It's Tuesday, and Lea-Anna Yowell and her roommates wake up to the sound that they've heard so many other days at 9 a.m.

Their neighbor's bass.

"I live three stories above him and I can hear him leave every morning because his car stereo is so loud!" said Yowell, a Mary Washington College senior who lives in the Greenbrier Apartments.

Junior Chris Hines, the culprit who lives below Yowell, has a different take on the Bose system upgrade package and six speakers that accent his 1998 Intrigue.

"I didn't realize that the music was audible outside my car," Hines said. "But I enjoy it most when it's loud. I like to feel the music instead of just hearing it."

Thanks to Hines, now Yowell and anyone else within a 5-mile radius can feel the music, too.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for anyone with ears to deny that car audio systems, complete with subwoofers, amplifiers and extra speakers, are the technology of choice among America's high school and college-age youth.

About 80 percent of the Fredericksburg Best Buy's car audio customers are between the ages of 15 and 28, according to April Flath, mobile sales supervisor.

There's something that's connected us down throughout the years/ No need to feel so lonely, everyone's addicted to bass.

--Josh Abrahams

The most important lesson in car audio is the simple fact that aftermarket equipment, meaning audio equipment that is not factory-installed, doesn't come cheap.

Flath said the average Best Buy consumer can spend anywhere from $1,200 to $2,500 for a subwoofer, component speakers and an amplifier.

She recalled one male in his early 20s who spent $4,600 on a system for his Mercedes.

Among other products, he purchased two amplifiers, six speakers, two subwoofers and a CD player with a 7-inch pop-up monitor.

For those who don't normally engage in "bassing" through the neighborhood with their 12-inch subs, the components of a car audio system may be foreign. The basics aren't nearly as complicated as your average "basshead" would make them out to be.

Subwoofers ("woofers" or "subs") are designed to produce the very low-frequency sounds that make up the bass.