OK, on top of the extreme bass I get in the car, I was playing around with F/R fading. I noticed the front makes much more bass sound volumn than the rear speakers do. I wonder if something got mis-wired where the front speakers are being driven by amp output supposedly for the rear speakers or something.

Anyone else notice that the rear speakers aren't as loud in the bass as the fronts?

How are you comparing front & rear bass? By putting your ear next to the speakers?

I don't think people are good at detecting the direction of low frequencies.

And the front/rear fader does *not* do what you might expect it to with the HK as far as I can tell - I don't know what it does do, but it does not move the sound stage backwards.
For example, one click forward from full rear and the front speakers sound as loud as they ever are!
I think the HK sends low frequencies to all speakers (irrespective of the fader) so maybe you are just not localising the sound?

I have the system and I dont like it. All it puts out is bass. You cant hear the song loud. Its annoying.

>>How are you comparing front & rear bass?

I'm trying to. I know that the mid and treble will add a psychological factor, just like a loud exhaust that adds no read torque makes the driver "feel" the car is faster.

>>By putting your ear next to the speakers?

Haven't tried that yet. Will do this AM.

>>I don't think people are good at detecting the direction of low frequencies.

Maybe so. But I am getting better.

>>And the front/rear fader does *not* do what you might expect it to with the HK as far as I can tell - I don't know what it does do, but it does not move the sound stage backwards.

True. The stage for the most part stays in front of the listener. I think since bass is non-directorion (meaning you can place a sub-woofer anywhere in the room and the listener cannot place where it is), and the mid and treble is primarily being produced by the front speakers. I'm still not happy with the amount of bass (and shaking) the front speakers put out. Wish it was the rears that did this.

>>For example, one click forward from full rear and the front speakers sound as loud as they ever are!

Nearly. Listen closely as you move the fader towards mid-position. The fronts actually do start picking up the volumn level at certain freqs.

>>I think the HK sends low frequencies to all speakers (irrespective of the fader) so maybe you are just not localising the sound?

I wonder if there's any adjustments to be had on the amplifier itself?

Anyone have any specs (I/O, watts, model #, etc.) for the H/K amp?

>>How are you comparing front & rear bass? By putting your ear next to the speakers?

OK, just got back from some extensive troubleshooting. The rear speakers definately do not put out as much bass as the lower front speakers do.

Two things I did to test this:
1) Air flow as the woofer cone moves the air, which can be felt on the skin especially if you have hair there, then it certainly makes a difference.
2) Light touch on the speaker grill and feeling for vibrations of the grill.

Wishing I had an audio analyser of some sort...