My harman kardons sound crisp and loud with the windows up, but put them down and they hiss, crack and pop or open the sunroof.. i have no idea what is causing this.

 

You changed the volume of your cabin that you are listening in. Low end sound waves are escaping. You need more power better speakers

 

First off this is the forums for the second gen cars which DO NOT have any Harmon Kardon Equipment in them.

Second, Hissing Cracking and Poping are NOT caused by the windows being down. It may be caused because you are over driving the system trying to turn the volume up beyond it limits.

Now to the questions we need answer to really truly anwer your question.

What year and model of is you car?

Which Audio system do you have in your car?

 

Its an 02 R50, and yes, it looks like I committed the crime of being in the wrong forum. A mod can move it if they wish.

I know the window is not causing it but I dont think its the volume either. This is standard whether listening to terrestrial radio, CD, or sirius and I can absolutely boom the speakers with the windows up but I have to turn them to inaudible levels with the windows down and in most cases, the music quality is so low that I dont bother putting on music. Its a strange combination and I was wondering if something with the window position caused interference in the speaker transmission or sound movement.

Its not like i blast it like a ghetto rider, I usually keep it at a reasonable level, its just the sound quality is remarkably poor with down windows.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

You're just over-driving the speakers... Time for an audio upgrade!! Try driving at 20mph with the windows down and turn down the speaker volume. If the noise is still present once you've lowered the volume on the head unit, then it something VERY odd... If it's not, then you're over-driving the speakers.

 

you lose ALL low freq response when you open the windows...its just something you can't avoid. i would imagine your home system would not sound too good with 70MPH winds coming thru the listening room

you need more power.....