I was just wondering how well this feature works. Just a curiosity thing at the moment. I'm interested to hear what oweners say about the feature. As i understand it, you can change the level the volume changes or even turn it off? Is that true?
My previous car (Focus ZTS) had a similar feature; you could change the level of boost or off altogether. Very cool feature, but I wouldn't say I miss it very much.
Its alright. You can change to several levels of sensitivity (3) and off with level 3 allowing for the most change according to speed. You can hear it change for sure and it works to keep the sound about as "loud" as it was at lower speeds. It doesn't compensate for open windows however.
I guess I was probably listening for it, but its not supposed to sound any louder when the speed increases, its just supposed to be able to offset the increased wind/road noise.
It increases volume as interior roadnoise increases (e.g. on freeways, the volume will be higher than at a dead stop). The Mazda3 offers adjustability as to the sensitivity of this.
The "audio control" button on the right side of the center panel. Push it. One of the options (I think the first one...) is ALC1 then ALC2 then ALC3 then "off". ALC1 should give you the slightest raising of the volume, ALC3 the most raising.