system being the best sounding one. The Alpine is better.

 

[William1034]

My comment on country music wasn’t justifying the sound of the HK, just interesting. What bothers me is that the producer actually signed off on the sound. I also unplugged my sub. Now I’m saving some money to. Put a new sub in. I’m thinking I will use an ApmPro to get a clean signal from the head unit instead of using a LOC to grab the signal after the HK amp screwed the signal up.
Has anyone tried the AmpPro on a 2021? Their website doesn’t show compatibility yet.

 

[300CGuy]

Even though I have Chrysler 300C, it has the same 19-speaker HK system with one 8" sub-woofer and two 6x9s on the rear deck - all producing bass.

The original problem I had was rattle noises in the rear because the bass was so powerful. And instead of finding out what was rattling and securing those items, Chrysler choose to fix the problem by simply neutering the bass of the rear woofers via an amp software update. However, even though the update seems to reroute some of the lower bass to the door 6x9s, it also adversely effected the rest of the speakers by messing up the sound stage in a way thats hard to describe - almost like it messed with the timing/phase of them so things don't sound tight anymore.

Fortunately I was able to re-install an amp that did not have the "update" (because apparently its not possible to undo the update or flash to a previous version), so I was able to bring my system back to the original factory mode (which causes rattles), and then placed foam all around the speakers in rear deck which that got rid of most of the vibration/rattles.

But, as the OP said, the bass of the HK system with the eq set to flat is way too bass heavy, and setting the bass to -9 helps solve one problem, but causes others.

So, I now found this thread and will try disconnecting just the 8" sub-woofer (which should leave the 2x 6x9s working in the rear deck) and see if that produces a better overall sound quality.

However, I am also concerned like Buz that having no load on the sub-output of the amp might damage it because the amp is designed to send voltage and high current to a very low resistance load (4-6 ohm) and have that load (the sub speaker) absorb/dissipate that power. Depending on how the amp is designed, not having a load may damage it because that power is not going where it was designed to go.

 

[392DCGC]

Even though I have Chrysler 300C, it has the same 19-speaker HK system with one 8" sub-woofer and two 6x9s on the rear deck - all producing bass.

The original problem I had was rattle noises in the rear because the bass was so powerful. And instead of finding out what was rattling and securing those items, Chrysler choose to fix the problem by simply neutering the bass of the rear woofers via an amp software update. However, even though the update seems to reroute some of the lower bass to the door 6x9s, it also adversely effected the rest of the speakers by messing up the sound stage in a way thats hard to describe - almost like it messed with the timing/phase of them so things don't sound tight anymore.

Fortunately I was able to re-install an amp that did not have the "update" (because apparently its not possible to undo the update or flash to a previous version), so I was able to bring my system back to the original factory mode (which causes rattles), and then placed foam all around the speakers in rear deck which that got rid of most of the vibration/rattles.

But, as the OP said, the bass of the HK system with the eq set to flat is way too bass heavy, and setting the bass to -9 helps solve one problem, but causes others.

So, I now found this thread and will try disconnecting just the 8" sub-woofer (which should leave the 2x 6x9s working in the rear deck) and see if that produces a better overall sound quality.

However, I am also concerned like Buz that having no load on the sub-output of the amp might damage it because the amp is designed to send voltage and high current to a very low resistance load (4-6 ohm) and have that load (the sub speaker) absorb/dissipate that power. Depending on how the amp is designed, not having a load may damage it because that power is not going where it was designed to go.

I'd say that's a non-issue for a solid state amplifier based on a quick search on the matter. I've been running mine for months with the subwoofer unplugged, as do many others who do anything aftermarket.

 

[300CGuy]

I'd say that's a non-issue for a solid state amplifier based on a quick search on the matter. I've been running mine for months with the subwoofer unplugged, as do many others who do anything aftermarket.

Thank you for that info - very helpful!

 

[Berkley]

Glad to hear it's improved for you guys. I took the hard route, to not much benefit, prior to knowing that the 6x9s can function decently by themselves. Spent several hours installing a PAC interface, amp, and running wires to feed the factory sub with a clean signal (didn't want to lose any interior space). Fixed the boomy bass, but not really worth the effort or cost (about $500) vs just unplugging the sub. The issue with the factory sub is the factory amplifier... it EQ boosts bass in an insane, unadjustable way. I can't think of a reason why, or what moron signed off on the system as being acceptable. Still blown away no update has been released to fix it either.

Are you listening RAM? The Harman Kardon subwoofer is OVER BOOSTED. It sounds like BOOMY CRAP. The amplifier needs updated!

