Glendale, AZ Noise from Specific Sources: Low-Frequency Bass Limits (2026)

Sec. 25-67(c), part of the vehicular-noise article, singles out sound amplification systems installed in or on vehicles rather than the vehicle's engine or exhaust. It is unlawful to operate or permit the operation of any such system in or on a vehicle if it can be heard outside the vehicle from fifty feet or more, or if it annoys or disturbs the quiet, comfort or repose of any reasonable person in the vicinity, unless the system is being used to request emergency assistance or warn of a hazard.

Subsection (d) defines "sound amplification system" broadly as any device, instrument or system, electrical, mechanical or otherwise, for amplifying, producing or reproducing sound, expressly including radios, stereos, musical instruments, phonographs and sound or musical recorders or players, so a factory or aftermarket subwoofer setup pushing audible bass through a car door is squarely covered. Two categorical carve-outs exist: vehicles operated by a gas, electric, communications or water utility, or a government entity, and vehicles used for advertising in a permitted parade, political event, or other special event.

Enforcement is tiered by subsection (f): any violation of subsection (c) is a Class 1 misdemeanor punished under state law, with each day of a continuing violation treated as a separate offense, a stiffer penalty track than the graduated civil-fine schedule that applies to the repair-noise and exhaust violations in subsections (a) and (b) of the same section. The vehicular-noise article dates to Ord. No. 1567 in 1988 and was last amended for subsection (c)'s enforcement tier by Ord. No. O21-52 in August 2021, and it cross-references the city's separate unnecessary-vehicle-noise provision at Sec. 24-94.