TOTALLY agree with this post. This sound system is CRAP if we can't adjust the gain to Sub

 

[Berkley]

So I did locate the quick connect plug next to the sub last night and disconnected it while I had some 'boomy' music playing. The moment I disconnected the plug it was like the fog lifted and the sun came out. This was with Pandora via USB wired source. I am now able to get the bass setting on the EQ into positive territory.
I've only had about 15 minutes total listening time since then, but here are my initial observations:
-Surprisingly, the door speakers put out a decent amount of bass. You would never know this with the sub hooked up since the bass setting was always down in the -6 area, so no real bass was ever getting to the door speakers. More midrange is noticeable now too.
-Unfortunately the doors vibrate a lot now with volume at 30+ and moderate bass on the EQ. I'm concerned things will loosen up over time and rattle.
-With a decent wired source (Pandora, Spotify, etc) plugged into Uconnect the sound has become cleaner, punchier and more balanced, which is a definite improvement.
-The true, low deep bass is gone, which I do notice, but the elimination of the 'boomyness' is the better tradeoff here.
-Satellite radio still sounds like crap, probably even more so now without the sub since less bass is present in an already 'tin can' sounding medium.
-FM radio I haven't tested much but sounded a bit thin without the sub.
-I find I'm fiddling with the EQ more now depending on the volume and style of music. Now that bass is actually available at more levels, I'm tweaking it a lot more to get the music 'in focus'. A 'loudness' button would probably help in this case since I'm mostly punching up the bass & treble when I lower the volume now that the sub is gone.
-Surround Sound is hit or miss now. With the sub connected I almost always preferred surround ON. Now I find that turning it off sometimes makes it sound better.
-I've moved the fader from center (when sub was attached) to two clicks toward the front. It's a better soundstage now than it was with the sub for sure.

So overall I'm happier with the cleaner, punchier sound, but still feel quite disappointed that my premium HK system in my super expensive truck is hobbled without good low frequency enhancement. It's a workaround for a botched OEM sound system, which sucks.

Also, I'm hoping the amp is smart enough to know the sub is disconnected. I'm concerned that even though the sub circuit is now open, that the amp may still be amplifying that channel and storing it as heat inside the amp, which will kill it over time.

Please describe how you disconnected. Did you disconnect at the amp (where is it located?) or at the Sub?

 

[JGRaider]

Following the disconnect question myself.......

I'm wondering now if this is what's causing this "low, booming sound" in the rear that sounds like it's coming from the bed somewhere. ?

 

[Buz]

Following the disconnect question myself.......

I'm wondering now if this is what's causing this "low, booming sound" in the rear that sounds like it's coming from the bed somewhere. ?

There are two issues here and I have/had them both.

First, I disconnected the sub at the sub. It's easy. Don't be afraid to pull the carpeting off the back wall of the cab to expose the sub. It goes right back up and the seatback hides it anyway. There's a quick connect just to the right of the sub when looking down at it.

Second, the 'low booming sound' in the back of the cabin you mention is something that's been driving me crazy and it's the only thing I really hate about my Limited. It happens the worst when all windows are up. It's intermittent and seems to corelate with subtle irregularities in the road surface. The booming is somehow related to the rear suspension and could be a number of things. Is this what you're hearing?
I've already ruled out the Air suspension, Sub, ANC, MDS and the rear wheel well liners. I guess it could still be the sub in its' passive state, because I disconnected it a month ago and I still hear the booming noise loud and clear.
I started a thread about this noise a while back and am surprised almost nobody else hears this booming noise. https://5thgenrams.com/community/th...ent-booming-noise-coming-from-the-back.26034/

 

[JGRaider]

That's what I'm hearing Buz, 100% matches the description you posted. My spare is tight, so that's not it either.

 

[Buz]

That's what I'm hearing Buz, 100% matches the description you posted. My spare is tight, so that's not it either.

Do you have a sub in the back? Next thing I want to rule out is having any kind of sub attached to the thin back wall of the cab.
Maybe jump over to the this thread with your findings.

What is this intermittent booming noise coming from the back?

It occurs at lower speeds. (below 40mph) It's a very noticeable intermittent 'booming' sound coming from what sounds like behind/under the rear seat and seems to be related to the rear suspension movement. I have a 2020 Limited and have ruled out the following: -ANC -MDS -Air suspension...

5thgenrams.com

 

[JGRaider]

Yep, I've got a sub, and I've read that thread too. Guess I could try to disconnect it and see if that works.

 

[Buz]

Yep, I've got a sub, and I've read that thread too. Guess I could try to disconnect it and see if that works.

Don’t bother. I disconnected mine a month ago and it still does it.
What I’m thinking is it could just be the fact that the sub is attached to the back wall of the cab whether it’s plugged in or not.
Next step is to remove sub altogether and try.

 

[petezapie]

I just picked up a 2021 Ram limited with the HK system and found the same boomy bass. I kind of describe it as a constant drone. It is very apparent when listening to radio, rock and pop. Once you hear it its impossible to not hear it. If your one who doesnt notice it, or your system doesnt do it, i envy you. What i dont understand is why they didnt program more sound equalization options. They could have easily done a 5 or 7 band Eq and included a host of preset EQ curves which could cater to various music styles. I was surprised when i went to the audio settings on the big 12" screen only to find bass, mid and treble. Maybe in a dream world Ram could add this and offer updates. I will try the sub disconnect. Hopefully it will fix the problem. Sounds like there is no update for a 2021. As another stated above if it works i will be happy and sad at the same time.